A SPECIAL event organised by railway heritage enthusiasts aims to bring the “forgotten five miles” of the Stockton and Darlington (S&D) Railway to wider attention.
A working model of the stationary engine used to pull coal wagons up the Etherley incline will be on display at Toft Hill Community Centre on Friday, September 27.
Other railway memorabilia associated with the S&D line will also be on show.
John Raw, a member of the Etherley Incline group, which is part of the Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, said the stationary engine was pivotal to the success of the line.
“The reason for the Stockton and Darlington Railway was simply coal,” he said.
Before the railway line was built, the cost of transporting coal from Witton Park was prohibitively expensive, he explained.
“The railway brought the coal from the field, eventually to Stockton and onto ships and down to London. It had a dramatic effect in lowering the price of coal,” he said.
The problem was the two large inclines in the first five miles of the line – one at Etherley and the other further along at Brusselton.
The answer was to use horses to bring the coal from the pit to the bottom of Etherley incline, where Phoenix Row sprang up.
The coal was loaded onto wagons pulled up the hill using a hemp rope attached to the engine at the top.
It was then transferred along to the bottom of Brusselton incline before the process was repeated and the coal loaded at Shildon to make the 20-mile journey to Stockton. Mr Raw said it came as a surprise to many people that the S&D line actually runs from Phoenix Row.
“People know it as the Stockton and Darlington railway and think it runs from Stockton to Darlington.
“The reason it is called the Stockton and Darlington is because that is where the merchants – the backers – came from. This part of the line is something of a forgotten five miles,” he said.
The working model of the Etherley incline steam engine was created in 1836 by Thomas Greener Jr in the engineman’s house on the incline.
Its current owner, Dr Tom Walker, will give a talk on the model as part of the railway heritage afternoon.
Other guests will include Bill Rammage, who will talk about his model of the Yarm depot as it looked in 1825.
Other displays are being put together by members of the Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
The Etherley Engine Comes to Visit – The Day the Industrial Revolution Reached South West Durham will be open from 1pm to 4.15pm on Friday, September 27.
Admission is free and refreshments will be available.
For more details, email Mr Raw at jraw2883@aol.com.
