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Yorkshire's railway heritage stretches beyond 200 years March 11, 2025

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railwayWhile a "Railway 200" celebration is launched by Network Rail in 2025 as the "200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway" it is worth remembering that the railway history of Yorkshire stretches back many decades before then.

The anniversary marks the 200th anniversary of The Stockton & Darlington Railway which was opened on September 27, 1825, on a route between the two towns in historic County Durham but was later extended into Yorkshire and the port of Middlesbrough .

Yorkshire however can trace its railway history back long before 1825.

The Middleton Railway, near Leeds , has the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously working railway, established 67 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1758.

It became the first railway to the authorised by an act of Parliament, the Middleton Railway Act 1757.

Blenkinsop's 1812 rack locomotive Salamanca From 1829 engraving. Public domain source at Wikimedia Commons It initially operated as a horse-drawn waggon-way to take coal from the Middleton collieries towards Leeds. But the steam age also arrived earlier in Yorkshire, when in 1812, some 13 years before the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the Middleton railway operated the first successful commercial steam locomotive.

The locomotive Salamanca was the first of four built for the colliery railway. With its twin-cylinder design it was more sophisticated than the experimental steam locomotives of Richard Trevithick a few years earlier. The locomotives were designed and built in Leeds by Matthew Murray to work with a rack railway track which had been designed and patented by John Blenkinsop, the colliery manager.

The Middleton Railway today runs as a heritage passenger line with a museum at its Moor Road station revealing its long history. Although it has been closed for winter maintenance, the line reopens on Saturday April 5.

The Penistone Line Partnership is running a viaduct photography competition Scarborough has the world's longest station seatAs part of the Railway 200 celebrations the Middleton Railway will be hosting a series of three evening talks during May, June and July commemorating the contribution of Leeds to the development of the railways. The railway is also restoring the world's smallest standard gauge diesel locomotive, built 90 years ago by the Hunslet Engine Co, to mark the pioneering role Leeds played also in diesel locomotive development.

Many other Railway 200 events are taking place to celebrate railway heritage in Yorkshire, including a viaducts photography competition on the Penistone Line which runs between West and South Yorkshire, art and photography exhibitions, drama, rail tours and even a student attempt to seat as many people as possible on the world's longest station seat at Scarborough station.

Yorkshire's railway heritage stretches beyond 200 years March 11, 2025

More about Railway 200 at Network Rail.

More about the Middleton Railway .

More about the Penistone Line Partrnership Viaducts Photography Competition.

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