Write on Track
Ann Cuthbert and Pam Plumb run the Darlington based open mic for writers, Stop Write Hear, held first Thursday of every month at Friends’ Meeting House Skinnergate Darlington. So they know there are many talented writers in the local area. Wouldn’t it be a good idea, they thought, to run a writing competition linked to the 1825-2025 Bicentenary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway? They also wanted to encourage people who might not see themselves as writers but who would have stories to tell and memories to recall about trains, tracks and railway journeys. So they extended the idea to include a few creative writing workshops aimed at building up confidence and skills.
"We had no idea then that this would develop into the wide-ranging project it became" say Ann and Pam.
"We put our proposals to Stephen Wiper of Creative Darlington and he arranged for us to meet others involved in the S&DR bicentenary celebrations. Along the way, the project gained the name Write on Track and was granted generous funding thanks to the S & DR Community Grants Scheme, Bishop Line Community Fund and Creative Darlington. And it developed into - well, let’s just say, not the small local competition we’d originally envisaged! And, of course, we would have been lost in transit without Darlington music collective Tracks who have given us such amazing project management support."
In fact, in the end, there were twelve free workshops, with experts leading on writing poetry, memoir, short story and performance and presentation skills. Inspiring railway venues along the S&DR track - Hopetown, Preston Park Museum and Gardens, Locomotion Shildon as well as Darlington Centre for Local Studies and Stockton Library - all offered their spaces where these workshops ran. And, thanks to the Bishop Line Community Partnership, two groups of people wrote while at station platforms or actually travelling on trains.
The competition was also free to enter and submissions came in from all points along the original 26 mile stretch of S&DR line. Judges had a hard time deciding the winners, so much so that it stretched to include Special Mentions - ‘Well, you can’t have enough of good writing,’ say Pam and Ann - as well as First, Second, Third and Highly Commended in three categories - Short Story, Memoir and Poetry.
The winners in the Short Story category are:
1st Michael Walker - Ethel and the Great Iron Horse
2nd Bob Fischer - The Eternal Hereafter via Thornaby Station
3rd Jonny Aldridge - An Assignment
Highly Commended Eric Foster - Gandhi, Lancastrian and Me
Highly Commended Elizabeth Ottosson - Redemption Train
Special Mentions Jo Clark, Quinn Cole, Graeme Roach, J Church and Mike Watson
The winners in the Poetry category are:
1st Leiomri Mallett - Delayed on Platform 3
2nd Stephanie Wallace - The Backside of A Town
3rd William Ross - Body on the Line
Highly Commended Julie Ashmore - Pease’s Soliloquy
Highly Commended Caroline Hardie-Hammond - Women of the Railway
Special Mentions Jonny Aldridge, Catherine Edmunds, Marilyn Longstaff, Hilary Smith, Alan Stowers
The winners in the Memoir category:
1st Jane Scott - Wave Me Off
2nd Michael Jarvie - The Class 43
3rd Alan Theakston - Fishing in the Big Freeze
Highly Commended Lynn Lettice - A Shildon Lass
Highly Commended Glenda Miller - My Solo Teenage Train Journey
Special Mentions Susan Chapman, Marianne Tracey
Friday 11 July 2025 saw the culmination with a Celebration and Prizegiving event at Hopetown Darlington, where some of the winning writers read from their work.
But it’s not actually over yet. The plan is that all of the writing submitted will eventually be shared publicly in one format or another. These include three further reading events taking place in different parts of the S&DR region in August, September and October, all celebrating creative writing around Bicentenary themes.
Both written and audio versions of the winning entries, read by the writers themselves, will be available on BorrowBox, thanks to Darlington Libraries.
A paper anthology, ‘packed with local writers doing what they do best – conjuring up pictures in our minds, creating the sights, sounds and smells that help us remember our own railway experiences across the years,’ will be available free after the Celebration event.
And, thanks to BLCP and their specially commissioned display boards, passengers at stations along the Bishop line will be able to read selected snippets of writing from all the entrants in the Write on Track competition.
It’s been a brilliant journey!