At a meeting at Stockton Town House on 18th September 1810 the Recorder of Stockton, Leonard Raisbeck, proposed a motion to 'inquire into the practicability and advantage of a railway or canal from Stockton, by Darlington and Winston, for the more easy and expeditious carriage of coals, lead, etc.' The newly improved port of Stockton would thus be able to export coal to the London market, and it was forty miles further south than Newcastle.
In 1812 the famous engineer, John Rennie, favoured a canal. The costs proved prohibitive and the idea was left until 1818, when it was again raised and a new route proposed. This route avoided both Stockton and Darlington. A Welsh engineer, George Overton, was consulted. His opinion was that the best option was to build a tram road. A Bill was passed by Parliament in 1819, which led to the Act of 1821 for 'the making of a railway from Witton Park Colliery to Darlington and Stockton with a branch leading off to Yarm'.
On 23rd May 1822 Thomas Meynell, the Chairman of the Stockton and Darlington Committee, laid the first rails at St. John's Well in Stockton. The rails were 4'8" apart, the same gauge used by George Stephenson at Killingworth Colliery. Exactly one year later, a Bill authorising the use of locomotives on the track was given Royal Assent.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27th September 1825, when Locomotion and it's train ran from Witton Park Colliery to Stockton. In 1830 the Middlesbrough branch opened, including the world's first railway suspension bridge at Stockton. It transformed Middlesbrough from a village to a major industrial centre, replacing Stockton as the main port on the Tees.
In 1828 the Clarence Railway opened to provide a shorter route to the Tees from the coal field. It ran from a junction with Stockton and Darlington Railway (S & DR) at Heighington to Port Clarence (then called Samphire Batts), with a branch through Norton to Stockton North Shore. Although eight miles shorter than the S & DR, it was unprofitable because the company had to pay line rental to the S & DR.
The Stockton and Hartlepool Railway opened in 1841 to take coal to Hartlepool docks. It used the Clarence Railway line from Norton and then branched off at Billingham to Hartlepool. In 1844 it took over the Clarence Railway, and was itself taken over in 1853 by the West Hartlepool and Harbour Company. It became part of the North Eastern Railway in 1865.
In 1854, the North Eastern Railway was formed from the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, the York and Midland Railway, and the Leeds Northern Railway. By 1865, the NER was the largest company in Britain and it controlled the railways around Stockton.
On 13th February 1863, the Stockton and Darlington Railway ceased to exist in it's own right, having amalgamated with the NER. Nevertheless, it's 50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries were celebrated with due pomp and ceremony.
