The opening of the railway
The opening announcement
The first public journey
The Stockon and Darlington company made its first journey on Tuesday, 27 September 1825. The trip started at 7 am when 12 wagons of coal started their trip from the Phoenix pit. First, horses pulled the wagons to the base of the Etherley incline. The engineers then linked the wagons to the stationary steam engine, which took the wagons to the incline’s summit.
The next stage started with the wagons rolling downhill to West Auckland. During the stop at West Auckland, the train took on an additional wagon containing flour. When the connection was complete, the train set off from West Auckland. Moreover, horses again pulled the wagons to the Brussleton incline, where the crowds had assembled.
The Leeds Intelligencer reported on the opening event the following week. Crowds cheered as a stationary engine house pulled the wagons up on the incline. Soon afterwards, the engine house lowered the wagons to the base of the other side of the slope. Engineers added the locomotive engine, along with many other passenger carriages. The train then set off towards Darlington under its own steam.
The newspaper estimated a crowd of ten to twelve thousand at Darlington. The procession continued to Stockton. On this part of the journey, the locomotive pulled the original wagons. Horses pulled the remaining passenger carriages.
Commentary
If those crowd estimates are accurate, it was an impressive audience for this historic event. Two hundred years later, it is obvious how significant this event was, but at the time, it was just a group of local businessmen on a project to make more money. There would have been many involved in the project. This personal interest may have swelled the number of spectators.
Acknowledgements Main image — Archivist/stock.adobe.com
