1861 Shed
1861 Shed, Darlington
In 1861, a four road shed, capable of housing twelve locomotives, was built to the design of William Peachey. Replacing an earlier two road shed on the same site, situated between the Stockton & Darlington main line and the track serving the new North Road Works. It was the largest of William Peachey’s straight sheds and the only one to still survive. The accommodation quickly proved to be insufficient however, and with the completion of two large roundhouses in the Works yard by 1877, the 1861 Shed was then adapted as a paint shop for the Works.
Re-roofed in 1884, it remained the paint shop until 1911 when a new paint shop opened at Stooperdale. During this time it suffered damage to the North and West elevations on 17 August 1908, when an NER ‘U’ Class 0-6-2T delivering two newly built 0-6-0s from Gateshead, ran away into Class E1 (J72) 0-6-0T No 1736, knocking it sideways through the end and side walls. It cost £1,000 to repair. Albert Hudson, a shunter, was killed in the accident.
The building was converted to a power station in the First World War, complete with boilers, chimney stack and wooden cooling tower, to serve the Works. By 1939, Darlington had its own power station and the “power house”, as it had become known, was relegated to a sub-station. At the North end of the building a store for locomotive cylinders was established, and locomotives arriving for repair would gather in the yard at that end of the building where the work required would be assessed before they crossed Whessoe Road and entered the Works.
From 1952 Darlington Works started building diesel locomotives and a test house was needed. A soundproof control room was established in the North end of the building and the diesel locomotives would have their engines run up while stood outside, much to the annoyance of the local population.
Surviving closure of the Works in 1966, the S&T Department used the North end of the building as a store and by the mid-1970s a scrap yard had become established in the South end of the building and yard.
Following its acquisition by Darlington Borough Council in the early 2020s to form part of its Hopetown Darlington Railway Heritage Quarter development, it has been reroofed and refurbished internally. It now houses the Darlington Railway Preservation Societys collection of Darlington built railway vehicles, and provides the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group with a Darlington locomotive restoration centre – the latter relocating from the former carriage works on Hopetown Lane.
