FASCINATING new research has revealed this week that the 175-year-old coal drops at Shildon are the earliest attempt anywhere in the world* to introduce a mechanical solution to the time-consuming and labour-intensive process of a loading fuel into a steam engine.

And unfortunate railway driver Thomas Hutchinson, who literally lost his head on the drops, has an important part to play in their development.

The Northern Echo: COAL DROPS, Shildon. The coal drops were where steam locomotives were refueled. You had wagons full of coal on top, steam locomotives beneath, and gravity doing all the hard work.

The coal drops today

Before the drops were invented, cokemen shovelled coal from lineside bunkers into the tenders behind the engine.

Research led by Marcus Jecock, of Historic England, and reported in The Northern Echo on Wednesday, shows that the drops, which are now in the grounds of the Locomotion museum, were in use by 1847, having been built by John Graham, the traffic manager of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

Shildon was the collecting point for all the coal mined in south Durham. From its massive marshalling yard – the largest in the world – the coal was hauled by steam locomotives to market or to the staiths at Middlesbrough for export.

The coal that powered the locomotives was mined in the Black Boy colliery. It was put into wagons and rolled down the Black Boy Incline to Shildon station. The momentum from the roll-down was then carefully controlled by the brakemen and used to roll the wagons up to the top of the new drops.

Hopefully, were stopped before they crashed off the end.

The Northern Echo: LNER J21 Class locomotive No 99 refuelling at the drops on June 4, 1932. The chute from the hopper can be seen delivering the coal into the tender of the loco beneath the drops. Picture from the Ken Hoole Collection at Darlington’s Head of Steam

A hopper dropping coal from the coal drops into the tender of LNER J21 Class locomotive No 99 on June 4, 1932. Picture: Ken Hoole Collection/Head of Steam 

The drops, with their 49 stone arches, have always looked intriguing, but the research, for the Heritage Action Zone, has now finally explained exactly how they worked.

The Black Boy wagons were bottom-openers. When they came to rest at the top of the drops, the coal fell out of them into wooden hoppers beneath the rails.

The hoppers had chutes, or spouts, which enabled the coal to be dropped into the tender of the loco below.

So a back-breaking job that would have taken several men some time was done in the blink of an eye by gravity.

“Our research has also suggested the drops probably represent the first attempt, in Britain – and given Britain’s primacy in the development of railways, possibly the world – to mechanise the process of re-fuelling steam locomotives,” said Mr Jecock.

The Northern Echo: Reconstruction drawing of the hopper/chute mechanism, based on historic photographs, by Allan Adams of Historic England

Reconstruction drawing of the hopper/chute mechanism, based on historic photographs, by Allan Adams © Historic England

Early in December 1884, driver Hutchinson, who was 6ft tall, coaled up his loco and then moved it along the “coaling road” – the loop of line that served the drops – to fetch his wagons in the marshalling yard.

Tragically, as he passed beneath one of the spouts, it ripped the top of his head off, killing him instantly.

The report of his inquest in The Northern Echo is the only documentary evidence that the researchers found of the coal drops in operation.

The report concluded: “The jury returned a verdict of ‘Accidental Death’, with a recommendation “that the spouts should be altered and made moveable, as the jury considered them dangerous in their present state”.”

The Northern Echo: LNER Sentinel railcar coaling at the drops sometime between 1932and 1935. Picture from the Ken Hoole Collection at Darlington's Head of Steam museum

LNER Sentinel railcar coaling at the drops between 1932 and 1935. Picture: Ken Hoole Collection/Head of Steam

Mr Hutchinson’s death forced the drops to be modified – it looks as if the chutes were made retractable and raised by 18 inches so that no six-footer could again come into fatal contact with them.

This seems to have been one of the major modifications to the drops although, such was their pioneering nature, that they would have been improved almost continuously until July 8, 1935, when they stopped working – the day the marshalling yards closed as most of the south Durham pits were worked out.

“We already knew the drops were early and therefore significant - not just to the history of the S&DR, the world’s first steam-hauled public railway, but also to the history of the railways in general,” said Mr Jecock. “However, our new research has highlighted exactly how significant they were.”

* probably – bitter experience tells us that claims about worldwide railway firsts should always be treated with caution.

The Northern Echo: COAL DROPS: This picture of the Stockton and Darlington Railway's famous coal drops was taken in 1925, when the drops were still operational although it looks as if they needed a lot of support to hold them up. The drops are now part of the railway

The Shildon coal drops in 1925

The Northern Echo: COAL DROPS, Shildon. The coal drops were where steam locomotives were refueled. You had wagons full of coal on top, steam locomotives beneath, and gravity doing all the hard work.

The coal drops at Shildon