The Railway Touring Company’s ‘Railway 200 Special’ on Saturday, September 27, 2025, marks this historical milestone in railway history with a special train that will travel over part of the original route from Shildon, and Stockton to Darlington.
This special train will start at Carnforth, make its way eastwards diesel hauled via Hellifield to Skipton to pick up passengers and pick up point at Keighley, Leeds and York.
At York the train will be met by an historic steam locomotive for the journey north along the East Coast Main Line to Darlington, stopping for further passengers.
From Darlington, the Railway 200 Special will run along the historic Bishop Auckland Tees Valley Line calling at Shildon, the world’s first railway town. Passengers will have the opportunity to visit Locomotion, the sister museum of the National Railway Museum. It houses the largest undercover collection of historic railway vehicles in Europe, including Robert Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 and Timothy Hackworth’s San Pareil.
The train will continue along the branch line to Bishop Auckland to join the 18 mile long Weardale Railway for a run as far as Stanhope. On the return journey along the Weardale line the train will be diesel hauled to Bishop Auckland and onwards to Darlington, calling at Shildon to pick up passengers who alighted there.
At Darlington the train will reverse its direction of travel and run steam hauled again northwards along the ECML through Durham to Newcastle. At Newcastle the train will turn via the Tyne bridges loop and head south again, passing through Durham to the Ferryhill Junction where it will head along the freight line towards Stockton to rejoin the route of the historic Stockton & Darlington line as far as Eaglescliffe, where it will continue southwards to Northallerton.
At York the train will leave its steam locomotive behind, completing the return to Carnforth and pick up points en-route diesel hauled.