Loading horses

Writing about the 'old station' at 'Barney' here a couple of days ago reminded me of an interesting feature of the  goods branch extending southwards from the gates behind the East Box on Harmire Road. Almost immediately - before this track even crossed Montalbo Road - there was a small goods siding off to the right which ended in a secluded platform. Actually there were two sidings there, one of which was just a very short 'stub' which ran for a few yards and finished at an end bay loading dock. The other was a platform just long enough to take a single coach. For years a Gresley 61'6" corridor coach rusted away gently there, maybe a departmental coach or one which had been shunted after developing a hot box. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about it - hmm ... I don't suppose that it is STILL there is it? I guess not!

Anyway you could walk along a footpath that ran along the white diagonal fence at the north side of this idyllic little backwater from a small wicket gate near the main station entrance to another gate near the East Box. It was an 'official short cut' along the side of the East Bay which was just through the hedge ... G5's bound for Bishop Auckand simmered there behind the privet leaves! You can see this interesting area clearly on the 1:2500 map reproduced on page 86 in Peter Walton's book. Here I attach a copy of the rather poor aerial picture of the station area in 1945 available on 'Google Earth and I have marked the place with a red arrow.

I think that this platform must have been used for loading and unloading horses. Before and during the war I would guess that this was a busy spot, with 'hunters' and cavalry horses always needing horse boxes. Certainly by the late 1950's very little seemed to happen any more.

Does anyone have any memories of this facility in use? Or even better any photographs? They are more likely to have survived in local picture albums in 'Barney' rather than in the work of railway photographers who were probably more interested on what was happening on the opposite side of the fence in the main station.

Taking the Tablet

I wonder if amongst the local memorabilia that still survives from the Stainmore Line there are any more of these around - and if so if they will turn up at our exhibition of memorabilia at the 'Stainmore 150' event at Kirkby Stephen East  from 27-29 August.

Railwaymen knew these heavy metal discs as 'tablets' and in signal boxes they were locked into a machine known as the "Tyler Patent Tablet Apparatus". They were the critical link in a safety system to ensure that two trains couldn't collide head on when using a length of single track between stations. The system worked by having a tablet  machine in the signal boxes at each end of a section of track - in this case between Kirkby Stephen and Warcop. You could only ever have one tablet out of the pair of machines at any time. The driver carried it with him in the cab of the locomotive and it was his guarantee that he wouldn't meet a train coming the other way, a disaster known to American railwaymen as a 'cornfield meet'!

'Tablets' were handed between signalman and driver in a black leather pouch attached to a white hoop, and you often see these in collections of memorabilia too. There was quite a knack to hook it over the arm of a driver high up on the footplate of a passing locomotive at night, and if you missed and he dropped it there would be a great deal of cussing from the footplate as the brakes were slammed on and the fireman had to clamber down and retrieve the dropped item from the trackside. But there was no question of carrying on without that all important tablet in the cab.

Do you have a tablet from any of the sections of the single lines on which they were used around Kirkby Stephen, or east of 'Barney'? If so we would love to hear from you.

Hands to the Plough

A couple of days ago I mentioned the exhibition of 'memorabilia' that we are planning to hold at Kirkby Stephen East over the 'Stainmore 150' weekend in August. There is one item I would love to see again if it is still somewhere around the district and I wonder if anyone knows its whereabouts ...

Some time around 1962 or 1963 the late Freddie Marshall from Nateby showed me a 'hand snowplough' that had come into his possession. I think that he said that it had once been used at Warcop Station - certainly it had come from somewhere down the Eden Valley Branch. It was a bit like those big wide brushes that school caretakers used to wield except that in place of the broom head it had a pine board that you could use to push the snow off the station platform and onto the track.

In those days I guess part of the country station porter's lot was to clear the station platforms in wintery weather.

What was so interesting about this hand snow plough was that it had the initials S&DR carved into the back of the board. So it must have dated from the 1860's or early 1870's when the line was operated by the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

Maybe someone is still using this antique to push snow off their drive!

If you own it or one like it please let us know and volunteer to bring it along to the memorabilia exhibition in August!

Memorabilia

Here is something that usually lives in my desk drawer. It is a North Eastern Railway guard's whistle dating from around 1905, and it was used by a guard on the 'Stainmore Line' back before World War I. It was given to me by my grandfather about fifty years ago.

It still works too! If  I see any of the dogs in our neighbourhood trespassing onto our vegetable allotment I occasionally give them a good blast on it from the study window! Even from 200 yards it soon gets their attention and they slope off with a "It wasn't me guv'nor! Honest!" look about them. Dogs the world over always know when they are where they are not supposed to be ...

There must be thousands of such items around that people keep to bring back memories either of the line or these days perhaps more likely of members of their family that worked on the railway.

In August during the 'Stainmore 150' weekend we will be holding an exhibition of memorabilia associated with the railway and if you do have such items we would love to hear from you so that you can bring it along to be displayed over the three days in a secure environment. To plan the exhibition and get display cards made we need to know in advance what you would like to bring. Drop me an e-mail to iain@stainmore150.co.uk and I will forward it to the organisers, or drop in any Saturday or Sunday at Kirkby Stephen East and chat to Mike or Sue.