CONGRATULATIONS to Shildon. Today it will get confirmation of its £4.9m grant from the National Lottery towards its new railway museum.
The museum will be a tourist attraction. It will bring money to the town. It will tidy up an unsightly area of wasteland. It will remind local people of why they live in Shildon - a majority of its residents' ancestors came to the town to work in rail-related industries.
It will also give impetus to other schemes, like the Weardale Railway, which will bring more people, more money and more fun to the area.
It is very easy to dismiss railway museums as being places for boring anoraks, but just look at the hundreds of people pressing every weekend into the steam trains of the North York Moors, spending money in the local pubs, tea rooms and shops.
Why shouldn't Shildon, "the cradle of the railways", have a share of that success?
There are still concerns that the new Shildon museum will house merely the cast-offs of the National Railway Museum (NRM) at York. However, this museum will grow into a proper role and become part of the "Shildon experience" which will include the existing - and excellent - Timothy Hackworth Museum and the other town centre artefacts that Shildon has recently spent money on.
It will also become part of the "North-East experience" including places like Tanfield Lea, the marvellous Beamish and the nostalgic North York Moors Railway. With the NRM at York, there will be real reason for visitors to stay awhile in the region - and spend their money.
But one name is sadly missing from the list. It is Darlington, "the birthplace of the railways". It has its railway museum where staff struggle valiantly against a lack of resources.
After the embarrassing failure of Darlington's attempts to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, it belatedly woke up to the potential of the greatest asset that history had left it. It suddenly realised that it was sitting on something so grand it could become a World Heritage Site.
Last January, it began seeking £3.5m of Lottery money. But now that bid is to be withdrawn and re-submitted. Next January will come, and Darlington will still be lagging behind Shildon.
Shildon's success is a source of disappointment to Darlington when it thinks about what it is missing.
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