1861 Shed
1861 Shed, Darlington
After Darlington Borough Council reacquired the buildings which housed the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, Darlington Railway Preservation Society and North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group as part of the development of what is now known as Hopetown Museum, the 3 groups were ‘rehomed’. NELPG are now located in the former Whessoe Road shed affectionately known as the ‘1861 Shed’.
Just as our base at Hopetown was, the shed provides us with a North East location which is easily accessible for our working members (the majority of which live close by). Located on the site of what was formerly the Whessoe Road car scrapyard, the shed is in close proximity to Hopetown Museum, making visiting easy for all. Our working parties operate on Mondays and Thursdays.
Shed Open Days
Now that we are comfortably ‘moved in’ to the shed, our ever popular Open Days are now once again running.
We are open to the public on the First Weekend of every month between the hours of 10:00am – 3:00pm. Access to the shed is only available by passing through the main Hopetown entrance and walking up through the A1 shed.
1861-1939: From Paint to Power
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.
1952-2020: Diesels Move In, The End Of 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 and nearby neighbours.
As the advent of steam had ended in 1964 and railway infrastructures across the country had a major upheaval, the shed was deemed as no longer required as a works and closed in 1966. Although closed as a works, the building still survived and the S&T Department utilised 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.
2023: NELPG Move In
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 Society’s collection of Darlington built railway vehicles, and provides the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group with a Darlington-based locomotive restoration centre – the latter relocating from the former carriage works on Hopetown Lane (which is now home to the museum’s collection of archives).
