Write on Track

Write on Track is a local creative writing project directly linked to the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It is supported by the S&DR Community Grants Scheme, Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership and Creative Darlington.

Local writers and performers led sessions all with a different focus on creating a short story, poem or piece of memoir. People took the opportunity to visit and write in various venues along the original twenty six mile route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway – Hopetown Darlington, Locomotion Shildon, Preston Park, Stockton Library and Darlington Local Studies Centre. And, thanks to the Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership and Northern, groups wrote while travelling on actual trains and at station platforms.

Write on Track also talked to local people in Music and Memories sessions at Darlington Central and Cockerton libraries and at Age UK Darlington’s daycare centre. They’ve shared their railway memories which have been developed into a poetry sequence.

All of this built up to a creative writing competition which was free to enter and open to everyone living in the postcodes along the original S&DR route. We had a fantastic response.

Watch out for more about where you can read or listen to these brilliant memoirs, short stories and poems, all linked in some way to trains and railways. And look out for selected snippets along your journey on the Bishop Line.

group of people outside Hopetown Darlington

Celebrating the project at a special event at Hopetown on Friday 11th July – Event introduction by Ann and Pam.

Ann Cuthbert and Pam Plumb run the Darlington based open mic for writers, Stop Write Hear, held first Thursday of every month at Friends’ Meeting House Skinnergate Darlington. So they know there are many talented writers in the local area. Wouldn’t it be a good idea, they thought, to run a writing competition linked to the 1825-2025 Bicentenary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway? They also wanted to encourage people who might not see themselves as writers but who would have stories to tell and memories to recall about trains, tracks and railway journeys. So they extended the idea to include a few creative writing workshops aimed at building up confidence and skills.

‘We had no idea then that this would develop into the wide-ranging project it became,’ say Ann and Pam.

‘We put our proposals to Stephen Wiper of Creative Darlington and he arranged for us to meet others involved in the S&DR bicentenary celebrations. Along the way, the project gained the name Write on Track and was granted generous funding thanks to the S & DR Community Grants Scheme, Bishop Line Community Fund and Creative Darlington. And it developed into – well, let’s just say, not the small local competition we’d originally envisaged! And, of course, we would have been lost in transit without Darlington music collective Tracks who have given us such amazing project management support.’

In fact, in the end, there were twelve free workshops, with experts leading on writing poetry, memoir, short story and performance and presentation skills. Inspiring railway venues along the S&DR track – Hopetown, Preston Park Museum and Gardens, Locomotion Shildon as well as Darlington Centre for Local Studies and Stockton Library – all offered their spaces where these workshops ran. And, thanks to the Bishop Line Community Partnership, two groups of people wrote while at station platforms or actually travelling on trains.

The competition was also free to enter and submissions came in from all points along the original 26 mile stretch of S&DR line. Judges had a hard time deciding the winners, so much so that it stretched to include Special Mentions – ‘Well, you can’t have enough of good writing,’ say Pam and Ann – as well as First, Second, Third and Highly Commended in three categories – Short Story, Memoir and Poetry.

The winners in the Short Story category are:

1^st Michael Walker – Ethel and the Great Iron Horse

2^nd Bob Fischer – The Eternal Hereafter via Thornaby Station

3^rd Jonny Aldridge – An Assignment

Highly Commended Eric Foster – Gandhi, Lancastrian and Me

Highly Commended Elizabeth Ottosson – Redemption Train

Special Mentions Jo Clark, Quinn Cole, Graeme Roach, J. Church and Mike Watson

In the Poetry category:

1^st Leiomri Mallett – Delayed on Platform 3

2^nd Stephanie Wallace – The Backside of A Town

3^rd William Ross – Body on the Line

Highly Commended Julie Ashmore – Pease’s Soliloquy

Highly Commended Caroline Hardie-Hammond – Women of the Railway

Special Mentions Jonny Aldridge, Catherine Edmunds, Marilyn Longstaff, Hilary Smith, Alan Stowers

In the Memoir category:

1^st Jane Scott – Wave Me Off

2^nd Michael Jarvie – The Class 43

3^rd Alan Theakston – Fishing in the Big Freeze

Highly Commended Lynn Lettice – A Shildon Lass

Highly Commended Glenda Miller – My Solo Teenage Train Journey

Special Mentions Susan Chapman, Marianne Tracey

July 11^th 2025 saw a very enjoyable Celebration event at Hopetown Darlington, where prizes were presented and some of the winning writers read from their work.

But it’s not actually over yet. The plan is that all of the writing submitted will eventually be shared publicly in one format or another.

These include three further reading events taking place in different parts of the S&DR region in August, September and October, all celebrating creative writing around Bicentenary themes.

An anthology of the winning entries is already available on BorrowBox thanks to Darlington Libraries.

Recordings of writers reading their own work are scheduled for August.

A paper anthology, ‘packed with local writers doing what they do best – conjuring up pictures in our minds, creating the sights, sounds and smells that help us remember our own railway experiences across the years,’ is also now available.

And, thanks to BLCP and their specially commissioned display boards, passengers at stations along the Bishop Line will be able to read selected snippets of writing from all the entrants in the Write on Track competition.

It’s been a brilliant journey!