Hopetown Carriage Works

Hopetown Carriage Works is the maintenance workshop of the oldest railway company in the world ( Stockton and Darlington Railway ) and was built in 1853 by Joseph Sparkes in Darlington (Durham ).

The first floor of the tower of the building was probably used as a workshop for casting models, and as a sign of office. In the hall, railway wagons were built for the railway company and maintenance work carried out. The building belongs to the first generation of maintenance workshops of the railway age. It is situated on a triangular plot of land that lies between the opened on September 27, 1825 haul the Stockton and Darlington Railway and opened on the same day turn into a coal store. The age of the building is unusual for a building of this type of railway companies.

The two-storey building was built of sandstone with a veneer of brick. It has a Welsh slate roof with two bay windows in the middle section. There is a major port in Venetian style with stepped voussoirs. This is bricked today. It formerly served as entrance and exit for railway vehicles. These were filmed inside the building on a turntable to exit. Each is a smaller door on each side of the main gate. The building is currently in a need of renovation. Its importance in the development of the construction of railway operating buildings and its rarity as preserved example of a repair work from this early epoch making it the municipality of Darlington (Durham ), according to a monument worthy of preservation. It is an important part of the entire ensemble of the first modern railway company in the world, the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

The first locomotive commercially used " Locomotion No. 1 " was issued in a repair shop for locomotives of Alfred Kitching on the same site from 1857 to the 1880s. The building is known for the office of the last chief designer Arthur Peppercorn the London and North Eastern Railway, which was located there from 1946.

The southern end of the building is now used by the club A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, where a steam locomotive of LNER Class A1 Peppercorn historical model, the " 60163 Tornado" was built. The " 60163 Tornado" was completed in 2008. The vehicle moved on 31 July 2008 for the first time under its own power. The other half of the building is used by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group ( NELPG ) for general inspections of their portfolio of museum locomotives.