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Tornado

Tornado

On Sunday 27 September 2020, Tornado, built in Darlington in 2008, made it's celebratory journey to launch the countdown to the 200th birthday of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the town’s ambitious plans for its Rail Heritage Quarter.

The UK’s newest mainline steam train revisited the route of the first steam locomotive to run on a public railway exactly 195 years ago. Locomotion No. 1 made its inaugural journey on 27 September 1825, transporting both coals and passengers between the colliery town of Shildon in County Durham and Stockton-on-Tees.   

Commissioned for the journey courtesy of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the train began its ceremonial tour in Middlesbrough, proceeding through Stockton-on-Tees and over the iconic Skerne Bridge in Darlington, which featured alongside Locomotive No. 1 on the £5 note between 1990 and 2002. Tornado then continued to Darlington’s historic North Road station central to the story of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and the home of the town’s Head of Steam railway museum. 

 

 

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