24 thoughts on “Model of Stockton Station, ‘Buses’”

  1. My Brother in Law was the Inspector for the Stockton Corporation Bus services for many. years. Harry Kidd was his name, does any one remember Harry. Harry married one of his staff Emily Brown my eldest sister who was divorced and as Harry had lost his wife they made a nice couple together. When they had been married for ten years they celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary and told every one it was their silver wedding a they did not expect to reach this milestone. As it turned out they eventually celebrated their actual Silver wedding Anniversary as Emily reached the good old age of 96 years and Harry nearly ninety one years. old. Emily died a couple of years before Harry but was older by a few years. Harry had the Nickname of the TV character with his staff of the on the Buses character who I can not remember his name at this point but i am sure some one can fill me in on my senior moment. Emily was a Clippie before she became a driver eventually and ale ways reckoned Harry gave her the worst jobs as he did not want the rest of the staff to accuse him of favouring Emily.

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      • Thanks Anon Blakey was the man in question. Hope you are feeling better after your recent health problems. I remember my sister Emily telling me about the court case she was in after an accident in her own car. The other party a women driver told the magistrate a pack of lies to try to get Emily convicted of a driving offence and to be responsible for the accident. When the Magistrate asked Emily what her job was, and on being told she was a Stockton Corporation Bus Driver she dismissed the case against Emily immediately. Says something for the training of the Local Bus Drivers.

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  2. My apologies Alan, the OK bus is an AEC and you have it correct down to the winged AEC badge on the front correct modelling indeed. That looks like a Monarch although they produced the Regent and Regal before going into the Leyland era.
    The AEC I had to deal with was the Matador 4×4 one of the best four wheel drive vehicles ever I did see one 6×6 possibly a try for the Scammel recovery market. the Matador was mainly an Artillery tractor though one or two office vehicles were built named believe it or not the Dorchester, yes we smiled too.
    All those wonderful vehicles now gone though the old names sometimes appear on MAN trucks who bought out all the old businesses, at least I did get to drive many of those old names in the Middle East where we had everything from the 1930’s on up to American and Canadian vehicles. Leyland, Hippo’s, Dennis, AEC, ERF, Albion, Bedford, Ford, Austin, Morris, GMC’s, Dodge and a couple of exotics, a Ward La France recovery and a Greyhound Bus, the worst three weeks of my life driving an ENSA party around the bases in the Canal Zone. My own love was my personal Willies Jeep they had to prize me out of it before sending me to Cyprus.
    You brought back many memories Alan.
    Frank

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  3. These are remarkable models and excellent photographs, likewise those of the layout which depicts the Station as I knew it in the 1950s, a classic station, and trainspotting from ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ footbridge north of the station.
    After a family move to Warrington (then in Lancashire) in 1948, journeys back to visit relatives in Stockton were by the Tyne-Tees-Mersey service which was run by a ‘Pool’ of operators including United, the others being North Western Road Car Company, Northern General Transport, West Yorkshire Road Car Company, Yorkshire Woolen District Transport and Lancashire United Transport. Services ran from Liverpool to both Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The main operators were United and Lancashire United with the others helping out at busy times, as it was open to all comers which necessitated providing ‘Duplicate’ coaches at busy times. An excellent book about the service by Keith Healey and Philip Battersby was published in 2000 (ISBN 1 898432 23 6)
    We had to change coaches at Leeds Wellington Street Coach Station (not as palatial as it sounds) where you had about twenty minutes for a cup of tea and a bun in the ‘cafe’ and a quick visit to the loo. In later years the change at Leeds was done away with and coaches worked right through. I think many of those operators reached Stockton High Street, it was a ‘Limited Stop ‘ service and the calling point at Stockton was outside the Odeon cinema. The journey from Warrington to Stockton took six and three quarter hours, so when family finances improved we used the train , a mere four and a half hour journey.
    When in Stockton, apart from the celebrated ‘O’ service, I remember using United 67b to Billingham and 69 to the Transporter for the Hartlepool Corporation connection to Seaton Carew (in school summer holidays the 70 went direct) and 72/73 to Redcar or Saltburn. Stockton Corporation to Thornaby and Roseworth (can’t remember numbers) and a Middlesbrough Corporation service 11 from the High Street to Acklam, all to visit family and friends, apart from Seaton.

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  4. Other bus firms that frequented Stockton included Wilkinsons Of Sedgefield. They operated a service daily between Stockton and Spennymoor. Scurrs was another company. Durham District ran a service into Stockton, I believe on market days. Northern General, in conjunction with United, ran a service from Newcastle to Middlesbrough passing through Stockton.
    In the 1950s I knew that there were about 12 bus/coach companies that operated services into Stockton on Saturday market days.

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  5. OK Buses certainly did come into Stockton along with TMS I got home from Brancepeth via Durham on them, I think they also did Market days from the Durham area when Stockton Market was the one to visit long before Metro centres and the like.
    Crowes Buses ran from Northallerton and I got the little yellow front engined Bedford bus every Sunday back to Welbury Station then a walk up the lane to Deighton, they ran in my time from in front of the Empire Theatre., they also ran the school bus into Brompton and Northallerton through all the villages we had the shortest run to school then the longest run back as it dropped children of in all the villages around the area.
    We have two Guy buses there and a Bristol as well as the Leyland but Stockton also had some 1930’s Daimler buses painted red that ran all through the war years, they were pre-selecter gears I had the fun of driving a couple of them also the Guy had a reverse gear box to the others that caused a bit of fun with drivers unfamiliar with them.
    A variety of companies ran trips into Stockton for the Market and people came to shop and probably have a bit of a day out as did some of my Family from New Brancepeth, always on a Saturday and Stockton race day the men went to the races the women to the market. Out came truckle beds into the garage where the men slept the women in the house. Mother would compare them with a masses of locusts I never knew what she meant until I saw it for myself in the middle east, everything edible vanished.
    Frank.

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    • Thanks Frank appreciate your wealth of knowledge. The OK bus headboard on one shows Spennymoor as being a destination. Glad you like the model. Alan

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      • I remember Crowe’s buses, I think they were based in Swainby. My aunt and uncle lived in Crathorne and we used the buses when we visited. I was told a story that on a Saturday night Crowes buses never left anyone behind, mind that might be an apocryphal story told by my cousins who claimed they opened the sunroof so passengers could fill the bus to bursting point!

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        • Derek, you have to picture that whole area as I knew it, all winding lanes some with passing points they were so narrow and all the small Towns and Villages relied on Buses to get them anywhere. The Crowes bus I used started and finished in Northallerton, the main garage was probably there but to get an early start some drivers may well have taken their bus home. We went into Bedale or thirsk on Crowes bus as well as it was the school bus for the Northallerton Brompton catchment area. I had an Aunt who lived on Lord Craythornes estate so we too used Crowes as well as United buses to get there.
          I knew the area by going with my Fathers in his truck delivering steam coal to all the boiler rooms for the works, VOM Pies, Brompton Linen works and various places with boilers in all the small towns. Then when the area became one large Aerodrome we took building material and runway tarmac daily to places I had never heard of some still going.
          Frank.

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    • Yes it’s a model for sure the OK Buses were from Bishop Auckland/Newfield area but I’ve used them on the Richmond area – poetic license !!

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  7. Pre NBC United’s by the looks of them.i don’t recall ok coming to Stockton they where more around Bishop Auckland.TMS, the original TMS Trimdon Motor Services not the deregulation Teesside Motor Services which along with Tyneside Motor Services where spin offs of TMS,did and did services to Bishop Auckland and Durham City.Northern also came to Stockton generally joint services with United from Sunderland.not Stockton town but the wider municipal area had buses from Hartlepool particularly Port Clarence,I suppose that prior to 1969 it must have been West Hartlepool Corporation? before Cleveland Transit Middlesbrough Corporation came to Stockton too.

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  8. I remember the Leyland Atlantian Stockton corporation 1967 they took over from the Leyland pd2 backloaders that I went to school on, then they were repainted aqua blue and became Teesside Municipal Transport but I don’t recall OK motor services however we did have TMS (Trimdon Motor Services) which ran from Trimdon down Durham Road to Stockton High Street. I used to catch it just outside Hardwick and Roseworth estates, their colour scheme was white with a blue flash down the sides and united used to run the Stockton to London Victoria every night at 11.30pm from the United office which was next door to the Odeon cinema

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  9. Many a shift In the 60s as a conductor on the Leyland Atlantian mainly on the 9/9A Stockton High Street to Hardwick. Did a few shifts on the “O” service.

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