It may not look like it helped change the world but the 200-year-old Gaunless Bridge did just that, its supporters say, and its name deserves to be shouted from the rafters.
Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon in County Durham, is preparing to welcome home what is the world’s oldest surviving iron railway bridge.
Designed in 1823 by the railway pioneer George Stephenson, the Gaunless is arguably one of the least well known great bridges of the world and should be so much better known and inspiring the engineers of tomorrow, curators say.
“It is such an iconic piece of architecture,” said Sarah Price, the head of Locomotion. “It is an amazing object so we want to give it a really prominent position in the museum.
“People round here are so delighted that it’s coming back, there is a real pride.”
Anthony Coulls, the senior curator, said when people thought about railways, they thought about the engines. “But without tracks and civil engineering structures you haven’t got a railway.”
The Gaunless was part of the Stockton and Darlington railway, the first public railway in the world to use steam locomotives. Located on a branch line at West Auckland, the Gaunless carried horse-drawn coal wagons.
The innovation in the Gaunless’s design was genius, said Coulls, and it holds a pivotal place in the history of bridge building.
“It is a remarkably simple design but it is a very successful design,” he said. “If you talk to civil engineers … the significance of the lenticular truss is right up there.
“They are really important because they enable you to make sectional spans of bridge. Previously you were governed by how long a piece of iron you could cast, or how long a piece of timber you could fettle and fabricate from a tree.”
One aim of the Shildon museum was to “use the stories of the past to inspire and engage with the engineers of the future” and the Gaunless did just that, said Coulls. “These aren’t just things, they are solutions to problems.”
The bridge was dismantled and replaced by a steel bridge in 1901 when it was no longer able to take the weight of increasingly heavy coal wagons.
It was kept by the railway company and re-erected in the first York railway museum in 1927. When the National Railway Museum in York opened in the 1970s, the Gaunless was a centrepiece of the then entrance and car park and remained there until earlier this year.
The bridge has been undergoing major conservation work in West Yorkshire, where it was discovered that the original bridge, later repeatedly painted black, was actually green.
Later this year the green Gaunless will return to County Durham to take pride of place between the existing Locomotion museum building and a new £8m building, which will be home to more than 50 rail vehicles from the national collection.
The New Hall, currently a building site, is due to open next year and will be transformative for Locomotion, said Price.
It will be home to the largest undercover collection of heritage rail vehicles in the world and will help boost the museum’s profile. The National Railway Museum is known for being in York, but fewer people know that it is also in Shildon.
“One museum, two sites,” said Price. “Shildon is the last place in the country where you would expect to find a national museum.”
But it makes perfect sense to be there, she said.
“We call it the world’s first railway town. It’s only 200 yards away that Locomotion number one set off on 27 September and it basically changed the world. This is where it all started … this is where it begins.”
The return of Gaunless and opening of New Hall is taking place before the 2025 bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington railway, which will be marked by a national programme of events.
Price said Locomotion would be heavily involved. “In 1825 the world came to Shildon to see the future and in 2025 we want to do the same.
“I want people to come to Shildon and look at how far we’ve come, but actually look at how much further we’ve got to go.”
