Do the locomotion

Replica of pioneering steam engine ready to roll on 200th anniversary

- BY JEREMY ARMSTRONG

STEAM filled the air as the Mirror relived the first locomotive-powered passenger train journey ever made.

The joyous ring of a bell marked the start of the one-hour trip through beautiful County Durham.

As well as crossing the rolling countryside, it felt as though we were also travelling back in time.

We had been invited along to witness the meticulous preparations being made for September 27, which will be the 200th anniversary of the first-ever passenger railway journey using steam locomotives.

Back then, 450 people were carried along the Stockton and Darlington Railway at a sedate 15mph. We were on board a beautiful working replica of Locomotion No.1, which powered that landmark trip back in 1825.

The original was conceived and built by George Stephenson, the railway pioneer from Northumberland.

We boarded in Stanhope, Co. Durham, sitting in a tiny wooden carriage called Experiment. It carries the Latin motto “Periculum privatum utilitas publica’ - which roughly translates as “Private risk for public good”, a tribute to the early investors in what turned out to be the future of travel.

There are two benches and we settled in, while a team of a dozen steam enthusiasts and volunteers made last-minute checks on both the track and the engine.

We reached 10mph on a scenic journey to Bishop Auckland; at that speed, you could see hares running through fields, ducks paddling around babbling brooks and birds flying above the engine as it chugged its way through green pastures.