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182527 September 1825 · Shildon, Darlington and Newcastle

Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway

John Dobbin's painting of crowds watching the first train cross Skerne Bridge in Darlington in 1825
Archival image: John Dobbin. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

George Stephenson drove the engine Locomotion No. 1 at the head of a train of coal wagons and passengers on the opening day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway to use steam locomotives. The engine was built at Robert Stephenson and Company's Forth Street works in Newcastle, which went on to build Rocket and supply locomotives to railways around the world.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Locomotion, ShildonNational railway museum beside the original line's workshops.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Hopetown Darlington (Head of Steam)Museum at an early station on the line of 1825.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Stephenson Works, Forth Street, NewcastleSurviving buildings of the world's first locomotive works.Map ↗
  4. Site 4: George Stephenson's Birthplace, WylamStone cottage beside the old Wylam wagonway where Stephenson was born.Map ↗

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