Latest news with #railwayhistory
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Yahoo
Royal Family have travelled by train for more than 180 years
The royal family have enjoyed rail travel since the day Queen Victoria made her first trip in a specially made carriage from Slough to London Paddington. The Great Western Railway company built the carriage in anticipation of Victoria's patronage and two years later she did, but only after being persuaded on board by Prince Albert, a veteran of rail travel fascinated by the new technology. She appeared a fan and wrote in her diary about the journey on June 13 1842: 'It took us exactly 30 minutes going to Paddington, & the motion was very slight, & much easier than the carriage, also no dust or great heat, in fact, it was delightful and so quick.' To mark the 175th anniversary of the trip, Queen Elizabeth II and the late Duke of Edinburgh recreated the journey in 2017. Victoria later commissioned a special pair of coaches built by the London & North Western Railway in 1869 and so began a succession of royal trains with her son King Edward VII, later ordering a royal train designed to be 'as much like the Royal Yacht as possible'. The royal family keep up with modern innovations and Victoria's grandson King George V installed one of the first baths on a train during the First World War as he toured the UK to boost morale. No special royal locomotive exists but the royal train is pulled by standard engines and throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries all major railway companies within the British Isles maintained dedicated royal carriages. To mark Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977 British Rail provided a new royal train that featured a Queen's saloon or carriage with a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom and a separate bedroom and bathroom for her dresser, while Philip's carriage was a similar design but included a kitchen. In the mid 1980s the fleet was updated and new carriages were added including one used by the King, then the prince of Wales, and now the train has nine carriages, seven royal and two support.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Daubhill celebrates historic railway link with community festival
Daubhill celebrated its connection with railway history at a community day on Saturday. Olive Tree Primary School hosted the event, reminding people that the towns of Bolton and Leigh were linked by the first public railway in the North-West of England in 1828 – two years before the historic Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Principal Zainab Patel told visitors at the Adelaide Lane school that the original railway line passed through the site of the school. She said: 'We are proud to be celebrating the rich heritage and cultural diversity of the Daubhill area. "It is an absolute privilege to be hosting 'A Day for Daubhill'—a celebration of everything that makes our community so unique and vibrant.' Fine weather and a rousing performance by Bolton's Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa Pipe Band got the day off to a rousing start. A model railway, food stalls, games, a visiting fire engine, and information stands ensured there was something to interest everyone. The special guest was India's Consul General, Vishakha Yaduvanshi, who said: 'It's my immense pleasure to be here today to attend the 200 years of Bolton and Leigh Railway which laid the foundation of railways. "It is a historic moment indeed.' Julia Hulton, whose great-great-grandfather, William Hulton, formed the Bolton and Leigh Railway company, and Bolton South MP Yasmin Qureshi, were also among the guests and dignitaries attending. Derek Bullock, chair of the Bolton & Leigh Railway CIC, said: 'The event celebrates not just this historic anniversary but also the vibrancy of Daubhill today.' It was a point echoed by Councillor Ayuub Patel, who represents Rumworth Ward. He said: 'This anniversary is a proud moment for Daubhill and the wider community. "It's a chance to honour our rich railway heritage while celebrating the diversity and energy of the area today. 'Rumworth has many residents from an Anglo-Indian background, so today is also a celebration of the economic and cultural contributions they have made to the wider community.' 'A Day for Daubhill' is one of a number of events leading up to the anniversary date in 2028. In March, a mayoral reception, with the mayors of both Bolton and Wigan (covering Leigh and Atherton) took place, and there are plans for a 'Bolton & Leigh Greenway' which will provide a walking and cycling link along parts of the original railway.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Flying Scotsman to appear at Greatest Gathering event
Flying Scotsman will appear at the world's largest gathering of historic and modern railway vehicles in August. Train manufacturer Alstom announced that the locomotive will be part of the Greatest Gathering event at its factory in Derby. Up to 30,000 people are expected to attend the event, which runs from August 1-3. An additional 2,500 tickets for each day will be available from 9am on Friday. Flying Scotsman was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and built in Doncaster. Its achievements include hauling the inaugural non-stop London to Edinburgh train service in 1928, and becoming the UK's first locomotive to reach 100mph six years later. Rob Whyte, managing director at Alstom UK and Ireland, said: 'Flying Scotsman's attendance is a powerful tribute to Britain's steam legacy and a moment of railway history not to be missed. 'While we proudly honour icons of the past, like Flying Scotsman, we also hope the Greatest Gathering will ignite the imagination of tomorrow's engineers, as we showcase the latest sustainable and digital rail innovations across our Derby site.' Craig Bentley, director of the National Railway Museum, which owns Flying Scotsman, said: 'Flying Scotsman has captured the public's imagination for over a century. 'We are proud to be able to share this icon of the track, along with other historically significant locomotives from the national collection, at this landmark event.' More than 50 rolling stock exhibits from the past, present and future of the railways will be on display, featuring a combination of those powered by steam, diesel and electricity. This includes the 200-year-old Locomotion No.1, which was the first locomotive to run on the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) line in north-east England. The Greatest Gathering forms part of Britain's wider Railway 200 festivities. The industry is engaging in a year-long celebration to mark the opening of the S&DR on September 27 1825, which is credited as being the birth of the modern railway.
BBC News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
LGBTQ+ project fills 'massive gap' in York Railway Museum archive
A project is under way to record the experiences of LGBTQ+ workers on the UK's rail network during the past 50 would fill a "massive gap" in the National Railway Museum's archives, curators said.A new trail at the museum in York also enables members of the public to listen to contributors describing their Petersen, senior curator of archives and railway collections, said "We have diverse and massive collections of all different kind of archives, but this is a history which hasn't yet been told." She said that in the past, the topic had been "really difficult for people to speak about", but the project team worked to "make it as comfortable as possible".Each contributor was paired with a volunteer interviewer, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community and has a connection to the railways, to ensure an understanding of industry-specific discussion points."In quite a lot of them, they're talking about different franchises that people have worked for and changes in uniform, wrapped up in an experience that they might have had, related to their identity," she volunteer was Laura Stoffers, who works on the museum's communications said: "It's really inspiring being able to talk to older people who are part of the community who have lived their lives and might even share some advice with you.""I think about the interviews quite a lot afterwards, as well," she added. The trail, around the museum's North Shed exhibition, includes quotes from participants in the project, next to objects relating to their can also listen to excerpts of the interviews online as they explore, by scanning a QR contributions include experiences of homophobic abuse, the first LGBTQ+ employee networks at rail companies and LGBTQ+ people being supported by colleagues, even when they didn't expect it. The trail is in place until September, but the archive will be in place for decades into the future."People get a chance to tell their story and that is kept in our collection forever so that people in the future will understand what life has been like," Ms Petersen said."When I started managing this project, I knew it was important, but it was only when I listened to people talking that I realised the true value of it." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- The Guardian
‘The railway that got the world on track': a walk through 200 years of history in County Durham
It was as strange a sight as you could stumble upon in the English countryside. As a muggy summer's day began outside Shildon, Durham – rain threatening, bees drowsy in the hedgerows – I found myself standing on an embankment, surveying two rows of colossal stone teeth jutting through the earth. It looked as if someone had buried a sleeping giant. 'You wouldn't believe it by looking at it, but this is one of railway history's most amazing feats,' my companion, rail expert Richie Starrs, said as we gazed down at the molars beneath our feet. A closer look revealed they were abandoned rail sleepers, laid out between the hawthorns and along which coal wagons were once pulled uphill by steam traction locomotives. 'This is the Brusselton Incline, a section of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway. Nationally, it's a story that's not well known, but it's one we're rightly proud of.' For those interested in such rail history, this is a year like no other. Two hundred years ago, on 27 September 1825, the 26-mile Stockton and Darlington Railway opened as the world's first public railway, making Shildon the world's first railway town. And the lessons learned there helped the north-east, then Britain, Europe and the world grasp the importance of rail travel, first for transporting coal and lime, then, decisively, for passengers. It is 'the railway that got the world on track'. A focal point of this year's bicentennial celebrations throughout Britain (see Railway 200 for details on hundreds of events) is Durham's new multi-use S&DR Trail of Discovery. Launching this month as part of the multi-arts S&DR200 festival, the meandering greenway follows the original 26-mile route from Witton Park Colliery near Bishop Auckland to Stockton Riverside and will, its founders hope, stimulate interest in the region's rail history – and give a shot in the arm to the 'left behind' pit communities along the way. There is a buoyant mood around the anniversary, but that doesn't dispel the melancholy that has lingered over much of the rail line since the coalfields were exhausted and the Shildon Wagon Works, once described as 'the jewel in British Rail's crown', was closed. There would be some who find this all too trainspotterish, but not Starrs, S&DR200's project manager, or Niall Hammond, volunteer chair of the Friends of the S&DR, both of whom joined me on the first completed section of the trail, a five-mile ramble from the Brusselton Incline to Heighington station, the world's first train station, at Newton Aycliffe. Over the coming months, the trail – rich in history – will be transformed with 17 information boards and newly commissioned art murals, plus a podcast and augmented reality game, devised to add colour. Fittingly, you can also hop on a train between many of the milestones along the route. The idea, Niall told me, is to encourage travellers to walk, eat and stay on the trail for two to three days, but also spark wider regeneration for the area. According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Durham remains one of the most deprived areas in England. 'This is more than history for people who like rail tracks and iron,' he told me. 'The whole point is to make it count for locals. We're doing up buildings, cleaning up areas and showing why the world was changed from here. It's urban regeneration in action.' Once my eyes had learned to read the signs of rail history in the landscape, despite the absence of so much of it, it became easier to imagine how this tiny corner of Durham changed the world. Along a stretch of the reclaimed rail line through Shildon, impressions of former goods sheds, an iron warehouse, loading bays and an engine house appeared next to tired houses and an empty pub. We passed a coaling drop, admiring the handsome brickwork arches and columns that once saw wooden chutes rapidly unload coal into hoppers and a row of railway workers' cottages, now memorials to those who dedicated their lives to the tracks. There was no whiff of engine oil, only bluebells and primrose. The newest part of Shildon's compelling train story is at Locomotion, a museum that opened its £8m New Hall last year. It holds Europe's largest indoor collection of historic locomotives (a mightily impressive 99 engines) and is the temporary home of a 150-year-old bronze statue of the great north-east rail engineer Robert Stephenson, after its removal from London Euston during construction works for HS2, Britain's controversial high-speed railway. Alongside his influential father George, who designed the first locomotive for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Robert shaped rail history, and taking pride of place inside is his world-renowned locomotive Rocket, built in 1829 and on loan from York's National Railway Museum. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion Amid all this, another highlight: Locomotion has a buzzy cafe with Eurostar seating and cakes, including a syrupy ginger loaf right from the Stephenson family cookbook. The book, also part of the National Railway Museum's collection, lists more peculiar novelties from the 1840s, including recipes for birch wine, English champagne, mince 'pyes' and calf foot gilly, a pudding made by boiling a calf's foot. Thankfully, that was not on the menu. Another good place to step through the looking-glass is Hopetown Darlington, an eight-minute train journey from Heighington to North Road station, which unloads passengers beside another superlative: the Skerne Bridge, the world's oldest railway bridge that has remained in continuous use. The open-air rail museum, with 3 hectares (7.5 acres) and an exhibition in a Victorian-era station, is an arsenal of detail, with a dust-free archive of 30,000 heritage artefacts. The trivia is half the fun. When a message was to be delivered from a moving train to a station, I learned, the note was tucked inside a slit potato and simply flung from the window. Amazingly, the story of the Stockton and Darlington Railway is on the Japanese school curriculum, but not in England. In its great engineering hall, I was reminded of the UK's contribution to railways the world over. Robert Stephenson went on to help create the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, as well as the first railroad in Egypt. His work directly influenced the Norwegian Trunk Railway and the first railway in Argentina. Rightly, all of this and more will be celebrated across the UK this summer – from Inspiration, Railway 200's unique exhibition train, which is touring 60 stations (from 27 June), to the largest ever assembly of rolling stock at Derby Litchurch Lane Works, the country's largest train factory (The Greatest Gathering, 1 to 3 August). Essentially, it is an education in the benefits of rail travel and the art of slowing down at home. Or, perhaps, it's better to think of this as a story about people, communities and the tracks that help bring them together. S&DR 200 runs to November 2025 across Durham and the Tees Valley. Railway 200 runs to the end of the year, with events nationwide. The trip was provided by Durham and Visit England
