LOCOMOTION -
STEAM & DIESEL
National Railway Museum Shildon Durham
England
was the birthplace of the steam railroad. Born as much by the need
to haul the coal that fueled the industrialization as it was a means
to haul people from town to town. The English railway system is an odd
collection of historic lines built by capitalist entrepreneurs to serve
their own routes and regions (see Didcot
Great Western Railway Centre). Getting around
the British Isles on the national railway can be an adventure of complex
connections.
Getting
to the past of English railway heritage can be as easy as getting to
a railway museum.
The
first railroad steam engine to haul a loaded train was George Stephenson’s
Locomotion on the Stockton & Darlington railway in 1825. But it was
rival Timothy Hackworth, a manager on the line who’s engine the
Royal George that had the reliability to make regular steam powered rail
service practical. Stephenson and Hackworth went head to head in competition
to build a steam locomotive for a proposed railway between Manchester
and Liverpool. Stephenson built the Rocket and Hackworth designed the
Sans Pareil. The Rocket won out and
the passenger railroad was born.
A replica
of Stephenson's Rocket is at the York National Rail Museum and a replica
of the later Planet engine runs at Manchester (see Manchester
Museum Science and Industry), the
actual
Sans Pareil is on display at the Locomotion
National Railway Museum at Shildon in Durham county. Located in a former
engine works of the Stockton & Darlington Line where Timothy Hackworth
continued to develop engines which powered the railroads of England as
well as Canada and the world. The railroad museum at Locomotion takes
up several building of was once the small town for workers that grew
around Hackworth’s Soho engine works at new Shildon.
Covering
enough acreage to require taking a regular shuttle bus around the former
rail yards, the collection
of engines and rolling stock is
only second to the National Rail Museum at York (see York
Railway Museum),
of which Locomotion Shildon in Durham is a branch. The displays include
Timothy
Hackworth’s
house from which he oversaw operations, other buildings of the town with
displays, to a massive engine shed the size of a football field.
Engines
on display run from the 8’ wheeled Victorian Express steam engine
which carried first class passengers from Waterloo station in the days
of the virgin queen to the massive prototype of the Deltic Diesel engine,
called the blue monster, which pulled the Flying Scotsman route from
1961 to 1982 along with other rolling stock, like the unique railway
steam snowplow and handcrank track crane. A number of events and special
displays are held from April to September. Rail rides can be had on a
working replica of the San Pareil engine and the “Driver for a
Fiver” program allows visitors to ride in the engine cab with the
engineer and get a lesson in steam locomotion.
The Locomotion National Railway Museum is located about 20 minutes by car from Durham off the A68 from Darlington, and a few minutes walk from the Shildon Station by rail. Bus services run from Durham and Darlington. Parking and admission are free! © Bargain Travel Europe
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Locomotion
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See Also:
YORK
NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM
THE
SALTBURN SMUGGLERS
NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS RAILROAD
BEAMISH OPEN AIR HISTORY MUSEUM
