Unless they are halted by rabbits, trains now run unhindered from Northallerton to Yarm along the Leeds Northern Railway. Once upon a time, though, the trains clattered through three stations and over a couple of level crossings. The stationmasters and crossing keepers all had their houses beside the line. Signalmen had boxes galore, and railwaymen lived in lineside cottages.

FOR the past 50 years though, all the railway properties have either been demolished or turned into private residences, and the line has been non-stop – except last August when bunnies burrowing beneath the tracks caused so much damage that 14 weeks of repairs were required.

The great Victorian railway pioneers weren’t bothered by such leporine considerations.

They burrowed their line from Leeds under the new East Coast Main Line at Northallerton, drove it past the villages of Brompton, Welbury and Picton, and then marched it across the Tees on a 43-arch viaduct into Yarm, from where it went to Stockton. The line opened on June 2, 1852.

On March 3, 1857, another line connected Picton with Stokesley and Battersby at the foot of the Cleveland Hills. Soon, you were able to get a train straight through to Whitby. You left Yarm at 7.30am and Picton at 7.38am and arrived in Whitby at 8.52am for a whole day on the beach.

Memories 162, though, was more interested in what reader Margaret Williams, of Middleton St George, called “the really cute railway cottages” at Long Lane Ends level crossing, between Brompton and Welbury.

“My aunt, uncle and four cousins lived in the larger detached cottage not once, but twice,” says Martin Hatfield of Northallerton.

Cicely and Cecil King lived beside the level crossing in the early 1950s and again in the early 1960s before moving to Eaglescliffe in 1965.

Cecil, who died about 20 years ago, was a steam and diesel engine driver based at Thornaby shed.

The Northern Echo:
Picton Station on an Edwardian postcard. The station building is now a private house but just out of the camera’s view to the left is a pub which is still called The Station

The detached cottage shared its outside facilities with a neighbouring semidetached pair of railway houses.

“There was no bathroom, electricity, hot water or toilet facilities in the cottage,” says Martin, who used to visit when a boy. “The toilet was across the yard as was the wash house, which contained a boiler which had to be lit for hot water on wash days.

“Aunty Cic now lives in a home in Stockton and was overjoyed to hear of the interest in the cottage of which, despite the lack of mod cons, she has very fond memories.”

The houses were on the east side of the line opposite a signal box, which was on the west.

“There was no railway station at Long Lane, only the crossing gates and signal box, which was manned by a local character, Pat Lyle, from Brompton,” says Martin. “He used to turn up for his shift in the box in an enormous old Bentley.”

Ernie Wade, of Durham City, grew up a few miles north of Long Lane in one of the railwaymen’s cottages at Welbury station in the 1940s and 1950s.

He recalls: “Long Lane was previously known as Long Lonning. There was a culvert near the south end of Long Lane which often flooded so our school bus, owned by Sid Walker, had difficulty getting through – I remember water once rising into the bus.

The Northern Echo:
The Long Lane Ends level crossing signal box in June 1990. The ‘really cute railway cottages’ were behind the trackside cabin

“About 300 yards north of Long Lane, near the railway line, an Army searchlight was set up during the war.”

Ernie’s father, Reg, was a ganger on the railway, and was tragically killed while weeding between the tracks at Rounton Gates, just a few miles from home on July 6, 1954.

Reg, 53, and his mate, lengthsman Alan Daniel, 55, of East Harlsey, stepped off the track to allow a goods train travelling south from Stockton to Leeds to pass.

The driver, Harry Mills of Stockton, said: “We were going fairly slowly and as I passed them I nodded and passed the time of day with them.

“A few seconds later, the express passed us…”

The express, the 9.28am heading north from Leeds, was doing more than 50mph when it struck the two men, killing them immediately.

The Northern Echo:
The Long Lane Ends level crossing signal box in June 1990 before it was demolished

Ernie, then 21, was serving in the RAF in Germany and was flown home for his father’s funeral. An inquest three weeks later returned a verdict of accidental death.