Stockton & Darlington Railway - Fighting Cocks Loop

Starting Point: Dinsdale Station. Finishing Point: North Road Station. Distance: 5.2 Miles

Stockton and Darlington 200 Explores:

Fighting Cocks Loop (this page)

Hopetown

Shildon

Brusselton Incline and Black Boy branch

When the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825 it skirted Darlington to the north. The route was primarily built for freight and passenger facilities were not provided. Passenger services were operated using horse drawn rail mounted carriages by independent coach operators who negotiated track access and bookings were generally made through nearby inns in the same manner as road coaches. In 1833 the S&D took over the coach operations and began its own locomotive hauled passenger services. Passenger services at Darlington used a depot between North Road and the bridge over the Skerne River.

In 1841 the Great North of England Railway opened what would become part of the main route through the town with a station at Bank Top. The two routes had a flat crossing north of Bank Top station.

The S&DR and GNER went on to become parts of the North Eastern Railway and as part of improvements that included the Darlington station in use to this day being built at the Bank Top site the S&DR route was diverted through the new station with a new section of line south of the original route built through Dinsdale connecting to the original route at Oak Tree Junction. 

The bypassed section of route between North Road and Oak Tree Junction was retained as a freight route until 1967 when the flat crossing was removed at the Darlington end. It survived until 1972s as a branch from the Oak Tree Junction end to the various industries along it.

The abandoned original route is now part of the S&DR 200 Trail of Discovery, the QR code on the way marker at the start of the path links to detail of the trail.

Rail Map Online

Google Maps

1897 Map

I took the train to Dinsdale, the station that served the village of Middleton St George and replaced the Fighting Cocks station on the original route. From Dinsdale I walked to where the footpath crosses Yarm Road. East of Yarm Road the path runs parallel to the original railway route past the site of Oak Tree Junction and the surviving line can be seen. West of Yarm road the path climbs the embankment, though with modern developments around the former railway there is little sign of it having been a railway until the former Fighting Cocks station.

FIGHTING COCKS

Below - Retaining wall at the back of the former Fighting Cocks station looking towards Darlington.

Below - Replica of a S&DR milepost, 8 miles from Stockton.

Below - The station buildings.

Below - The station in 1875.

Below - Remains of the building on the Stockton bound platform.

Below - One of the level crossing gate posts.

Below - The Railway Lodge, former railway staff facilities and housing.

Below - The Fighting Cocks Inn built in 1834 to serve the railway passengers. Like so many old pubs the Fighting Cocks is now a convenience store.

Below - Retaining wall that stood behind the signal box.

Below - Goods platform to the north of the running line on the west side of the crossing.

Below - The signal box stood in front of this retaining wall. A small brick hut probably associated with the signal box survives.

Below - The former coal drops.

Below - Picnic benches at the site of the signal box now that the station serves as a stopping point on the trail.

Below - Information board at the site of the station goods yard (click to enlarge).

1897 Map

Below - Pipe bridge over the former railway.

1897 Map

Below - Concrete sleepers remaining from the later days of the route as a freight branch serving several industries in the Darlington area.

Below - Replica milepost at 9 miles from Stockton.

1898 Map

Below - Milepost 10 and the former Patons & Baldwins Mill on the right that provided the final source of freight on the section of route until 1972.

Below - The former Patons & Baldwins Mill is now in various uses but much of the site is vacant.

Below - A display of S&DR stone sleepers found in the area when the path was built.

The path runs alongside the Tornado Way road built to the south of the former railway route and now serving industrial areas of Darlington as the railway had done before. The path emerges on to Haughton Road before the roundabout at the junction with Tornado Way is built over the railway site.

Below - Alley at the back of Westgarth Terrace with the fence of the railway that ran behind it.

Below - Bridge that took the railway over a footpath between Haughton Road and fields to the south of the railway. Walking underneath the bridge there is evidence that it has been widened on both sides. The bridge now carries Tornado Way as the footpath leaves the railway trackbed next to the other (north) side of the bridge.

On the other side of the roundabout the footpath leads to Engine House Lane, modern housing development on the former railway route.

Below - At the end of Engine House Lane is the fence of the East Coast Main Line through Darlington, the former GNER route. A mural illustrates where the Stockton & Darlington crossed the later mainline on a flat crossing.

Below - Next to the former flat crossing this shed building survives, converted to housing.

The trail takes a detour along the roads to North Road as though it isn't far away there is the surviving railways in the way.

Below - View from Haughton Road bridge over Parkgate Junction. The chord to North Road and the surviving S&D route to Shildon and on to Bishop Auckland can be seen on the left. This was previously a diamond junction. The shed seen earlier can be seen to the right of the mainline and the S&D crossed over from the area covered by the trees to the left between the two routes.

Below - Looking south at the Skerne River from Chestnut Street and remnants of industry along the river can be seen.

Below - The River Skerne is best known for the bridge that carried the S&DR over the river. The bridge still carries the Bishop Auckland branch, making it the oldest railway bridge still in railway use.

Below - Information board at the bridge. (Click to enlarge).

NORTH ROAD DARLINGTON

The Skerne Bridge is next to the car park of Hopetown museum which occupies the 1842 station site, the current railway just being a single platform on the line that passes through the site.

Below - Painting from the information boards above showing the Skerne bridge and the depot that served as the first passenger facility for Darlington on the S&D. Note the painting shows the typical arrangements for trains before 1833 where the coal wagons are hauled by a S&D locomotive while giving way to it is a horse drawn carriage of one of the passenger coach operators.

Below - Site of the original station with some bits of wall remaining.

Below - Sign marking the S&D route seen from the current North Road station to the west.

Below - Northern train arriving in to the single platform after passing through the 1842 station site.

 Though I had visited the Hopetown museum recently, the cafe made a good stop after my walk before getting my train home.

I have previously explored the historic buildings around Hopetown as well as those at Shildon and the Brussleton Incline.

Hopetown, Darlington

A walk in and around the Hopetown museum site in Darlington.

Stockton and Darlington 200 Explores:

Fighting Cocks Loop 

Hopetown (this page)

Shildon

Brusselton Incline and Black Boy branch

Ready for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway the Head of Steam Museum at Darlington North Road station has been revamped as the much bigger Hopetown. Hopetown was the name of the area that had the goods yards and engineering facilities around North Road station. The new museum incorporates a number of historic railway buildings around the site.

The first museum at the site was established in the 1970s when the station was becoming increasingly neglected after the former S&D route was reduced to a branchline to Bishop Auckland. The island platform under the station roof was divided with one part forming the museum building while trains between Darlington and Bishop Auckland pass through the site, calling at the remaining single unstaffed platform. Though North Road is not really disused it does have a page on the Disused Stations website containing a lot of information about the site and the lost routes it served.

1898 Map (top left of map)

Rail Map Online

Below - My Bishop Auckland train stopping at the remaining single platform. A bi-directional goods loop that passed the station site can be seen in the background.

Below - After stopping at the station the train passes under a fenced off span of station roof. The wall separating the museum from the surviving railway can be seen.

Below - A Bishop Auckland train passing through the original station, the museum is seen on the right with a glass wall providing an enclosed building for the exhibits.

Below - Entrance to the Hopetown site is through the former goods shed which now contains a welcome desk, museum shop and cafe.

Below - Map of the Hopetown site (click to enlarge).

Below - The North Road station buildings.

Below - A locomotive built a the nearby Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn works on display in the former platform. The north / west bound plaform was on the left whilst the fenced off platform face on the right was the access to the station buildings so passengers would not alight at this side, the fence is an original feature.

Below - A loco of the North Eastern Railway in to which the Stockton & Darlington was amalgamated.

Below - The original footbridge between the island platform and the station buildings.

Below - Stockton & Darlington locomotive Derwent. For many years this had been on display at Darlington's main railway station, situated on the former Great Northern route through the town.

Below - A Chaldron wagon, a common feature of the coal trains of the area.

Below - The former ticket office.

Below - A display about early railways.

Below - The station's toilet facilities.

Below - Displayed outside a Darlington built BR Class 37. The North Road Locomotive Works was situated to the north of the station site.

Below - The former S&DR carriage works. In recent years this was used to build replica A1 locomotive Tornado, the group that built it have moved to a purpose built works nearby to build P2 class replica Prince of Wales freeing this building up to become part of the museum complex.

Below - Items on display in the former Carriage Works.

Below - Returning to the former station site.

Below - A display of stone sleepers and a piece of miniature railway track from an earlier iteration of the museum.

Below - The bridge over the operational lines to the A1 locomotive trust's new works.

Below - A viewing gallery is provided to see work on P2 replica Prince of Wales and the proposed engines that will follow it.

After looking around the Hopetown site I visited a few other sights around the area. Just east of the museum is the Skerne Bridge that took the Stockton & Darlington Railway over the River Skerne, it still carries the Bishop Auckland branch line. When the S&DR first opened passenger facilities weren't provided but passengers were able to board and alight from trains on the east side of the crossing on the Great North Road, between the current station site and the Skerne Bridge.

Below - The Skerne Bridge.

Below - The bridge from the north side showing how it was later widened to four tracks with a metat span which has since been removed.

I then headed west along Albert Road and Bonomi Way, the latter has been built through the site of the Hopetown Goods Station.

Below - The new A1 Steam Locomotive Trust works.

Below - The new A1 Trust works with the Carriage Works in the background that the A1 trust previously used to construct A1 replica Tornado.

1897 Map

I headed north along Wescoe Road. To the north of Wescoe Road was the North Road Locomotive Works. The North Road Trade Park has been built on the site of the works. The rail entrances to the works crossed Wescoe Road where the road access to the retail park is now and to the south of William Street where a used car dealer is now located. The car dealership has a couple of buildings from the works but I didn't notice at the time.

Below - West of Wescoe Road a surviving building from the locomotive works is now in use with the Darlington Railway Preservation Society and the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Society.

Below - Further north along Wescoe Road is the former Rise Carr Rolling Mill, still partly in use with British Steel.

Below - Former office building on the Rise Carr Rolling Mill.

Below - Turning left on Elmtree Street the retaining wall at the north end of the rolling mill site can be seen and the bridge that carried several tracks of railway over the road but now just carries the single track of the Bishop Auckland branch.

1947 Map

Just off Elmtree Street is a footpath along part of the former North Eastern Railway line to Bernard Castle and onwards to Tebay and Penrith. 

The line had a triangular junction with the line that survives today, the site of the triangular junction is now the Brinkburn Nature Reserve.

Below - Information board from the nature reserve (click to enlarge).

Below - Looking east across the surviving side of the triangular junction is another view of the former Rise Carr Rolling Mill.

Below - The former junction to the north of North Road station, the fence is the boundary with the active railway line.

Below - Looking toward Barnard Castle from the former junction and some sleepers are still in situ.

Below - The wall on the left hand side of the trackbed is likely a remnant of the Whessoe Foundry.

Below - The former Stooperdale Junction on the west side of the triangle.

Below - Looking towards Barnard Castle, on the right is a gatepost at the site of the rail entrance to the Faverdale Wagon Works.

Below - Many of the buildings of the Faverdale Wagon Works survive as the Faverdale Industrial Estate.

The path continues up to where the A1(M) now crosses the former route, though now surrounded on both sides by recent housing development. Beyond the motorway most of the route has been ploughed into adjoining fields. I have previously visited parts of the route around Kirkby Stephen with my Eden Viaducts and Kirkby Stephen to Ravenstonedale walks.

I instead returned to Hopetown.

Below - The Working Mens Club where many of the local railway workers and factory workers would have met. On the right is the underpass taking Otley Terrace under the railway

Below - The Railway Hotel pub, now appartments on the corner of Alliance Street and Otley Terrace (opposite the Working Mens Club).

Below - Another view of the former S&D carriage works from outside the Hopetown museum site.

Below - Transport Trust red plaque on the former carriage work.

Below - South of the carriage works on Hopetown Lane is a former lime drop. Wagons of lime from the quarries across the Pennines would have been unloaded here.

Below - Looking through the wire fence into one of the cells in to which lime would have been dropped from hopper wagons on the track into the building above. Here it would be loaded in to carts, mainly for use in construction work. 

Below - The south end of the building with what looks to be a bricked up entrance that would have allowed wagons to be propelled through the building once unloaded so that a few or more wagons could be handled at once.

From here I returned to North Road station (the little single platform bit that still sees passenger trains) for a train back to Darlington then home.

Further along the S&D I have also visited Shildon where a similar set up sees a museum (Locomotion) surrounded by historic railway infrastructure.