Find out about what has been happening since 2014 about preparing for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025. This video (just under 10 minutes) will be updated regularly to include new developments as they happen – so watch this space!
Category: From the Chair
Posts and news from Trish Pemberton, chair of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway

People of the S&DR: John Dixon
John Dixon 1796 – 1865 John came from a very famous family – the Dixons of Cockfield in County Durham. A key early (1830) branch line of the S&DR runs below the Fell – the Haggerleases branch line – and the later ‘High line’ linking Bishop Auckland to Barnard Castle runs over the fell itself. […]

Links for History and Heritage Festival 23rd October – 1st November 2020
The content for this Festival will be spread between this web page (click on the ‘About tab’, or scroll through the News items), our Facebook page, or our YouTube channel . Happy hunting!

Taking the S&DR to the World: 27th-31st October 2019
Sunday 27th – Tuesday 29th October 2019 Our journey home was smooth and uneventful – good to be home again after nearly four weeks away. Thursday 31st October 2019 Finished off the blog today and attended my first S&DR meeting. Also, received three interesting contacts by email: Through the S&DR web site – someone wanting […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: October 26th 2019
What an amazing day, for all sorts of reasons. Tom had suggested to me beforehand that this was the best opportunity to meet the board as they would all be in the same place at one time and not be distracted by all the responsibilities of running a conference. I have to say their Parlor […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: October 25th 2019
I didn’t expect this but Carlos had arranged to introduce me to the conference and give me the time to explain to the membership who I was and why I was there. I was able to tell them about the Rail Heritage Board and who the members are and what we are working towards as […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: October 24th 2019
I was delighted to find when I arrived to listen to Carlos’ lecture on: ‘The Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension, 1905 – 1925: How a Good Idea Went Wrong’ that I was not just learning about the history of a railroad – I was also learning about how in the USA they are also using old […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: October 23rd 2019
John and I moved from our wonderful Air B&B today to the Lexington Group Hotel (the Downtown Hilton) so that we could begin our conversations with them. They like to use historic hotels whenever possible but need quite a lot of space as they tend to get around 180 delegates attending – together with partners. […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: 23rd October 2019
Had a ‘tourist’ day in Santa Fe but couldn’t get away from railways. In the New Mexico History Museum they include the story of the coming of the railways and their impact. There is an exhibition on employment on the railways and another on a revered local businessman (from England) who built a chain of […]

Taking the S&DR to the World: 21st & 22nd October 2019
Sunday 21st October 2019 We went food shopping at Finlay Market and had a Japanese meal cooked by our friend Steve and then went out for desert – a favourite American pastime. The ice cream was Italian and wonderful. No railways at all – except we saw the views over the city down to the […]