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Once again, a rather grainy photo – but one that was the end of an era, as it shows the workmen dismantling the railway. Doctor Beeching is frequently blamed for closing many railways which he didn’t. The Loftus to Whitby Railway closed in May 1958, and Loftus Station closed to passengers in 1960 although goods deliveries continued until 1963. Although the caption is correct these closures were in place before Beeching presented his Report Once again it’s Thank you Simon for putting me right.
Lovely clear shot of Loftus Station, the bank on the left would have taken us to Liverton Mines, clearly visible on the hill.
Must have been a very still day when this train pulled into the station as the smoke is going straight up. How I would love to be on that steam train now on the way to Whitby.
A line-level shot of a local train in Hinderwell Station. The loco is a 2-6-4 BR Standard Tank, number 80118, so this image could well be towards the end of the line’s life, certainly in the ’50s, when this class took over from A-series 4-6-2T. For the railway modellers among you this particular locomotive is available from the Bachmann stable for ’OO’ gauge, in early BR livery – probably exactly this era (sorry for the geeky information).
Another view of Loftus Station, looking towards Liverton Mines from the Rosecroft Lane bridge, visible in the previous post.
A neat and tidy Loftus Station with a Saltburn-bound train arriving, headed by the ubiquitous tank engine. The Stationmaster is exchanging Tokens with the engine-driver, as Loftus was the end of one control block and the beginning of another in the Token-controlled single track railway system (basically the line was split into sections, each controlled by a token. A train arriving at Loftus would surrender its Token (freeing up the section of track that it was leaving) and would receive a Token allowing it to proceed into the next section of track. If there was still a train in the next section then the Stationmaster couldn’t give the engine driver a Token, so the train would be held at Loftus until the incoming train arrived and surrendered its Token). This system is still in use on the Middlesbrough to Whitby branch, although, sadly there are no more Stationmasters and no more signal box staff (a control section always had a signal box), so there is a box on the control stations with a Victorian Lock Frame (to receive the Token) and another Victorian Lock Frame to dispense the next Token and a computer link to advise the Middlesbrough Control Centre of a ”train in section”. All very sad, but I’ve no doubt all very efficient(!). Loftus still has trains passing through, but none stop. The line now serves the Cleveland Potash Mine and sadly passengers are no longer a feature of the line after it departs Saltburn.
The ubiquitous Diesel Multiple Unit, workhorse of the post-steam era, in this case a Metropolitan-Cammell se,t waits at Guisborough station (now only a memory, like the DMU).
One of a series of photographs taken from Loftus Station, looking over the Station Yard. This one taken in Winter from the bankside above the railway station, which can be seen bottom right with the goods yard behind it. Still in the era of horse-drawn transport and unbraked rolling stock, so probably taken around 1900. |
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