IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Station Road, NORTHALLERTON, DL7 9JB

View from Station Road.

The brick built signal box together with the old station date from the early 1930s when the East Coast Main Line between York and Northallerton was widened. The buildings use pre-cast concrete finished to look like natural stone and are now privately owned, as is the Mark 1 coach which can be seen behind. Reference: Disused Stations website http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/o/otterington/ retrieved 2 April 2016 Update 2nd November 2019 The 2nd of November. I have been wanting to take a trip to Otterington just south of Northallerton on this day for a few years now. But again it slipped my mind until too late to arrange. So a tenuous connection I’m afraid. In the distance of this photo of Capt. Cook’s Monument lies Middlesbrough and on this day in 1892, an overnight mineral train was bound for Starbeck near Harrogate from Middlesbrough. It was cleared for the mainline from Northallerton but came to a halt outside Otterington signal box, still on the mainline. It was a foggy night and thirteen minutes later an express train from Scotland, travelling at 50 mph, ploughed into the back of the goods train. Ten people were killed and over 40 injured. An explanation for the tragedy can best be gained from the following extracts from testimonies heard at the Board of Trade Accident enquiry: George Bean, Train Guard “I was not injured, but a little shaken. There was no application of the brake before the collision. I got out as soon as I could, but was a little dazed. The three rear vehicles on the train were still on the rails, but all the others were off. I got back into the van again for my lamp which had been put out. I relit it, and took my signals, and went forward as fast as I could to the signal cabin. Just as I got there I met the signalman coming down the steps. I said ‘Oh Dear! What have you done?’ The only answer I could get from him was ‘I have a child dead in the house. Had I been relieved as I asked to be, this would not have occurred.” John Holmes, Signaller “I went to see Mr Kirby, the Station-Master…under whose orders I work. I said to him, ‘I have had a child die very suddenly. Will you wire to Mr Pick [the signal inspector] to see if I can be relieved for the night? I knew that I was not fit for duty. He said he would try what he could, and that I had better come up at the usual time for duty; and see what the reply was about the relief. I went about 6pm to the station…and when I got there I asked Mr Kirby what the reply was. He said that Mr Pick had replied that he regretted he could not relieve me that night.” Thomas Kirby, Station Master “He was distressed about his child, but I did not think he looked unfit for duty.” Holmes, the signalman, was found guilty of manslaughter but was given an absolute discharge, a light sentence but one that was widely praised by the public. What was apparent was the North Eastern Railway’s inadequate support for its employees which contributed to changes of worker’s rights, working conditions, and corporate responsibility. From my photo-diary for 2nd November 2019 see http://www.fhithich.uk/?p=21837

Along Station Road.

Beside the site of the now closed Otterington Station - on the East Coast Mainline, which runs to four tracks at this point.

Main York to Newcastle line with four tracks. Outer tracks for slow trains, middle for expresses.

Opened in 1841 by the Great North of England Railway on its line from York to Darlington and rebuilt in 1932, the station closed to passengers in 1958. View south east at the 1932 buildings.