In April, Niall Hammond, Chair of the Friends of Stockton and Darlington Railway (FSDR), and a board member of the S&DR200 festival was invited to China to see the amazing parallels between the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) and the Tangxu Line, China’s first steam railway. Niall was accompanied on the visit by Caroline Hardie, a fellow trustee of the FSDR charity, and published author on the S&DR.

2025, as everyone knows or should know, is the 200^th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the acknowledged birthplace of the modern railway which changed the face of the world in the 19^th century. It is also the 144^th anniversary of the Tangxu Line, China’s first.

The Tangxu Line is located close to the city of Tangshan in Hebei Province, Northern China. In the same way that S&DR was built to move coal from the County Durham coalmines near Shildon to the quayside at Stockton-on-Tees, from where it would be shipped to its main market in London, the Tangxu Line was built to bring coal from mines around Tangshan, now a major industrial city of seven million people but then just a collection of ten houses, to the nearest waterway at Xugeszhaung to feed the cities of Beijing and Tianjin.

The S&DR was championed by George Stephenson and Edward Pease against opposition that preferred a horse-drawn system over the steam railway, and in the same way Tangxu was the brainchild of Claude William Kinder (1852-1936), an Irishman. The Chinese were resistant to the idea of the new steam railway as they believed that a locomotive, with its steam, smoke and noise, would disturb the spirits. Dowager Empress Cixi, effectively the power behind the Chinese throne, was also concerned that steam locomotives would disturb the feng shui of her ancestors in the nearby Ming Tombs.

So the Kaiping Mining Bureau, who were financing the railway, asked Kinder to build a locomotive in secret and meanwhile kept up the pretence that the new railway would be horse-drawn. Kinder, an engineer by background, built China’s first steam locomotive, the ‘Rocket of China’ from an old boiler and other cannibalised parts. The locomotive was numbered ‘No.1’ and was embellished with dragons by its Chinese workforce. The new railway was immediately successful and Kinder bought his next two locomotives (‘No.2’ and ‘No.3’) from George Stephenson’s own company, Robert Stephenson & C^o. in Newcastle, neatly completing a circular story.

Back to 1825 and Stockton-on-Tees was soon not able to meet demand for exported coal and the S&DR was extended to a new port at Middlesbrough, then just a few houses on the banks of the Tees. Similarly, by 1886, five years after opening, the Tangxu Line waterway at Xugeszhuang had also proved inadequate and the line was extended to a new port at Lutai. In 1893 Kinder while surveying a further railway extension popularised Beidaihe south of Qinhuangdao and its beaches as a summer resort again in a similar initiative to Henry Pease of the S&DR who developed Saltburn as a seaside resort in the 1860s. Caroline and Niall during their visit were shown a commemorative statue to Kinder at Beidaihe.

How does it all look today? The Tangxu Line is now an integral, albeit small, part of China’s high-speed railway network and Kinder’s original locomotive works has been massively extended and now builds its high speed ‘bullet’ trains which still run on the 4 foot 8 ½ inch ‘standard gauge pioneered by George Stephenson 200 years ago. Tangshan is still a coal mining area and its heritage is celebrated at the Kailuan Mining Park which also houses the China Origin Railway Museum, very similar to the Hopetown Museum in Darlington. Kinder is widely celebrated as ‘the father of Chinese railways’ and his European-style villa, once threatened with demolition, has been moved and reconstructed as a museum close to the city centre.

The Hebei UNESCO Association, the organisation that extended the invitation to Niall and Caroline, are now planning a reciprocal visit to the S&DR in September for officials from Tangshan city and its museums. It is hoped that this visit will not only create a greater understanding of a shared railway heritage, but also will highlight the synergies between Tangshan and Darlington, the Tees Valley and County Durham which could be developed further.

Niall Hammond commented,

‘The impact of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on worldwide communication, travel and trade was profound in the 19^th century. Modern high-speed rail in China is continuing to demonstrate the benefits of railways, all of which started here in North East England 200 years ago. We are exceptionally grateful to Hebei province for their hospitality and look forward to continued links and friendship as we would hope to have with others round the world as part of our shared railway heritage.’

Links

Friends of Stockton and Darlington Railway www.sdr1825.org.uk
SDR200 Festival www.sdr200.co.uk
Railway 200  www.railway200.co.uk

Story provided by the Hebei Provincial Association for UNESCO.