Saviour of the Railway
Timothy Hackworth
Timothy Hackworth was born in 1786 in Wylam and trained as a blacksmith at Wylam colliery. However, following a loan of his services to the Forth Street Works (owned by George Stephenson) Timothy became more involved in the running of the railways, not only in repair and maintenance but also in designing his own locomotives and was hailed by many as the Saviour of the railways.
In 1816 Timothy moved to Walbottle colliery and during his time there he was loaned to George Stephenson's Forth Street works while George Stephenson was on business. Upon his return George Stephenson was so impressed with Hackworth's work, he offered him half of his share of the business. Hackworth however declined the offer and returned to Walbottle.
In 1825 there is evidence to show John Dixon managed to persuade Timothy Hackworth to work on the Stockton-Darlington line, and it is believed Hackworth was the driving force behind the success of the line maintaining and repairing the unreliable locomotives of the period, as the line was facing potential financial ruin. In 1827 Hackworth was involved in designing 3 new locomotives for the line, one of which was the Royal George which was the most powerful locomotive of its day.
The Rainhill Trials were Hackworth's next major venture and he built his own entry ("Sans Pareil") for the competition at his own expense. The aim of the trials was to find a locomotive capable for the new Mancester to Liverpool line. The "Novelty" competed in the trials but due to its hurried construction it suffered various problems (though Hackworth did offer his services in the interest of fair play). George Stephenson's Rocket actually won the trials as Sans pareil was deemed too heavy to compete. However, the judges allowed Sans Pareil to still run the trial and the locomotive ran very well until a cylinder burst. This lead to some ill feeling since the cylinder had been produced by Robert Stephenson and had been manufactured too thin. Sans Pareil was, however, chosen to be the train to run the Liverpool-Manchester line.
After Rainhill, Hackworth returned to his work repairing and maintaining the locomotives on the Stockton-Darlington line, now using his Soho works based in Shildon. He was comissioned to build a passenger train for the proposed extension to the Middlesrbough line in 1830. The Globe was built at George Stephenson's Newcastle works due to lack of space at the Shildon works, and the new design was also implemented in another passenger train - the Planet - built at the same time for use on the Liverpool-Manchester line. 
After working the Stockton-Darlington line for 8 years, Hackworth acquired the overall contract for working the lines and became solely responsible for the locomotives and all consumables required to keep the line running. His Soho works in Shildon produced many trains from 1835 onwards, which ran for many years on the Stockton-Darlington route. He also built locomotives for other countries also including 3 (the Samson, Hercules and John Buddle) for the General Mining Association in Nova Scotia.
In 1840 the business had expanded massively and after 15 years of loyal service, Hackworth retired from the Stockton-Darlington line to concentrate on his works at Shildon. The last locomotive he built was the Sans Pareil (named after his locmotive entry to the Rainhill Trials) completed shortly before his death in 1850.
Submitted by: Vicky Harper, 23 January 2006
