16th July 2022

Cleveland Group - TS2 visits the Stockton and Darlington Railway on its Round Britain Tour.

Our run celebrates the worldwide importance of the North East in the history of the railways.

The world’s first passenger train was hauled from Shildon to Stockton on 27^th September 1825. So the 200^th anniversary is rapidly approaching, when I’m sure you’ll be hearing much more!

If you want to read more, please go to the link here

On Saturday 16th July we will take TS2 on a tour of the Stockton and Darlington Railway starting from Preston Farm. There will be photo opportunities which will appear on the TR Register website, and possibly in the Classic Car Weekly publication.

We will leave Preston Farm and drive as close as possible (well some of the time!) along the course of the original S&DR line which made history in 1825 when the 1st passenger train was pulled by Locomotion 1.

We will stop at Darlington North Road station and also at the Shildon Locomotion Museum, where Locomotion 1 itself is on display.

Our route is split into 3 stages – with traffic it is very unlikely we can keep together without causing chaos on the roads, so please don’t delay too much waiting for people to catch us up. If they get lost they can hopefully navigate either to the end of the stage, or just head for Locomotion

Stage	From	To	Postcode
1	Preston Park	Fighting Cocks	DL2 1JT
2	Fighting Cocks	North Road Station	DL3 6ST
3	North Road Station	Locomotion	DL4 2RE

Click on the Stage No for a Google Map of that section.

Miles
0	Exit Preston Park – TL at traffic lights onto Yarm Road.	Note 1
1.5	Branch Right into South View, SP Darlington , A67, Airport
1.6	At T junction, TR, sp Darlington, A67, Airport
1.9	At roundabout, take 1^st exit, A67 Darlington, Airport
2.3	At mini roundabout, continue straight,
5	At Airport roundabout, continue on A67, Darlington	Note 2
5.9	At roundabout, continue on A67, Darlington
6.7	At roundabout take 1st exit, sp Middleton St George	Note 3
6.9	Fighting Cocks – At T junction TR.
7.4	At roundabout take 1^st exit – A67 Darlington
8.0	At A66 roundabout, take 3^rd exit on A66 (Teesside)
8.3	Stop in Brick Train layby (if room for all cars in convoy)
8.9	At roundabout take 1^st exit – B6279 – Darlington Town Centre and then keep straight ahead until next instruction	Note 4
9.9	At traffic lights beside car dealerships, continue straight
10.5	At roundabout, take 1^st exit, B6279, Darlington Town centre.	Note 5
10.9	TR into East Mount Road
11.3	Look to your right into MKM yard and Gym, and you will see the Skerne Bridge	Note 6
11.3	At Traffic lights TR, pass the BP station, and immediately take the 2^nd road on the left, sp Railway Museum (Station Road)
11.5	TR and immediately TL, signposted museum
11.6	Arrive Museum- we will park TS2 immediately in front of building, with hopefully a selection of TRs alongside.

11.7	After leaving Museum TL immediately onto McNay Street immediately
11.7	At T junction TL onto North Road (A167)
11.8	Under railway bridge and TL – ideally Bonomi Way, but road works may make us take next on left Whessoe Road,
11.9	3 mini roundabouts in quick succession – it depends on the roadworks which way we approach the 1^st roundabout. We want Whessoe Road . Then at the next 2 , go straight ahead– avoid the retail park. , and don’t go under the railway bridge. Continue along Whessoe Road
13.6	TR sp A167	Note 7
14.3	At White Horse Hotel Traffic Lights, TL onto A167.
16.5	At motorway roundabout, continue straight, but keep to left hand lane
16.9	At roundabout take 1^st exit (Newton Aycliffe Business Park)
17.3	At roundabout take first exit (Business Park South)
17.6	Road sweeps around to right (Hitachi Railway factory is straight ahead of you, but we sweep to right)	Note 8
18.0	At roundabout take 1^st exit
18.1	Turn right onto Station Road .	Note 9
18.4	At T-junction TL onto Spring Road	Note 10
18.5	TL onto Preston Road	Note 11
19.4	At T-junction TR, then immediately left at mini roundabout onto Horndale Avenue
19.7	At roundabout take 1^st exit onto Greenfield Way, passing Aycliffe Station on your left.	Note 12
20.2	At roundabout take 1^st exit straight ahead
20.9	At mini roundabout, 1^st exit straight ahead
21.3	At roundabout , 1^st exit (brown signpost for Locomotion)
21.5	At roundabout take 1^st exit
22.0	Continue straight through Middridge
22.8	TL at traffic lights
23.3	At roundabout, take 2^nd exit (straight ahead)
23.5	TL signposted Locomotion immediately after crossing the railway bridge
23.7	TL into car park. Continue down the hill if you are in a Triumph or classic car, and we will be given access to the forecourt in front of the Locomotion Museum. Park as directed by marshals.

Notes

1	The original S&DR line ran along the boundary of Preston Park with Yarm Road, before later being moved to the existing railway line just the other side of Yarm Road. From Preston Park to Stockton, very little remains of the line, other than a few associated buildings. The line terminated at Riverside, Stockton near to the Millenium Bridge, where you will find an artwork of the train in the steel railings.
2	The original line ran mainly on the south side of the A67 where todays track is. However at the roundabout after the airport, the present day track deviates more to the south, and the old line (now a footpath) continues to Fighting Cocks, alongside today’s A67.
3	As we approach Fighting Cocks (now Sainsbury Local), we cross the original line where you see today’s footpath, and old station buildings. Fighting Cocks was originally an inn built to serve the coal depot workers.
4	Here we rejoin the original track which ran parallel to today’s road (B6279, Tornado Way) as a footpath on your right hand side as we travel towards Darlington
5	We could have continued towards Albert Hill to closer follow the line, but we would miss seeing Skerne Bridge, hence we’ll deviate slightly
6	Skerne Bridge is the oldest railway bridge in the world still in use on an active line.
7	From North Road to Aycliffe and Shildon, the present day line runs the same as the original, and cuts across the fields to cross the A1(M) motorway. After Whessoe Road, we can’t access the line by car until it reaches Aycliffe, so we’ll cheat and follow the A167 – which is the old A1 or Great North Road.
8	The Hitachi Railway Factory sits alongside the old S&DR directly linking the present and the past.
9	You are at Heighington Station (not actually in Heighington!). This is the place that George Stephenson’s Locomotion No 1 was put on the track after being hauled from the Newcastle factory.
10	Cars rather than railways – but Spring Road refers to the factory that used to be here – Woodheads, which made car suspension components. We had their Loadmaster uprated dampers fitted to a 2.5PI in the 70’s!
11	As we climb the hill and turn right, we resume following the railway line on your left
12	Aycliffe Station was a 70’s addition to the line, but in the early days of the railways this was a busy Simpasture Junction. The line split here, with the S&DR going to Stockton, and another line going to Port Clarence – which was also electrified as early as 1913. There is a direct footpath from here to Locomotion Shildon, but again by car, we will have to deviate.

For anyone who is interested, we could visit the site of the Brusselton Incline afterwards. Here you can see some of the original sleepers on the S&DR line which allowed coal to be transported from Witton Park to Stockton. There are also several other buildings and features which allowed the incline to be traversed.

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