£1.8m for these railway relics - and an estate in Lartington

The estate agent’s brochure talks of “a beautifully proportioned Grade II listed house”, which was built in the early 19th Century as the Lartington Hall estate manager’s house. It comes with 146 acres of countryside and 496 acres of shooting and stalking rights, including in Deepdale.

It is undoubtedly a fabulous country estate but running down its western boundary is the trackbed of the Stainmore railway line, which conquered the wilds of the Pennines in the 1850s to take the railway from Barnard Castle to its highest point in England. The estate finishes at the remains of the Deepdale viaduct, an 740ft-wide, spidery-legged construction that carried the 161ft above the beck on the valley’s floor.

The prospective purchaser, therefore, has the chance to own a couple of unique pieces of railway history.

The aqueduct at Lartington where a railway driver lost his head

For instance, next to the house’s old cherry orchard is an aqueduct designed, like the viaduct, in 1858 by Thomas Bouch – the brilliant engineer who designed the ill-fated Tay Bridge in Scotland. On substantial stone parapets, the aqueduct takes an unnamed, yet crystal clear, stream over the trackbed.

Yet tragedy struck here on December 8, 1873, when engine driver George Pearson, of Shildon, who was in charge of a heavy mineral train bound for Tebay, was walking along the top of his engine as it went underneath the aqueduct.

He didn’t duck in time and so was smacked by the aqueduct which knocked him off his engine, and he fell beneath his own train.

The Northern Echo the following day did not mince its words. “When found, his head was found in the five-foot way, and his body between the rails, completely cut in two,” it said. “His house door key was also found near his body, which was also cut in two, and his pocket knife was found crushed quite flat.

READ MORE: 12 PICTURES OF TEESDALE AS IT WAS, PLUS THE GORY STORY OF THE HAND OF GLORY

The brief report finished: “Seventeen laden mineral trucks and a guard’s van had passed over his body.”

The aqueduct is itself a Grade II listed building, and Historic England’s description concludes that it is “a rare example of a cast iron aqueduct".

Whether it did ever keep the trackbed dry, as Bouch intended, must be doubtful as the last time we visited it, water was gushing down its sides from its cast iron troughs.

The Lartington West signalbox with Cat Castle Cottages, built for quarry workers, to the right

On a viewing, the prospective purchase might then take a stiff walk south down the Lartington trackbed towards what agents GSC Grays say in the brochure is “a delightful old signal box (above), now in a dilapidated condition, (which) offers scope for a creative development subject to the appropriate planning consent”.

This signal box, Lartington West, controlled access to Cat Castle Quarry and to Bouch’s famous viaduct.

The Stainmore line closed on January 20, 1962. The track was lifted, the viaduct demolished and the signal box abandoned.

The demolition of the Deepdale Viaduct in 1964

“The sale of this estate will be keenly followed by those interested in the Stainmore line and our local railway heritage,” says Dave Middlemas, who has kindly alerted us to the sale. “Many people will have watched the demise of the signal box over the years in the hope that someone – perhaps the new owner – will attend to it’s obvious structural needs before it collapses.

“On this line, the signal box at Broomielaw still stands (just) but all the others were either deliberately demolished or allowed to crumble (such as Belah) with the exception of Cliburn, in the Eden Valley, which has been renovated and subtly enlarged into a holiday home, showing what could be done to Lartington.”

The demolition of the Deepdale Viaduct in 1964

THE sale brochure notes another piece of railway history on the estate. In 1858, it notes that the Ray Gill was dammed to create the Low Fishpond which also enabled water to be supplied to Barnard Castle station – that must have been a very impressive piping operation as the station is on the opposite side of the Tees to the fishpond.

THE sale also includes Cat Castle Quarry (above), which was a railway-inspired enterprise.

Its hard stone was moved out of the quarry by two locomotives – No 1055 Cotherstone and No 926 Mountaineer, both made by Black, Hawthorn and Company of Gateshead – and, when the signal box allowed it, onto the Stainmore line.

In the 1890s, it was taken up the dale to build the reservoirs of Hury (1894), Blackton (1896) and Grassholme (early 1900s), as well as Lartington filter beds (1901). The stone was also used to build Middlesbrough dock in 1902.

So well known was the quarry that the report of the unfortunate Mr Pearson’s beheading says that it took place near “the Cat Castle bridge” rather than near the Deepdale viaduct.

Cat Castle closed in 1914 and nature reclaimed it, but it was reopened by the Dunhouse quarrying company of Staindrop about 10 years ago to provide stone for the West Park development in Darlington. “Catcastle grey” stone has also recently been used to build Glasgow Sherrifs Court and Hull Crown Court and to restore Stirling Castle.

The quarry boasts one of the area’s finest names, as it conjures up images of felines in crowns romping along castellated battlements, but, disappointingly, we’ve never discovered how it came about.

Fletcher's Picturesque Yorkshire, a guidebook published in 1903, says: "Some distance along Deepdale, the traveller will find a pile of frowning rocks rising high above the surrounding foliage. This is known as Catcastle, but there is no local information as to the meaning or derivation of the name."

If you can explain it, we’d love to hear from you – the new owners will surely be fascinated by your theories.

Passengers listen to a radio gramophone on a LNER train carriage.  (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

TO commemorate the 100th anniversary of LNER, Memories 628 featured a fabulous front cover picture of a 1920s carriage in which four ladies were sitting in their comfortable chairs and looking as if they were thoroughly enjoying listening to the latest hot tunes being played on a gramophone.

READ MORE: LNER 100th ANNIVERSARY IN PICTURES

“In 1928, the Pullman Car Company introduced the new ‘K’ Type all-steel Pullman cars for use on the LNER ‘Queen of Scots Pullman’ service,” says Terry Bye of the Pullman Car Services-Archive.

Pullman coaches were named after US railroad pioneer George Pullman who invented the concept of a hotel on wheels, with his coaches having beds and dining areas and offering concierge services like sending wires or mending clothes.

The Queen of Scots was LNER’s service that ran from London King’s Cross to Leeds, Harrogate, Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley until it terminated at Glasgow Queen Street.

“Your photograph has been taken within a saloon of one of the three first class ‘K’ Type Pullman cars, either Agatha, Sheila or Phyllis,” says Terry. “The three cars had very similar marquetry, as can clearly been seen in your picture, and also a Pullman table lamp with shade, and also Pullman armchairs – these were all unique to Pullman cars.

“With the introduction in late 1960 of the new BR Mk1 Pullman cars on the East Coast Main Line, some of the 1928 cars were transferred to the Southern Region Pullman services, such as the Bournemouth Belle, or the Ocean Liner boat trains.”

SO our picture was taken in one of three carriages, either Agatha, Sheila or Phyllis. Another picture from Memories 630 prompts Mike Barnard, of Guisborough, to be even more precise: he can work out the day and even the time that the Flying Scotsman was snapped charging south through Darlington.

“The locomotive hauling the Flying Scotsman is Class A3 No 2580 Shotover, with a corridor tender,” he says.

Shotover, named after a successful 1880s racehorse, was built in Glasgow as a Class A1 but was rebuilt in Darlington as a more powerful and economical Class A3.

“The Class A3s now had a coal consumption low enough to enable the 392 miles between King’s Cross and Edinburgh to be covered non-stop by using the eight tons of coal that was the capacity of the tenders,” says Mike, “but special tenders were made for the non-stop service with a corridor to enable a crew change mid distance, as most firemen would have been exhausted shovelling all eight tons without a break.”

Therefore, the relief crew members were able to walk from their seats in the front carriage through the corridor in the tender into the engine cab to take over.

“A few weeks after coming out of Darlington as an A3, Shotover was given one of the corridor tenders for the Flying Scotsman service,” continues Mike. “It kept this tender for ten months, so this dates the picture to 1928.

“The non-stop service of the Flying Scotsman was inaugurated on May 1, 1928. At 10am precisely, Class A1 No 4472 Flying Scotsman left Kings Cross with the northbound train, and simultaneously No 2580 Shotover departed Edinburgh with the southbound train.

“So your picture is almost certainly taken on Tuesday, May 1, 1928 around 2pm as Shotover came through Darlington.

“The two trains passed near Pilmoor, 15 miles north of York, and arrived at their destinations at about 6pm.”

READ MORE: THE SHILDON REFEREE'S SON MURDERED ON THE HIGH SEAS