Statues - Hither & Thither |
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Darlington
Durham, County North East England Morton Park Way |
Train |
David Mach
1997 |
The Mallard steam locomotive made from 185,000 bricks. It is 4.4 metres high and 40 metres.
The train celebrates the town's pioneering railway history: the line Stockton-Darlington was the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives.
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TRAIN A SCULPTURE BY DAVID MACH |
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TRAIN was commissioned by Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc and Darlington Borough Council as part of the year of the Visual Arts which took place throughout the region in 1996. David Mach is an internationally renowned sculptor and one of Britain's most innovative artists. His trademark style is the layer and structuring of everyday materials to produce images which one would not normally associate with those materials. This is reflected in TRAIN where bricks have been used to create a steam train and its smoke emerging from a tunnel in a hillside. TRAIN is an evolution of "Running Out Of Steam", a sculpture which David Mach completed in 1982 using magazines. The sculpture is a major feat of design and engineering. The challenges laid down by David Mach's concept pushed at the boundaries of brick technology, particularly in the use of overhanging brickwork. |
The design was developed by the architects, Fletcher Joseph of Leeds and the Structural Engineers, Hutter Jennings & Titchmarsh, also of Leeds, assisted by Rex Proctor & partners, Quantity Surveyors of Bradford. Over 150 separate drawings were produced showing the precise location of every one of the 181,754 including six special bat bricks which enable Pipistrelle bats to roost inside the sculpture. The sculpture was constructed by the Darlington office of Shepherd Construction Ltd of York in 28 weeks between 11th November 1996 and 23rd May 1997. During the construction period many local school children were invited to cast their own bricks to commemorate the construction. These bricks have been used in the construction of the plinth adjacent to the sculpture. A number of local schools also prepared time capsules which have been placed inside the sculpture. |
"Train" celebrates Darlington's place in the chronicles of railway development. The town's leading 19th century Quaker industrialist, Edwards Pease, believed passionately with George Stephenson, that steam locomotives were the future for transporting goods and passengers. That belief led to the opening of the world's first public steam railway in September 1825. Discover more about Darlington's railway history at the Head of Steam Railway Museum, housed in the 1842 North Road Station. You can see the world famous locomotion No. 1, the Stephenson built engine, which pulled that first passenger train, as well as a host of other engines and memorabilia. You can also see how Darlington built the engines which powered railways throughout the world. |
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