Programme unveiled for festival to mark the birth of the modern railway

Museums are at the heart of plans for the Stockton & Darlington Railway 200 (S&DR200) festival, a major event to celebrate the bicentenary of the first steam-powered railway next year.

The nine-month festival will take place across County Durham and Tees Valley from March to November 2025, celebrating the beginning of modern rail travel.

Four museum partners will play a central role in the festivities: the newly revamped Hopetown Darlington museum, site of the world’s first passenger train station; Locomotion in Shildon (part of the Science Museum Group), which unveiled a huge new display shed, New Hall, earlier this year; Preston Park Museum & Grounds in Stockton-on-Tees, which is in the midst of a redevelopment; and The Story in Durham City, a new museum that opened earlier this year.

The first three of these are situated along the original 26-mile S&DR route. The area also contains one of the world’s most important groups of surviving early railway buildings such as the Grade II* Heighington Station, the world’s oldest railway station, Coal Drops in Shildon, and the Grade I Skerne Bridge in Darlington, the world’s oldest operational railway bridge.

Many other museums are also taking part, including the Bishop Auckland cultural hub, Beamish: The Living Museum of the North, Raby Castle and the Bowes Museum.

The area received an injection of £57m in its cultural infrastructure ahead of the bicentenary, with £20m invested in Preston Park, £37m in Hopetown Darlington and £8m in Locomotion. It is hoped that this investment will transform the region into a major heritage attraction and visitor destination.

Unveiled at a launch event at the Darlington Hippodrome this week, the festival programme includes a range of exhibitions, activities and art installations alongside large-scale live events. It will kick off with a drone display at Bishop Auckland on 29 March and end with a mass street theatre performance, Ghost Train, in November next year.

The festivities will culminate in a three-day event on 26-28 September 2025 to mark the bicentenary date, including a reenactment of the world’s first steam-powered train journey, on 27 September 1825, using a newly built replica of the first ever steam engine to run on the line, Locomotive No. 1.

“S&DR200 is using a world-changing historical event that took place in the region as a starting point to explore the future,” said festival director Niccy Hallifax.

“The festival programme will cater for all visitors including the railway enthusiasts as well as engage a younger generation, by finding new and inventive ways to tell the pioneering S&DR story. We will create magical moments using art, creativity and culture to show international audiences and young people how science, technology, engineering, arts and maths can not only change your own life but transform the world.”

The festival is being led by Darlington Borough Council, Durham County Council and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. Major funders include Arts Council England, Tees Valley Combined Authority, the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Network Rail.

The S&DR200 festival is a key part of Railway 200, a wider, year-long campaign to mark the bicentenary across the UK.

The initiative, led by a cross-industry partnership that includes Network Rail and the Science Museum Group, will see special events taking place across the UK, including the much-anticipated reopening of Station Hall at the National Railway Museum in York.

Museums, galleries and heritage sites across the UK are invited to get involved in the programme with their own railway-themed exhibitions and events; Railway 200 launched a toolkit this week for organisations that are interested in taking part.

The Railway 200 campaign will get underway on 1 January 2025 with a “whistle-off” of heritage locomotives at sites across the UK.