Stockton and Darlington Railway

The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) is a railway company that operates in north-east England from 1825 to 1863.

The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connects collieries near Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington, and is officially opened on September 27, 1825.

The movement of coal to ships rapidly becomes a lucrative business, and the line is soon extended to a new port and town at Middlesbrough.

While coal wagons are hauled by steam locomotives from the start, passengers are carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives are introduced in 1833.

The S&DR is involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington, but its main expansion is at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale and east to Redcar.

It suffers severe financial difficulties at the end of the 1840s and is nearly taken over by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, before the discovery of iron ore in Cleveland and the subsequent increase in revenue means it can pay its debts.

At the beginning of the 1860s it takes over railways that had crossed the Pennines to join the West Coast Main Line at Tebay and Clifton, near Penrith.

The company is taken over by the North Eastern Railway in 1863, transferring two hundred route miles (three hundred and twenty route kilometers) of line and about one hundred and sixty locomotives, but continues to operate independently as the Darlington Section until 1876.

The opening of the S&DR is seen as proof of the effectiveness of steam railways and its anniversary will be celebrated in 1875, 1925 and 1975.

Much of the original route is today served by the Tees Valley Line, operated by Northern.

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