Taking the Train from Darlington to Whitby
Compiled by Nick Deacon
In an unusual and possibly unique shot of the north end of Bank Top station taken on 2 August 1957, the photographer has walked from Darlington loco shed to the bridge over Parkgate and captured Darlington’s J21 0-6-0 No. 65064 ambling past carrying Class K lamps for a pick-up or short haul duty. The loco was a veteran from October 1895 and one of an outstanding Worsdell class totalling 201 built between 1886 – 1895. It had arrived from Northallerton shed in March 1955 and remained on the Darlington books for local trip and shunting work until withdrawn in September 1958. Towards the end of its life the loco was known to have worked the Derwent Valley Light Railway. Prominent in this view is the footbridge spanning the full width of the tracks and offering generations of loco spotters a grandstand view of events unfolding below. Behind the footbridge are the three semi-circular spans of the overall station roof dating to 1885-6 with each having a 60ft width and a 1,015ft length plus the 80ft clock tower erected at the same time over the station main entrance in Victoria Road. The station was the third on the site; its predecessors dating back to 1841 and 1860. Rounthwaite
In BR days Darlington Bank Top shed headed up ‘District 51’ which comprised ten parent and four sub-sheds located throughout South Durham and North Yorkshire. The original shed building dating back to the 1850s was replaced during 1939/40 by a 7-road double-ended structure and the 60ft turntable replaced with a vacuum-operated 70ft version capable of turning Pacifics. An 18-stall roundhouse built in 1865 was refitted with a 45ft manual turntable at the same time as the 1939 reconstruction work and, despite its continued ramshackle condition, continued to accommodate shunting locos until the shed closed on 27 March 1966. On 29 June 1947 at the south end of the shed B2 4-6-0 No. 1607 Blickling from the Great Eastern section is a rare sight and is buffered up to Heaton’s A3 Pacific No. 69 Sceptre. Both carry their 1946 numbers and would shortly become BR Nos. 61607 and 60069 respectively. Interestingly, the B2 had been reclassified from B17/1 as a result of its previous month’s rebuild at Darlington to a 2-cylinder loco with a higher boiler pressure of 225lbs. The continued presence of the loco is explained by the likelihood that it was still running-in prior to being returned home. In the event this proved not to be Stratford, as painted on the buffer beam, but Colchester shed. The loco was named after the Norfolk Jacobean hall and estate of the Marquess of Lothian.
In the shed yard looking north during May 1961, a freshly outshopped trio consisting of Wakefield’s WD 2-8-0 No. 90112 (proving that the type could look very impressive prior to donning their customary workaday grime), York’s V2 2-6-2 No. 60941 and an unknown Q6 0-8-0 await running-in and repatriation to their home sheds. Looming over the line up is the distinctive coaling plant which had been erected as part of the extensive 1939/40 rebuilding project. The structure remained a unique feature until the design was repeated with the new shed establishment at Thornaby. The method used to drop the coal into loco tenders employed a fillable cradle supported by a travelling crane operated from the wooden hut at the top of the contraption. Release of the coal from the cradle-filled bunkers and thence to the loco tenders beneath followed a controlled and gentler descent of the soft North East loco coal thus reducing the level of breakages and crumbled dust en route. Barry Richardson
This very rare shot of woebegone D17/1 4-4-0 No. 1629 taken at Newport on 6 August 1944 reflects a period from February 1943 when the shed was most exceptionally allocated six ex-NER passenger locos - five D20 4-4-0s and a solitary Worsdell Class M1 built at Gateshead in June 1893 and now running as LNER Class D17/1. However, these locos were not allotted passenger duties but solely, and far more menially, intended to assist heavy southbound freight trains up the 1 in 170 Picton Bank between Yarm and Picton en route to Northallerton and beyond. With her glory days on the East Coast expresses long past, during 1942 No. 1629 had been employed on Scarborough passenger trains from Middlesbrough and ultimately proved to be the last of its ‘/1’ category when withdrawn from Newport during September 1945. However, classmate No. 1621, withdrawn two months earlier, was of course preserved.
Although the S&DR reached Middlesbrough in 1830, it was not until December 1877 that the present station was opened, replacing an earlier structure on the site. Designed by the NER’s chief architect, William Peachey, the station boasted an ornate Gothic frontage and an impressive elliptically-shaped overall roof. The latter was severely damaged by the Luftwaffe during a daylight raid on 3 August 1942 and eventually removed piecemeal with the last skeletal remnants taken down during April 1954. Looking west on 3 August 1957, recently ex-works A5 4-6-2T No. 69819 from Lincoln shed has just arrived with a stopping service while Stockton’s B1 4-6-0 No. 61303 occupies the central road on pilot duties. The Middlesbrough and Saltburn-based A5 locos were regular performers on the coastal services during the 1950s although the Lincolnshire-based No. 69819 was not often seen in the area. Despite a new boiler being fitted during its June/July Darlington works visit, the loco was withdrawn from Lincoln on 3 March 1958.
The two-road shed at Saltburn was situated in the ‘V’ of the Whitby branch junction a short distance west of the terminus. The first shed dated back to 1864, was extended in 1877 to hold six locos but was badly damaged by fire in 1907, needing a complete roof replacement. The shed’s responsibilities through the years were largely concerned with passenger services to Darlington, Whitby, and Scarborough and from the 1920s the allocation became synonymous with various classes of the larger tank locos drafted in to fulfil these duties. From the late 1940s Class A8 4-6-2Ts plus A5 4-6-2Ts tended to predominate until the shed closed on 27 January 1958 as a result of the introduction of DMUs. However, the shed remained intact and continued as a stabling and water point for visiting locos from excursions and Redcar race traffic and this postclosure view of the shed yard sees V2 2-6-2 No. 60968 from York shed suitably accommodated having brought in one of these workings. According to Ken Hoole the shed was demolished during 1960. Rounthwaite
Looking south, an unidentified Q6 0-8-0 arrives at Brotton with a pick-up freight on 24 October 1959. The line from Saltburn through to Loftus opened for freight as from 23 February 1865 but not for passengers until 1 April 1875. The main station building on the Down (Saltburn) platform consisted of a two-storey brick-built structure inclusive of staff accommodation, and a single storey waiting room with conveniences. Both wings had bay frontages separated by a distinctive seven-bay arcade fronting the platform. The building was designed by William Peachey and mirrored that given to Loftus station. A substantial goods yard with coal drops was located on the Down side of the line at the north end of the station and featured a Peachey-designed brick-built goods shed. The station closed to passengers as from 2 May 1960 but retained a goods service until the 1970s. Traffic from the Skinningrove steelworks continued through the former station and was supplemented from 1974 by potash trains from the Boulby mine to the south of Loftus. The main station building, albeit in a bricked-up state, survives as does the goods shed. Rounthwaite
Stepping back almost thirty years, at Brotton on 1 July 1931 Sentinel – Cammell 2-cylinder chain-driven Steam Railcar No. 265 Neptune prepares to leave for the south with a Down service to Guisborough via Boosbeck. The NE area received its first railcars from May 1927 but it wasn’t until June 1930 that the coastal route from Middlesbrough was included within their remit. No. 265 was built in May 1928 and initially allocated to Shildon before seeing service on the coast lines and moving on to Richmond in May 1933. In June 1936 it was based at Saltburn for the Middlesbrough/Guisborough services but by December 1941 was at Hartlepool where she last saw regular use before withdrawal in November 1945. Nicknamed ‘Chip Vans’ by enthusiasts because of their bright colours and smoking chimney at one end (but for entirely different reasons ‘Sweat Boxes’ by firemen), the units required different skills and constant attention to generate (at best) an acceptable performance and were never popular with their crews.
Well before the opening of the Loftus – Whitby line on 3 December 1883 the construction quality of the various viaducts along the route as carried out by the WR&MUR’s original contractor, John Dickson, was less than satisfactory and potentially dangerous. These faults were largely undetected by the company’s Chief Engineer, J.H. Tolme, and not fully realised until the NER had taken over the line in 1875. What was not in question, however, was the design of the viaducts which proved to be sound. T.E. Harrison, the NER’s Chief Engineer, had the unenviable task of remedying the defects – a project which was prolonged by the fall of the Tay Bridge in 1879 and the ensuing need to tighten safety requirements for new bridges and viaducts. In particular, two levels of lateral bracing were added to the Staithes viaduct, an anemometer fitted to warn the signalman of prejudicial high winds and train speed across the viaduct was limited to 20mph. Looking south and inland from the footbridge over the Staithes Beck, this atmospheric mid-1950s photograph records A8 4-6-2T No. 69867 from Scarborough shed passing across the jaw-dropping 152ft high, 790ft long, 17-span viaduct with a Whitby-bound service and approaching the station. Of all the viaducts on the line Staithes was regarded as the piece de resistance until it became a memory with its demolition in 1960.
ISBN 978-1-913893-45-3
£13.50
Drawing largely on steam-era images taken from the Transport Treasury collection, this book moves from the railway epicentre of Darlington to the industrial conurbations of Stockton and Middlesbrough and its concentration of loco sheds before heading east towards Redcar and Saltburn on the North Sea coast. The traveller then follows the stunning coastal route as far as Whitby before heading inland again for the dales and vales along the Esk Valley line via Grosmont and Battersby and also taking the opportunity to visit some of the more obscure and long closed railway locations en route.
Most of the photographs were taken during times when steam was largely unchallenged on passenger and goods services throughout the area, but added to the mix are a few images of ‘first generation’ DMUs which were introduced onto the routes from 1957.
