Darlington museum boost for railway bicentenary year
Work has begun on transforming the Head of Steam museum ahead of celebrations to mark 200 years of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025.
By Paul Bickerdyke
THE ground was officially broken on March 3 on a £35 million project to create a Railway Heritage Quarter based around the Head of Steam museum in Darlington. Cutting the first sod of turf with a firing shovel was Coun Heather Scott, leader of Darlington Borough Council. The project will see the existing museum building, based on the site of the town’s original S&D station, upgraded to better tell the story of the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives.
The museum is currently housed in the buildings at North Road station, parts of which date back to 1842, although one platform remains open for use by service trains on the Bishop Auckland branch.