''Derwent'' is an

0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

built in 1845 by

William and Alfred Kitching Whessoe is a company based in Darlington and on Teesside in North East England. It was formerly a supplier of chemical, oil and nuclear plant and instrumentation, and today is a manufacturer of low temperature storage. History Kitchings and ...

for the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near with ...

(S&DR). It is preserved at

Darlington Railway Centre and Museum Hopetown Darlington, previously known as Head of Steam and formerly known as the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum, is a railway museum located on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which was the world's first steam-powere ...

, now known as ''Head of Steam''.

Design

''Derwent'' was designed by

Timothy Hackworth Timothy Hackworth (22 December 1786 – 7 July 1850) was an English steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Youth and early work ...

and built by W. & A. Kitching in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

, England in 1845. It is similar in design to two of their 1842 locomotives, ''Leader'' and ''Trader'', with outside cylinders fixed at the trailing end of the boiler and four-foot diameter, six-wheeled coupled wheels. Withdrawn from service in 1869, it was sold to Pease & Partners for use on their colliery lines and spent some time at the construction of the Waskerley Reservoir in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

. It took part in the Stephenson Centenary celebrations at Newcastle in 1881 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 1887.

Preservation

''Derwent'' was presented to the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1898 for preservation. After restoration the locomotive ran under its own steam in the 1925 Railway Centenary procession, and on trials the day before the procession it achieved a speed of . After that it was on display alongside ''

Locomotion No. 1 ''Locomotion'' No. 1 (originally named ''Active'') is an early steam locomotive that was built in 1825 by the pioneering railway engineers George and Robert Stephenson at their manufacturing firm, Robert Stephenson and Company. It became ...

'' for many years on a plinth on one of the platforms at Darlington's main station, Bank Top. In the 1960s, it was removed and restored in near original condition, and then moved to the

in the 1970s, located in the same building as Darlington's

North Road railway station North Road is a railway station on the Tees Valley line, Tees Valley Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated north-west of Darlington, serves the market town of Darlington in County Durham, England. It is owned by Network Ra ...

, where it remains on display on long-term loan from the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York, England, forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historical ...

. It is now part of the National Collection.

References

External links

Darlington Railway Centre and Museum website

Photo (1975) of locomotive ''Derwent'' on display at Darlington main station
Locomotives of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 0-6-0 locomotives Preserved steam locomotives of Great Britain Timothy Hackworth Individual locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1845 {{England-steam-loco-stub