Shildon Works

About

Shildon Works was a small but historically pivotal railway works at Shildon in County Durham, founded in 1825 to maintain the locomotives of the new Stockton & Darlington Railway. Timothy Hackworth was the S&DR's first Locomotive Superintendent and was based at Shildon from 1825 to 1840, where he produced his celebrated Royal George 0-6-0 (1827) and Sans Pareil (1829).

Hackworth from 1833 combined his S&DR duties with proprietorship of the independent Soho Works, also at Shildon, which built locomotives for British and overseas customers, including the first locomotive in Russia (1837). The Shildon and Soho works became closely intertwined commercially.

Under the NER and LNER, Shildon was a wagon works rather than a locomotive works. From 1939 to 1948 it was a major Royal Ordnance Factory. Under BR it was the principal British wagon works, building large numbers of merry-go-round coal hoppers and other freight stock until closure on 29 June 1984. The Hackworth-era buildings are now Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon.

Locomotives built here

Samson — An 1831 0-4-0 built for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, part of the second generation of S&DR coal locomotives. Distinct from the earlier Stephenson Samson of 1830 (which was a 0-6-0 prototype).
Sans Pareil — Timothy Hackworth's 1829 locomotive, the most powerful engine to compete in the Rainhill Trials of October 1829, but defeated by Rocket through inferior steaming and high coal consumption. Sans Pareil was Hackworth's bid to win the Liverpool & Manchester Railway's motive-power contract on the basis of raw power. The engine completed parts of the trials successfully but was less efficient than Rocket. Following Rainhill, Sans Pareil was sold to the Bolton & Leigh Railway, where it worked until approximately 1844. The engine survives in modified form and is currently displayed at the National Railway Museum, Shildon.
Sanspareil II — An 1837 Timothy Hackworth 0-6-0 successor to his unsuccessful Rainhill entrant of 1829, built for the Stockton & Darlington Railway and reflecting Hackworth's continuing commitment to vertical-cylinder, return-flue boiler locomotive design even as the rest of British practice followed the Stephensons towards horizontal cylinders and multitubular boilers.
Stanhope — An 1837 Timothy Hackworth 0-4-0 built for the South Hetton Colliery Railway in County Durham. A typical Hackworth colliery engine of the period, working coal traffic on the colliery's private railway.

Location	Shildon, County Durham
Founded	1 January 1825
Closed	29 June 1984
Parent railway company	Stockton & Darlington Railway