NR rediscovers Stephenson’s S&D plan

A notebook from 1822 showing railway pioneer George Stephenson’s plans for the Stockton & Darlington Railway - the world’s first public railway worked by steam locomotives - has been rediscovered in Network Rail’s York archive.

The document outlines Stephenson’s redesign of the railway and its rebudgeting, and has not been seen since the 1950s. It was found by records assistant John Page, who said: “Because it is a historical document it would never have been loaned out or requested as it didn’t impact the running of the railway, so since the 1950s, it has sat on a shelf unnoticed among hundreds of other packets.

“I was looking for a deed for one of our colleagues and purely out of curiosity decided to look through the packets, and there it was. What a thrill it was to find.”

The notebook will be displayed until December 28 at the National Railway Museum, York, as part of the Highlights exhibition in the Great Hall.

NR Chairman Sir Peter Hendy commented: “George Stephenson’s original survey of the Stockton and Darlington Railway ushered in the railway age, not only in Britain, but around the world. Network Rail is delighted and proud to have found this astonishing artefact, and very pleased to have it displayed by our friends at the National Railway Museum. Then, as now, railways were essential to creating economic growth, jobs and housing.”