working on the Railway.

"North East Railways in World War One"

Website and Learning Resource.

...was launched yesterday at the Head of Steam Museum in Darlington.  The museum is the home of the Ken Hoole Study Centre, which cares for (among loads of other things) copies of the Staff Magazine of the North Eastern Railway from the early years of the 20th Century.  There are also handwritten ledgers containing the employment records of Drivers, Signallers, Shunters and others who worked for the NER.  Many of these employees joined the 'NER Servants' Pension Society'.  These pension records are in the Archive.

Volunteers have spent the last 10 months combing through the Staff magazines for mentions of those who served and for those who lost their lives during the First World War.  The result is a searchable database that went live yesterday.





Alongside this I have written a Resource for Teachers and helped create a Loans Box.


The aim is that KS3 Pupils will be able to investigate and discover the different experiences that North Eastern Railway employees had during World War One. This inquiry based approach uses a variety of original sources to answer the questions

1.  How did World War One affect people working for the Northeastern Railway?
2.  How different were people's experiences of World War One?

By using the resource the students will have the opportunity;

• To be able to interpret a variety of original sources
• In using this evidence to synthesise a ‘story’ about an individual
• Make inferences using this evidence
• Make suggestions about other sources for further research.

There are 3 parts to the resource,

• main teachers notes - [4.55MB, pdf document],
• profile sheets - [5.75MB, pdf document],
• PowerPoint presentation  - [3MB]

You will find them at the Head of Steam's Learning Zone  scroll down to find the download links.  The Teachers Notes provide background and suggestions on how to use the 20 Profile Sheets.  These have souces detailing the experiences of those joined up and were killed, workers who served and returned to work for the NER, others who were not allowed to join the Forces and women who filled the jobs vacated by men who went to fight.

If you want to know more, please get in touch with myself or with
Sarah Gouldsbrough, Learning and Access Officer at the Head of Steam, Darlington

Telephone: 01325 734128
Fax: 01325 287746
Email: sarah.gouldsbrough@darlington.gov.uk