Celebrating 200 years of pioneering railway
A nine-month long festival will celebrate the 200th anniversary of a pioneering steam-powered passenger railway.
Between March and November, a series of events will be staged to mark the importance of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR).
Highlights include a re-enactment of the first journey along the 26-mile route, which will see a replica of the Locomotion No 1 locomotive, coal wagons and the first passenger carriage Experiment run on tracks that largely follow the original.
Neil Hammond, chair of the Friends of S&DR, said the County Durham railway helped to "create the modern world".
The group claims the line was the start of the modern railway network from which all modern railways across the world developed.
Mr Hammond said: "It brought in mass transport. It supercharged the Industrial Revolution. It brought things in like mass holiday destinations.
"It did some negative things. A lot of climate change is probably down to the fact that the Stockton and Darlington Railway encouraged a lot of industrialisation.
"But it created the modern world, and it all started here in County Durham."
Visitor numbers across County Durham and the Tees Valley are expected to spike through 2025 as visitors attend events or visit still-existing parts of the Stockton and Darlington Railway infrastructure, such as Darlington's Skerne Bridge - the oldest railway bridge in continuous use in the world.
'Pretty disgraceful'
However, according to The Northern Echo newspaper's Chris Lloyd, not everything associated with the line is treasured.
"At Heighington, just outside Newton Aycliffe, we have what Historic England calls the world's first passenger station and it's derelict," he said.
"It's pretty disgraceful for the birthplace of the railways.
"So we have to use the 200th anniversary to bring everything up, to improve things so that we leave a legacy for future generations to come and see the birthplace of the railways."
The Stockton and Darlington Railway bi-centenary events are part of a national celebration of 200 years of the modern railway.
As part of that, New Year's Day saw 200 vintage steam and diesel locomotives sounding their whistles at midday.
Making for a cacophonous welcome to the anniversary year, train engine horns were also blown at mainline stations as part of the national Railway 200 Whistle-Up event.
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