Class Q6 No.63387 at Billingham Station. View towards Davis Bridge c1965.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ivan Harrington.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Class Q6 No.63387 at Billingham Station. View towards Davis Bridge c1965.
Photograph and details courtesy of Ivan Harrington.
Palethorpes was the name of a Shropshire sausage makers who had their own dedicated vans to transport their products via the rail network. One of these vans, which featured a painted sausage and the name Palethorpes on the side would frequently be seen on an up parcels and stock train heading south through Stockton around mid-day. The train was known to local enthusiasts therefore as the ‘Palethorpes’.
I remember a train going through Billingham in 1949 Saturday mornings one coach had the name Palethorps painted on the side the engine was a A2 Named Sun Chariot can anybody expand on this?
No but I remember how busy it was and the black dust and sometimes the grass would set on fire, a nice smell so smoky. Sometimes we stand on the bridge and get soot all over our faces, the good old days.
Yes Jean and eyes full of grit.
Still busy days at Billingham Station. Both up and down lines given the right of way together. 63387 heading to Hartlepool, according to the signal. A few years earlier, this line was even busier, as exasperated motorists knew only too well. ICI and North Tees power station, together with Hartlepool steel works, resulted in intense freight traffic twenty four hours a day, plus regular passenger and express passenger services. Only a shadow of its former glory now, with the Port Clarence branch going rusty.
Fifty years ago on September 9th, 1967 that steam power on British Railways disappeared in this area. The engine in the photo 63387 was one of the last, working from West Hartlepool shed.