Help Darlington Railway Preservation Society Move

Aim

Darlington will soon have a new Railway Heritage Quarter and that means the DRPS has to relocate. Without your help, we might not make it!

All change in Darlington

2025 will be an important year in the history of British railways; the marking of 200 years since the founding of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company and the world’s first-ever steam-powered passenger rail journey from Shildon in County Durham to Stockton. For any railway enthusiast group, this date would surely be a focal point for celebration and renewed activity but for our group, The Darlington Railway Preservation Society, the approaching bicentenary is more a source of worry than celebration. 

After 40 years as occupants of the old Goods Shed at Darlington North Road station (arguably the oldest railway building still in railway use in the world), the creation of a new Railway Heritage Quarter around the station area requires us to move to a new location. 

Hung, drawn & Quartered

In order for us to play our part in the RHQ, the group have agreed to move to the 1861 Whessoe Road Engine Shed - another old (but somewhat less iconic) railway structure at the rear of the site, by March of 2023. This may not seem like a massive trek but with nine locomotives and a number of other railway vehicles, all the reconditioned and preserved heritage items and tooling plus several hundred yards of track, sleepers and related rail equipment, the move will take several months to organise and complete.

The heavy, heavy load

One can imagine the colossal amount of equipment that one organisation can accumulate in 40 years to enable the preservation and overhaul of steam locos. Many people reading this article will likely be part of a similar group and will be aware of the tooling; lathes, generators, power tools, etc. needed to make precise adjustments to a coupling rod or patching a boiler and the DRPS workshop at the Goods Shed is no exception. A recent inventory of restoration equipment listed 2 large lathes, a shaper, a bench grinder, 2 x milling machines, pillar/vertical and arm drills and a vast array of specialised spanners and machine tools. It’s been estimated that the total weight of rolling stock and equipment on site comes to  640 tonnes. One of the workbenches alone is believed to weigh 3.5 tonnes. 

We’re still in the ‘research phase’ of how we’re going to tackle packaging and transporting these items & materials; one suggestion has been to buy a number of Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs), cut off the tops and pack the tools and materials inside so that these can then be stacked on a trailer. Another idea is to simply buy 40ft containers that can be reused at the new location as external storage. However, WE’RE OPEN TO IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS! If anyone out there in Steam Railway land has prior experience of large-scale logistics of this kind please send your suggestions to [email protected] – thanks!

Given that we’re still researching the ‘how’ it’s somewhat difficult assessing the ‘how much’ but from estimates we’ve had in from haulage firms and known prices for containers and ICBs we’re currently looking at a shortfall of at least £25k for the move and post-move installation.

Above top-left round to bottom-left: Some of the lads (and, occasionally, lasses) hard at work at the shed, Our Peckett 0-4-0st Special Class W7 'Northern Gas Board No.1' (currently on hire to Cholsey & Wallingford Railway), Barrie Lamb of the DRPS receiving an award from the Darlington Mayor, The DRPS flagship loco - an SMT 2-6-0 No.78018 (known to us simply as The Standard).

The DRPS has been preserving Darlington's railway heritage for over 40 years and we'd very much like to carry on for another 40. Please help our campaign and allow us a new lease of life in a new shed.

The above text is taken from the article in Steam Railway magazine issue 535 with permission from the editor. Buy the magazine here.

This project successfully funded on 12th November 2022