Railway Heritage Sites in Shildon

Originally opened as the starting point of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Shildon Station now operates as an intermediate stop on the Tees Valley Line operated by Northern Trains. It is the fourth station from Darlington, taking about 20 minutes by train. The train service currently runs from Saltburn, passing through Darlington and Shildon before terminating at Bishop Auckland. Trains operate about once per hour on weekdays and once every 1 to 2 hours on weekends. Although Shildon Station is now unmanned, there is still a brick-built signal box beside the platform. Semaphore signals are still in use here. A distinctive feature is the white board mounted behind the semaphore arms, likely intended to improve visibility from a distance. This is a design rarely seen in Japan and is unique to British railways. Trains on this line were previously operated using two-car diesel multiple units known as Class 142 "Pacers." These vehicles had a two-axle single-car body without bogies, but the ride quality was relatively comfortable, likely due to the good condition of the tracks.

This is the former home of Timothy Hackworth, the first Superintendent of Locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. He lived here with his wife, two sons, six daughters, and several servants. It was conveniently located within walking distance of his nearby factory. After Hackworth, the house was occupied by his successor, William Bouch, until 1875. Later, it served as housing for senior railway staff and was eventually divided into two residences for railway workers.

When this railway first opened, there were no modern rails or sleepers like today. Instead, L-shaped iron plates were bolted onto stone blocks for the tracks. From the 1850s onward, the company gradually replaced these with bullhead rails (double-headed rails) and wooden sleepers. The surplus stones were reused in 1857 to build this warehouse. This goods warehouse served as a central facility for local freight distribution in Shildon. As a railway logistics hub, it included cranes, livestock loading areas, and coal storage zones. It was once an essential center of transportation, where goods bound for other regions were gathered, and many shipments arriving in Shildon passed through here. Initially, deliveries from here were made by horse-drawn carts, a practice that continued until the mid-20th century, after which motor vehicles became the primary means of transport.

In 1855, the Stockton and Darlington Railway purchased a large area of land from Hackworth and built housing for railway workers. By around 1900, the area had developed into a community with hundreds of families. This building was constructed in 1888 and originally served as a church Sunday school. Later, it was used as a factory, and today, the steam locomotive Sans Pareil is preserved inside the building.

The Sans Pareil was a steam locomotive built by Hackworth in 1829 to compete in the Rainhill Trials. The Rainhill Trials were a public competition held to decide the motive power for the under-construction Liverpool and Manchester Railway—whether to use the new steam locomotives or stationary steam engines. In total, four locomotives ran in the trials for performance comparison. Unfortunately, the Sans Pareil had to withdraw partway through the competition due to cylinder failure, and Stephenson's Rocket won the contest. However, the Sans Pareil was later temporarily used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and subsequently on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. After its retirement, it has continued to be preserved as a source of local pride Hackworth's design featured a single large-diameter flue, and he advocated for its superiority. However, in practice, Stephenson's Rocket with multiple flue tubes achieved better combustion efficiency and output power, leading to victory and setting the standard for future steam locomotive boiler designs. A replica of the Sans Pareil is preserved at the Shildon Railway Museum. This replica was built for the 2002 Rainhill Trials reenactment event and is an operational unit that actually ran.

The Soho Shed, built in 1826, is the oldest surviving industrial building in Shildon. It was constructed by Messrs Kilburn as a warehouse for iron materials and was not part of the Soho Works, but it had a very close association with the railway. From 1863 onward, the building was used by the North Eastern Railway. In the 1870s, it served as a locomotive painting workshop, where an underfloor heating system was installed to speed up paint drying. In the 20th century, it was used as a boxing gym and a rehearsal space for a band, but in 1978 it was restored to resemble a factory setting. Inside, preserved examples of old coal wagons known as 'chaldron wagons' are on display. which look like simple flatbeds fitted with wheels. Some were built in 1826, others about 40 years later. Also on display is a locomotive consisting only of its boiler and wheels, called the Nelson, built by Timothy’s brother Thomas Hackworth and George Fossick.

This is the point where the dedicated line to the coal mines branched off from the main line. In the early days after the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, steam locomotives were still considered expensive and unreliable. As a result, many trains were still horse-drawn at the time. Therefore, by the 1820s, stables for horses working on the colliery railway had been built in this area. The building on the right is the Soho Shed, and the one on the left was the stable for the freight horses.

This large arched structure was used to load coal into steam locomotives. Coal wagons were hauled up a steep incline to store coal at the top of the structure. Fittings for overhead wires still remain on one of the poles halfway up the structure— a remnant from the days when the line from the colliery was electrified. Coal transported by wagon was discharged through bottom doors into wooden hoppers below. From these hoppers, coal was loaded into locomotives via iron chutes shaped like spouts. The track in the foreground is not a disused line but an active departure line from the museum. Since trains may still pass here, a warning sign at the level crossing reads: “Stop, Look, Listen.”

Shildon is home to a branch of the National Railway Museum in York. Although smaller in scale compared to York, it still houses a large number of preserved locomotives. Some of these locomotives are operational and appear to rotate between York and Shildon. The Shildon Railway Museum is introduced in detail on a separate page.