A NEW children’s book captures the launch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway almost 200 years ago.
Written by Lartington archaeologist Caroline Hardie, Little Loco’s Big Day is an uplifting tale of the railway’s first locomotive, known as Locomotion No.1, which has to pull wonky waggons along the railway on its opening day in 1825.
Trouble brews when the wonky waggons grumble because they want to be pulled by horses, not locomotives, and Herald the Horse is worried about being replaced by Little Loco and put into a horrible home for hopeless horses.
Ms Hardie, who is trustee for the Friends of the Stockton and Darington Railway, said: “I have written for adult audiences but this is the first time I have written for a young audience and it was much harder than I thought it was going to be. You have amassed this vocabulary over your life and you can’t use a lot of it.”
She began writing the book before the Covid pandemic as part of the run-up to the railway’s bicentenary in 2025 and roped in the former archaeologist for County Durham John Pickin to do the illustrations.
The author said: “Some of them just make me laugh out loud. I asked him to put in horse poo and things, because one of the [pieces of advice I was given] is children like to point at things in pictures, and he would have little dung-beetles crawling over it saying ‘yum, yum, yum’.”
The book is aimed at children aged seven and younger and includes fun activities that families can enjoy doing.
Ms Hardie has planned a series of books about Little Loco ahead of the 2025 celebration.
She said: “The one out now is just the opening day. Locomotion No.1 is still around today so there are 200 years’ worth of stories and in that time she blows up, she gets two chimneys, she gets new wheels – this is all in the first three years.
“She has a series of drivers, one of whom is a drunk, I don’t know how I will tackle that one. Also, as time passes, she gets neglected and forgotten about and then she is celebrated and is taken abroad.
“And then there’s the fight about where she should be, which was just a few years ago, so you could bring all these stories right up to the present.”
Ms Hardie hopes to have three books published about Little Loco before the bicentenary celebration.
Little Loco’s Big Day is available from the Teesdale Mercury Shop, or can be ordered online from therailwaystation.shop/little-loco.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
