SDR200 Festival on track for very special year
The wheels are rolling on a bicentenary year which will mark one of the North East’s greatest achievements. Tony Henderson reports
A first taster is on offer for a nine-month run of events which will celebrate the North East’s role in changing the world.
This year (2025) sees the bicentenary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (SDR) with Locomotion No. 1, designed by Tynesiders George and Robert Stephenson, becoming the first steam engine to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway.
The SDR was key in the railway revolution which connected places, people, communities and ideas and ultimately transformed the world.
S&DR200 is an international festival taking place across County Durham and Tees Valley in 2025, to mark the 200th anniversary of the first journey on the North East line.
The replica of Locomotion No.1 will be on display at the new Hopetown railway heritage visitor attraction in Darlington until January 12, alongside the newly built Stockton & Darlington Railway chaldron coal wagon and Experiment passenger coach which made the first journey.
The Experiment coach and wagon were built by North Bay Engineering Services in Darlington.
The train will be on display in the historic listed Carriage Works at Hopetown with an exhibition which looks at the history of the replica and the plans for its use in the S&DR200 festival.
The exhibition will be supported on January 4 and 11 with Q&A sessions about the replica with Steve Davies from the International Railway Heritage Company, and a specially-extended curator’s tour.
On Saturday (Jan 4), visitors can combine viewing the replica Locomotion No.1 with a visit to Darlington Locomotive Work's workshop to see progress on the building of the Prince of Wales locomotive and the newly opened 1861 Shed, home to the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group.
The train will be used during the bicentenary celebrations when they will re-enact the inaugural journey on September 27 across Skerne Bridge near Hopetown.
As part of the bicentenary the Bowes Museum will stage an exhibition titled Dressed for Departure: Fashion in the Age of Rail, from September 27 2025 to January 2026.
The event will bring together historic fashion, toys and artworks that reflect how the engineering marvel reshaped lives and culture.
On show will be world’s first toy train set, gifted by Edward Pease, the ‘Father of the Railway’, to his son John, garments from key moments in the region’s railway history and artworks that capture its journey through the landscape.
Highlights also include fashions, flamboyant and functional, from crucial moments in local railway history, including a guard’s coat worn on the first train from Barnard Castle to Redcar in 1856.
The 26-mile journey on the S&DR between Shildon and Stockton via Darlington in 1825 transformed how the world traded, travelled, and communicated.
The S&DR200 Festival will present a series of artworks in public spaces.
The programme includes an event at Bishop Auckland on March 29 when theatre company imitating the dog and SKYMAGIC deliver a combination of technology, live performance, and drone show to a celebration of the bold innovation, creative thinking and ingenuity that led to the world-changing opening of the S&DR.
At Hoperown from April there will be a display of early locomotives which were critical to future rail success, a sensory installation inspired by steam as a source of power by Studio Swine, and an exhibition exploring the future of transport and skills in the era of climate crisis.
Also from April at the Locomotion railway museum in Shildon, there will be an exhibition highlighting Railway Firsts in the Main Hall in recognition of the innovation at the heart of S&DR, a Young Railway of The Year competition, three line-ups of special locomotives telling of 200 years of railway history, and talks and lectures.
The Story at Mount Oswald in Durham will exhibit railway-related letters, diaries, court papers, and other day-to-day records from their collections, and will uncover the impact of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on the socio-economic fabric of the region.
A touring library exhibition will feature re-productions of important historical artefacts and documents from the collections of Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, The Common Room in Newcastle, National Railway Museum and Teesside Archives.
On September 26, 27 and 28 replica Locomotion No. 1, Experiment carriage and coal wagon will run on sections of the original S&DR line over three days. Spectators will be able to see the train at designated locations and enjoy an accompanying programme of special events organised along the route.
Two major outdoor events include a procession through Darlington on September 20, showcasing large-scale art installations representing pivotal modern inventions.
On September 28 in Stockton town centre, a theatrical reimagining will commemorate the arrival of Locomotion No. 1 into Stockton harbour in 1825,.
For the full programme so far and updates, visit the SDR200 Festival website.