Hopetown Darlington

TGA Consulting Engineers were commissioned to act as Building Services Consulting Engineers providing a full MEP solution for the Hopetown Railway project in Darlington to create a major new railway museum and visitor attraction celebrating the 250th anniversary of the world’s first passenger railway system.

Project Summary

The challenge with this project was to install the modern building engineering services sensitively into heritage buildings to provide systems that we all expect and require for our comfort and safety without damaging the historic building fabric or detracting from the aesthetic qualities of the buildings.

This project involved the refurbishment and restoration of three of the oldest railway buildings at the site, namely the Grade II* listed Goods Shed which now incorporates a reception point to book tickets, buy gifts and souvenirs and view interactive exhibits.

The Head of Steam has also been subject to a programme of significant remodelling, repair and refurbishment and has now been renamed as the ‘North Road Station Museum’.

The Grade II listed Carriage Works building – where traditional carriages have been built since 1853, has been converted into a large, airy exhibition hall, alongside an archive with reading room and staff office spaces and flexible railway themed showcase.

The newly built ‘Darlington Locomotive Works’ is accessed via a brand new link bridge that features augmented reality periscopes en-route in which heritage railway groups can flourish whilst allowing visitors to see their work.

As well as this, there is also a newly constructed rail-themed adventure play park, named ‘Wagon Woods’.

TGA’s MEP Engineers alongside the integral Building Performance Team have developed means by which modern building engineering systems can be sensitively incorporated into the evolving design working closely with the wider Design Team – TGA’s Specialist Lighting Team and BIM Team.

TGA’s Specialist Lighting designers worked closely with the architect to develop proposals to effectively light the various spaces with a mix of contemporary and period luminaires which suit the feel of the various buildings whilst enabling the various functions for which they are intended to be used to be fulfilled.

TGA’s BIM Team also worked throughout the project integrated within the other TGA teams.

The project incorporated a substantial public realm package, linking the buildings together and containing other visitor attractions. These areas have been separately designed on their individual merits, whilst retaining a common design language throughout the site which is both in keeping with the heritage environment and for modern public usage.

The design creativity and installation workmanship of the MEP services engineers can hopefully be appreciated within this challenging but successful project.

Hopetown is a fantastic project offering conservation, renovation and remodelling on a mixture of Grade 2* listed buildings along with new build and site wide mass landscaping, to form an updated visitor attraction for the area – a perfect blend of high-tech MEP systems and heritage elements.