Pictures from an old Darlington scrapyard

As yesterday’s paper told, the Quarter includes a new home for the A1 Trust – builders of the Tornado and Prince of Wales steam locomotives – as well as a new exhibition space in the restored Hopetown Carriageworks plus a major visitor centre in the 1830s goods station.

As Cllr Scott rammed her shiny new spade into the turf of the field between the Head of Steam museum and the carriageworks, there were some people who were a little concerned about what she might turn up.

Once this field – which is going to be revamped as a showfield with a play area in the woods on its fringe – was the site of the Darlington Works scrapyard.

A fabulous picture from The Northern Echo's archive looking from North Road station - now the Head of Museum - into the scrapyard in March 1961. On the right hand side behind the trees is the Hopetown Carriageworks. And can anyone tell us about the square, brick fountain in the foreground?

From 1932 until 1964, it was covered by a maze of sidings as old engines came to die here. Hundreds, perhaps more, locomotives were dismantled and scrapped on the site.

The Darlington Works scrapyard in September 1955, with North Road station behind. Picture by Clive Allen. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

“It was a fantastic place to explore, providing the railway police did not catch you in there,” says Richard Barber, who has kindly looked out an amazing set of images from the collection of the JW Armstrong Trust to show what once took place on this piece of green turf.

It is very appropriate that a place which once ended the story of so many engines is now going to be where the story of the railways is told to future generations.

An engine being dismantled at the Darlington scrapyard in January 1964. Picture by Malcolm Foreman. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

Can you tell us any more about the scrapyard? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk if you can

The remains of the LNER's A2 No 2400 engine, City of Newcastle, in the Darlington scrapyard in 1937. The engine was the first A2 built at the Darlington North Road works in December 1922. It left service in April 1937 and was soon reduced to this. Picture by JW Armstrong. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

An engine being dismantled in September 1961. Picture by D Rayne. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

A colour picture of a scrapped engine by J Archer. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

The place where engines came to die: the Darlington scrapyard, by JW Armstrong. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

In the scrapyard beside North Road station in September 1964. Picture by Ray Goad. Picture courtesy of the JW Armstrong Trust

ONE exhibit in the Head of Steam museum on Thursday particularly caught Cllr Scott’s eye: the original cast iron sign that had once proudly stood at the highest point on the Stainmore summit as the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway ploughed over the Pennines.

The sign marked the fact that at 1,370ft above sea level (418 metres), this was the highest point in England of any railway. And Cllr Scott grew up in the shadow of the sign, in one of four remote, lineside cottages that were built for “summitworkers”.

Her uncle worked on the railway while her grandfather was a gamekeeper on the moors, and one of childhood memories is of the great snowstorm of 1947. Drifts covered her house, and her father had to work five miles to buy supplies.

Cllr Scott also remembers that he cottages were suddenly full of 20 to 30 railway passengers sleeping on the wooden floors. A train had become stranded in a snowdrift, and the passengers needed somewhere to spend the night, and the cottages were the only shelter in that remote location.

The signalbox on Stainmore was Cllr Scott's playground

The line closed in 1962 and the summit sign was removed to the Darlington museum for safe-keeping when the A66 expanded. The site of the summit signalbox – Cllr Scott’s playground – and her cottages are now beneath the west-bound carriageway of the road. However, in recent times – we think 2011 – a replica sign has been placed near the site and clearly visible from the road.

The summit at Stainmore: the highest point reached by an English railway

READ MORE: A MOMENTOUS DAY FOR DARLINGTON AS THE FIRST TURF OF RAIL HERITAGE QUARTER IS CUT