19th Nov 1992

A real surprise today: a Wickham Trolley, no. DB965097, trundling along the up slow at South Otterington with a short train of used wooden sleepers. This was my first and only occasion that I witnessed this type of vehicle working on the mainline railway. It was heading towards the old station yard, where the contractors had a base.

I tried to research what might have happened to DB965097 and the best I have been able to find online is a photo of a very forlorn looking DB965097 being unceremoniously shifted by a digger at the Tanfield Railway in 2016. What happened to it afterwards is open to speculation!