HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds have been ear-marked for a project that will place Shildon on the national tourist map.

Plans to build a satellite of the National Railway Museum in the town are gathering steam.

Already £4.75m of National Lottery money has been agreed in principal and this Thursday Sedgefield Borough councillors will decide whether to pour an additional £100,000 of council money into building the centre.

If the project gets off the ground the National Railway Museum's reserve collection of up to 70 vehicles, from coal trucks to royal carriages, will be permanently stored in an impressive building in the town.

The building itself would be classed as an 'architectural landmark building,' with a glass front and large, glazed sliding doors.

In addition, the £7.5m project will involve creating a visitor centre in the former Sunday school building and improving the goods shed where the Merlin steam engine is currently housed.

The existing Timothy Hackworth Museum will also be incorporated into the 15-acre site.

The potential tourist magnet would build on Shildon's already impressive railway links.

The town was the home of one of railway's founding fathers Timothy Hackworth, who died just over 150 years ago and once had a proud tradition of carriage manufacturing.

It is anticipated that the museum will attract more than 40,000 visitors a year, boosting the tourism trade elsewhere in the North-East.

A bid has already been submitted for the second phase of Heritage Lottery Fund, for which £150,000 of the Lottery grant was released, and plans for immediate work on the project will be submitted to the council before the end of the month.

Norman Vaulks, chief executive of Sedgefield Borough Council, said if the project comes together the museum would be ready in 2004. He said: "It's a feather in our cap. Shildon isn't a big place, but it's a big museum."

Mr Vaulks said the wagons which would be exhibited in the museum will come from across the country to be put on show for the first time. In addition old rail stock could be renovated on the site once it is up and running.

* Darlington Borough Council is re-submitting a bid for Lottery funding to give the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum a £3.5m redevelopment.