From 1958 until about 1961 every penny of pocket money was saved and Darlington was visited about every five weeks, thus giving plenty of time for the Works to turn over a new batch of locomotives. We would travel down by train on Sunday morning to Darlington Bank Top, get the bus along to the Works and we’d first visit the scrap yard.
Darlington scrap yard was a wonderfully atmospheric place just outside the old North Road Station on the Shildon line. It was basically a field with railway lines, some basic earthwork ‘platforms’, and very easy to access (I believe it was originally used to unload livestock). During our visits many of the old NER locomotives awaited their fate here ‘A8s’, ‘B16s’, ‘D20s’, ‘G5s’, ‘NIOs’, ‘J21/25/26/27s, J71/72/77s’, Tls’, as well as some GC ABs', the odd GN ‘K2’ and postGrouping types such as such as ‘D49s', 'Vl/3s’, and’Lls’. In the early years locomotives would arrive complete with smokebox number plates, works plates, and in the case of the ‘D49s, nameplates. When they had been removed they would often be dumped in a pile by the body of an old ‘Y3’ Sentinel which was used as a cabin by the Scrap yard workers. If only…………!
The last time I visited Darlington works was on April 14 1962 and the engines (or identifiable bits thereof) I recorded as being in the scrap yard were:
From here we would walk over the footbridge in North Road station (where sometimes locomotives would be stored prior to visiting either the scrapyard or the works), before entering North Road Works. The works specialised in overhauling ‘V2’ 2-6-2S, ‘Bl’ and ‘B16’ 4-6-Os, ‘LI’ 2-6-4Ts, ‘J25/6/7’ 0-6-0s, ‘Q6/7’
