Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 17 hours ago
Locomotion New Hall houses a range of large-scale exhibits and railway vehicles, bringing new items of the collection onto public display. Locomotion has almost doubled in size with a new building to increase the breadth of railway vehicles the attraction is able to showcase.
The building is located on a brownfield site, on the edge of Shildon. The site is complex and required a careful risk managed approach to overcome various constraints associated with existing foundations, potential contamination and historic mine workings. Our team developed a cost-effective substructure solution, to deal with the site challenges and provide cost certainty, whilst also supporting the significant weights involved – the heaviest of the rail vehicles weighs 98 tonnes.
Our ground engineers advised on the preparation of the site for the new development, including grouting previous mining works – pumping concrete below the ground to fill voids left behind by mining activity.
The structure itself is a simple but elegant, steel portal frame exhibition building, capable of housing up to 46 railway vehicles, making Locomotion the largest undercover collection of railway vehicles in Europe. The north facade is articulated with two large glazing panels allowing for views in, a visual connection to the outside and daylighting within the exhibition.
The south facade collects rainwater via three articulated downpipes that connect below the ground into swales along the south side of the site as part of the rainwater attenuation strategy. The concrete currently covering parts of the former industrial site will be broken up and reused as part of the process of reinforcing the floor as track build-up for the exhibition of railway vehicles.
Locomotion New Hall houses a range of large-scale exhibits and railway vehicles, bringing new items of the collection onto public display. Locomotion has almost doubled in size with a new building to increase the breadth of railway vehicles the attraction is able to showcase.
The building is located on a brownfield site, on the edge of Shildon. The site is complex and required a careful risk managed approach to overcome various constraints associated with existing foundations, potential contamination and historic mine workings. Our team developed a cost-effective substructure solution, to deal with the site challenges and provide cost certainty, whilst also supporting the significant weights involved – the heaviest of the rail vehicles weighs 98 tonnes.
Our ground engineers advised on the preparation of the site for the new development, including grouting previous mining works – pumping concrete below the ground to fill voids left behind by mining activity.
The structure itself is a simple but elegant, steel portal frame exhibition building, capable of housing up to 46 railway vehicles, making Locomotion the largest undercover collection of railway vehicles in Europe. The north facade is articulated with two large glazing panels allowing for views in, a visual connection to the outside and daylighting within the exhibition.
The south facade collects rainwater via three articulated downpipes that connect below the ground into swales along the south side of the site as part of the rainwater attenuation strategy. The concrete currently covering parts of the former industrial site will be broken up and reused as part of the process of reinforcing the floor as track build-up for the exhibition of railway vehicles.
