Derby’s well on-track for Railway200
In 2025, Railway200 will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Events are currently being planned nationwide, including in Derby, home to Europe's largest rail cluster.
Two Railway200-specific events in next year’s celebrations are being hosted in Derby – including “The Greatest Gathering”.
The first is at The Midland Railway Study Centre, which is set to stage three weekend-long events in the Museum of Making at Derby’s Silk Mill: “How the Railway Came to Derby”, “The Victorian and Edwardian Railway Worker” and “Railways of Derby in the Black & White Years”. The dates for these are not yet confirmed, but each will showcase objects and documents relevant to the theme, along with daily presentations and the famous “Kirtley Junction” model railway will be operated by its dedicated volunteers.
Alstom, the UK’s leading supplier of new trains and train services, meanwhile, will be opening its historic Derby factory to the public for the first time in 2025 to host an unprecedented event in celebration of Railway 200. The Greatest Gathering on 1, 2 and 3 August will see the largest temporary assembly of rolling stock and railway-related exhibits in a generation, all coming together for three days across the vast estate of Derby Litchurch Lane Works.
Some of the key locations within the city centre that are linked to the railway include the Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill, on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, where visitors get to see the much-loved Midland Model Railway, located in the Railway Gallery, along with a vast array of railway memorabilia in the Assemblage.
The Brunswick Inn, meanwhile, is a former railway men’s retreat that has been lovingly restored to its Victorian glory, and also boasts the city’s oldest micro-brewery.
Elsewhere, The Alexandra Hotel on Railway Terrace, possesses a rich railway heritage theme and a bar that’s adorned with memorabilia; while the historic Railway Quarter, which came to life on 30 May 1839 - when the first railway train steamed into Derby stopping at a temporary wooden platform a little to the south of the present station - now stands at the heart of Derby’s Railway Quarter.
The city also possesses the oldest surviving roundhouse in the world, built by Robert Stephenson in 1839 for the North Midland Railway. Inaccessible to the general public these days, it is currently a part of Derby College.
Derby, meanwhile, is still building on its railway history and heritage. These days, it’s also ‘home’ to the new Great British Railways HQ, which has already begun its journey towards bringing together track and train for the first time in a generation, and is now acting as “the railway’s guiding mind to deliver a simpler, better railway for its customers and funders”.
Its role will be to support and enable regional teams across Britain to deliver a single, integrated national network. Already the home to Europe’s largest rail cluster as well as global leaders in aerospace and nuclear innovation, Derby provides Great British Railways with “the ideal environment to seize the opportunities of a reformed railway and enhance the industry’s contribution to the UK’s prosperity”.
For further information about Derby, visit www.visitderby.co.uk.
ENDS
EDITORS’ NOTES:
While the railway first came to Derby in 1839, a constituent company of the Midland Railway - the Leicester & Swannington Railway - dates from as far back as 1832. Other Midland Railway constituents - the Ticknall Tramway and the Mansfield & Pinxton Railway - respectively trace their heritage back as far as 1802 and 1817, even earlier than the Stockton & Darlington. Never part of the Midland Railway but local to Derby, the Little Eaton Gangroad beats them all, opening in 1795. But the honour of being the first “modern railway” falls to the Stockton & Darlington Railway, as when it opened on 27 September 1825, it was operated with steam locomotives rather than horse-power.