The UK’s largest gathering of historic rail vehicles is set to take place later this year to mark 200 years since the construction of world’s first passenger train service.
The three-day festival is taking place at Alstom’s Derby site and aims to raise thousands for Railway 200 charities and the rail heritage sector. The site, which is home to Britain’s biggest and oldest remaining train factory, will be open to the public for the first time in over 50 years.
It will showcase more than 50 rolling stock exhibits from the past, present and future of the railways.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825 and was the first rail line to use steam locomotives. It connected collieries near Shildon with Darlington and Stockton in County Durham and operated for nearly 40 years. The company was ultimately taken over by the North Eastern Railway in 1863, resulting in the transfer of 200 route miles of line and about 160 locomotives.
The first locomotive to run on the line –...