Locomotion No. 1. Photo: Science Museum Group CollectionAlstom, a global leader in ‘smart and sustainable mobility’, has announced that the latest exhibit confirmed for the company’s three-day The Greatest Gathering (Friday 1 August-Sunday 3 August) is the 200-year-old steam engine Locomotion No 1, which is being loaned by the National Railway Museum, along with other ‘historically significant’ rail vehicles from the UK National Collection. The Alstom event, being held at the company’s Litchurch Lane site in Derby, forms part of the wider festivities for Railway 200, a year-long celebration marking the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) on 27 September 1825 — a journey regarded as ‘giving birth to the modern railway’.
Locomotion No 1, the first locomotive to run on the S&DR, was built by Newcastle-based Robert Stephenson and Co — the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines; it later manufactured several of the first locomotives for other countries around the globe. Through successive mergers, Robert Stephenson and Co became part of Alstom in 1989, giving the latter a direct link to ‘the dawn of the railways and making it the custodian of a unique legacy’.
Rob Whyte, Alstom UK and Ireland’s managing director, said: “We are very excited that Locomotion No 1 will be joining an already unprecedented roster of historic and modern rolling stock at The Greatest Gathering. There is something poetic that one of Britain’s oldest steam locomotives will take pride of place within the factory where the UK’s newest trains are designed, engineered, manufactured, and tested.”
The Greatest Gathering, which is being held at Britain’s biggest and oldest remaining train factory and opening to the public for the first time in almost 50 years, will be home to more than 50 rolling stock exhibits from the past, present and future of the railways. Joining Locomotion No 1 will be the Derby-built steam locomotive Midland Railway 1000 Class No 1000. Designed by Samuel Waite Johnson, the compound locomotive was built in 1902 and selected for preservation in 1951. Also being shown is the legacy Alstom locomotive D6700. The first-built Class 37 diesel (made in 1959), it was selected for preservation as part of the National Collection upon being withdrawn from service.
Craig Bentley, the National Railway Museum’s director, said: “
The Greatest Gathering promises to be a landmark event in this historic year for the railways. We are delighted to be able to showcase historically significant vehicles from three distinct eras of locomotive design, from the early days of passenger travel to the golden age of steam, through to the switchover from steam to diesel.”