Locomotion

I was in Darlington for the day for football, so visited ‘Hopetown’,  a newly refurbished railway museum based at North Road station, which was Darlington’s original railway station.

2025 is the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the world’s first railway to use steam locomotives. You will probably recognise the main image as a working replica of George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1, the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger train on said railway. The original was previously homed here, but was moved a few miles up the track to the larger ‘Locomotion’ museum at Shildon  in 2021. This replica was built and previously operated at Beamish, so I may have encountered it there.

It is a great little museum (extra) very much a family friendly attraction with a huge adventure playground at the core of the site. It’s recently had a major refurbishment, only reopening a year ago, so feels very ‘new’ despite the attractions being old. I expect it suffers somewhat from being so close to the much bigger at Shildon, and also not far from the National Railway Museum at York, but it is worth a visit in its own right.

I spent a couple of hours pottering about Darlington town centre, my first proper visit since 2017. It was very cheerful and lively as Darlington Pride was taking place. Then a half hour walk out to the football, detouring round the fine park. 

Darlington FC are currently groundsharing with the rugby club at Blackwell Meadows, having suffered more than their fair share of ground issues and rogue owners over the years. I was here to watch Nephew #3 and his Chorley teammates in their first game of the National League North season (extra). Kick-off was delayed by 30 minutes as the Chorley team bus delayed en route. It proved to be an eventful game, with Chorley winning 3-2 having been 2-1 down, and down to ten men at half-time.

See extras for the beauty of Darlington Station.