In the 1960s there was a brickworks at Eaglescliffe where my dad worked as a brickmaker. He carried out a variety of tasks including managing the firing process in the kilns, boiler house attendant and mobile plant operator and I often visited him at work in the evenings or at weekends. On one such visit in early 1966 I was able to film the 2ft 6in gauge railway which transported clay from Coatham Stob to the top of the brickmaking plant at Eaglescliffe, a distance of about 3/4 mile. The line passed over a public road on a "crossing with no gates" as identified by signs at the side of the road
The locomotive used was a Ruston Hornsby diesel hauling 5 side tipping wagons. The clay was dug from the pit and loaded by a Ruston Bucyrus electric dragline digger and each wagon held about 2 tons of clay.
In wintertime, salt was added to the loaded wagons to stop the clay freezing in the storage hoppers which were situated above the brick making machines.