Locomotion New Hall, National Railway Museum
Shildon, County Durham, 2020-24


A new collections building on a brownfield site in north-east England, creating new opportunities for the public to engage with the national collection of railway vehicles.

Locomotion is part of the National Railway Museum and a partnership between the Science Museum Group and Durham County Council. The museum site is over 1km long and includes a length of the world's first public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and the buildings associated with rail engineer and innovator Timothy Hackworth.

The new building celebrates the region’s globally important role as the birthplace of the railways. Doubling the covered display space on site and providing free access to visitors, it creates Europe's largest covered rail vehicle display.

The project forms part of Vision 2025, a series of regeneration projects planned in the run up to the historically significant bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives.

The sustainable open store will create new opportunities for visitors to engage with the museum’s collection and be an inviting presence that emphasises Locomotion’s pivotal role as a cultural cornerstone for the community.

International design competition. First Prize. Opening 2024.

Client
National Railway Museum & Science Museum Group

Location
Locomotion, Shildon DL4 2RE

Landscape Architects
J & L Gibbons

Landscape Masterplanners
Kinnear Landscape Architects

Structure & Service engineers
Buro Happold

Quantity Surveyor
Arcadis

Project Manager
Faithful + Gould