Locomotion No.1: “a symbol of pride for two railway towns”
ON MARCH 7, Locomotion No.1 returned to Shildon for the first time in almost 164 years following a new agreement with Darlington Borough Council, as reported last issue.
The historic locomotive will now be based at Locomotion in Shildon but will travel to Head of Steam in the first half of 2025 and for two further loans between 2026 and 2030.
The return to Shildon is significant. It was from here that the famous engine steamed into history on September 27, 1825, the opening day of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), making the first steampowered public passenger train journey in the world.
Shildon was the world’s first railway town. It was a town created by the S&DR, which made it (in the words of Ken Hoole, doyen of north-east railway historians) their ‘main centre of operations’, as this was ‘where the locomotive headquarters were established from the very beginning of the railway’.
Evolution
It’s fair to say that Locomotion No.1 and its sister locomotives were temperamental beasts requiring regular attention in the workshops of Timothy Hackworth and his team. The work of these pioneering engineers in those early years led to Shildon being known in the 19th century as‘the Nursery of the Locomotive’.
It was in those works that Hackworth rebuilt Locomotion No.1 after a boiler explosion in 1828. Almost 30 years later it was where William Bouch and his team restored it as a locomotive after a period working as a stationary pumping engine. Its appearance today owes much to those Shildon rebuilds.
However, Locomotion No.1, by its nature, has never belonged to any one place. Its daily routine began at Shildon, from where it conveyed coal trains to Stockton via Darlington before returning to Shildon again with empty wagons. Newcastle, Bedlington, Darlington, Stockton, Heighington and Yarm all have deep associations with it too.
In retirement, Locomotion No.1 has been displayed in various locations in Darlington – but it has travelled too: Newcastle, Edinburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia and Paris amongst others.
In 1875, No.1 was a star attraction of the S&DR’s 50th anniversary held in Darlington. In the centenary year of 1925, it was much in demand, featuring in the LNER-organised cavalcade but also appearing at Wembley, York, and – on the exact anniversary itself – in Manchester as the centrepiece of the railway worker’s centenary celebration pageant. 50 years later it spent the anniversary date proudly on display at Stockton.
For the anniversary in 2025, Locomotion No.1 will be at the centre of our transformed museum at Shildon. This isn’t about one year however, it’s about building a legacy for the widest public benefit.
Displays
With Durham County Council we have been restoring the important historic railway buildings across the site, and next year we plan to begin construction on a second display building which will bring further rail vehicles under cover and on display.
Locomotion No.1 won’t be the only S&DR icon being put on display – we will also move George Stephenson’s Gaunless Bridge from York to Shildon, just a few miles from where the structure was originally located. Darlington Borough Council too has plans to develop Head of Steam and to celebrate the town’s significant contribution to railway heritage.
Through geography, through their people and through engineering, Darlington and Shildon are inextricably linked. That’s as true today as it was in 1825. Locomotion No.1 remains a symbol of pride for both of these railway towns, and we can now begin to work together to ensure that the engine captures the imagination of future generations just as it did when it steamed into history almost 200 years ago.
2025 offers us an extraordinary opportunity to come together to tell the rich and authentic railway stories of the North East of England and to celebrate the story of the railways that began there and would go on to touch the whole world.