Darlington; Thursday, 03 June, 2021

After packing my bag, leaving it with the hotel and checking out, I headed out from the hotel and walked the 15 minutes or so north to Darlington North Road station. Today this is a small single platform station on the Bishop Auckland line. More importantly the station sits next to an older version of the station, built by the Stockton and Darlington railway on their original line.

That older station is now the Head of Steam museum which tells the history of the railways in Darlington, as well as the history of the S&D. Whilst they don’t have the original Locomotion No.1 engine (that was moved to Locomotion in Shildon in early 2021), they do have a replica engine that was created for the 150th anniversary of the line as the original was too delicate to be able to used in service again.

Along with the exbibits and models you can also explore parts of the station itself including the original Victorian booking office.

Close by to the museum is the Skerne Bridge. This is the oldest continuously used railway bridge in the world having opened with the S&D in 1825 and still carrying trains to Shildon, Bishop Auckland, Darlington and Saltburn to this day.

Over it’s life the line has been expanded and contracted, and the rear of the bridge is marked by some additional Victorian abutment that were added when the line was wider, but from the front of the bridge you are still looking at the same structure that carried the first passenger trains nearly 200 years ago.

After taking in the museum and the bridge it was time to walk back down into the centre of town, grab a quick lunch and my luggage and then make my way up to Darlington station to catch the train back north to Newcastle and my flight back to London.

Weather

Cloudy Cloudy
AM PM
Warm (10-20C, 50-68F)
18ºC/64ºF