A History of the DRPS

How it began

As our remaining founder member, Barrie Lamb, has previously written about the impetus behind the formation of the Society “The plan to raise steam back at Darlington began around June 1980 during a discussion between myself and Mr Barry Cox, also a member of the Friends of the Museum.. A chance remark made us realise that one of the few places that had not taken the opportunity to preserve steam was Darlington. Within a couple of weeks, the two of us had conducted a feasibility study, and attracted firm support from the (then) North Road Museum Friends Society, and from a large number of enthusiasts.”

Around this time the Darlington-built, locomotive "JOEM" (the engine featured in the film The Railway Children) was on the market so an approach was made to the owner for details.. By October 1980 a group of enthusiasts had collated all the relevant information, talked to the owner of JOEM and on November 20th decided to hold a public meeting, with the idea of forming a Preservation Society, A Steering Committee was elected with the purchase of JOEM as its immediate objective, but a closing date of 15 December 31st, fixed by JOEM's owner, proved to be a major stumbling block. With other difficulties arising, the Society called a meeting at which they formally withdrew from negotiations: At this meeting the sixty members present were made aware by Mr Geoff Jackson that a BR Standard 2MT locomotive, No. 78018, was for sale at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. Details were quickly obtained, and to make sure the Society did not fail to acquire the locomotive, fundraising strategies were proposed and the holding committee decided to move forward with the formation of the DRPS itself.

Bagging the 78018

The sequence of events leading up to the eventual purchase were nail-biting: the Society pulled out all the stops to raise the asking price of £10,000 (plus £2000 freighting costs) including raffles, donation drives and the printing of 500 commemorative first-day covers - signed by the designer of the Standard itself MR RA Riddles - and, with only days to go, pulled in the last £300.

As an aside, and for those who have seen and enjoyed the video, our Standard is the very one dug out by a team of rescuers in snow ploughs in the BFT film ‘Snowdrift at Bleath Gill’.(link to video on Youtube at end).

The loco finally arrived to a triumphant homecoming on Friday July 3rd 1981 and was presented to the Darlington public by DRPS members and the Mayor at a special showing at the town’s Market Place before being hauled off to the Henry Wynn Williams Yard (locally famous railway artefact manufacturers) where it stayed for three years while being dismantled and prepped for restoration.

The Peckett Arrives

In December 1983, the Society were approached by an enthusiast who’d discovered the existence of a locomotive on the verge of being scrapped on Tyneside; a Peckett 0-4-0st Special Class W7 built in 1953 by Peckett and Sons of Bristol. On contacting the owners we were told “you can have her but but you’ve got until Monday morning to get her out!”. After pulling together a salvage team at short notice and after an eight hour scramble to pull the engine from the edge of the Tyne riverbank, it was freighted back to Darlington where it joined the 78018 Standard in the Henry Wynn Williams Yard. Now we had even more restoration work on our hands so it was a blow to be informed that we would have to vacate the yard due to the owners landing a huge contract. Amazingly, and just in the nick of time, we discovered the North Road Goods Shed was available to lease and we were able to relocate there in early 1984.

So now, with this new location as our base we could finally begin to raise steam. A project funded by the then Manpower Services Committee began in 1987 that paid for young unemployed people to work on loco restoration and help out with laying track and infrastructure in the yard. Public events like the Thomas Tank Engine days, recreations of the Railway Carnivals (a great Darlington institution from the years before WW2) and Santa Claus rides at Christmas helped to raise the profile of the Society. Between 1987 and 2007 we ran steam events per year on every last weekend of the month and bank holidays .

Over the following years we added to our vehicle collection with a No. 39 0-6-0 tank locomotive, built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn in 1938, a “185-David Payne” Fowler 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical shunter built in 1950, a "Derwent 2" 0-4-0 Ruston+Hornsby Diesel Electric loco built in 1949 and several smaller vehicles such a GEC 4 wheel Electric, built in 1928 a couple of 0-4-0 diesel shunters (Ruston & Drury), and two Wickham trolleys.

We also assembled a formidable array of genuine Made-in-Darlington railway artefacts from signalling equipment, telephones, lanterns and a whole host of other interesting items that showcase the town’s long involvement with the railways.

Add in a section about the move to Whessoe Road

A CTA of some description