(Steam) powering ahead: Newcastle’s innovative railway history

25 March 2025

Newcastle has a long history of innovation and a rich industrial heritage which can still be seen and felt across the city to this day in its countless listed buildings (we have the second most listed buildings of any English city) and vibrant heritage quarters.

Most well-known for our history in shipbuilding, it is our role in the development of the modern railways that is perhaps most enduring. Testament to this, in February and March 2025 we saw the Heritage Railway Awards and the Community Rail Network Awards hosted in Newcastle. A significant milestone, 2025 marks the 200^th anniversary of the modern railway of which the North East of England played a key role.

In 1825, down the road from Newcastle and Gateshead, the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) opened, connecting rural coal mines and communities to wider distribution links. It was the first time steam-powered locomotives were used to transport passengers as well as goods such as coal and popular building materials. Although locomotives were already in use across the country, this was the first permanent, public steam-powered railway line that anyone could use, provided they paid the fare – it was also the longest, at 26-miles on the day of its launch.

It was engineer and ‘Father of the Railways’ George Stephenson, from nearby Northumberland, who designed and constructed the locomotive, Locomotion No 1, for the new S&DR at the Robert Stephenson & Co. Works in Newcastle. He also surveyed a revised route and drove the engine on the day of its launch in September 1825.

A few years later, in 1829, Robert Stephenson – George’s son – went on to design and make The Rocket steam locomotive in Newcastle which went on to win the Rainhill Trials for the new Liverpool-Manchester line and was a clear advancement in railway technology.

Father and son George and Robert Stephenson would go on to take their steam-powered railway models across the UK, Europe and worldwide, shipping their locomotives to the likes of China, Argentina, USA, Japan and Australia, changing the efficiency of railways across the world for years to come.

Today, the grounds of the Robert Stephenson & Co. Works are home to a mixed-use city centre quarter with commercial, office, education and hospitality space all convened on one site – Stephenson Quarter. This includes the Crowne Plaza Hotel with its dynamic meetings and events space and 251 rooms, and the Boiler Shop, a quirky music and events space. The history behind the site is still tangible with buildings on the site named with a nod to the workshops which stood there before them, and original structures and walls maintained as they have been redeveloped.

Headquartered nearby, Lumo, is testament to the city’s continued innovation in the railway industry. The first all-electric rail company in the UK, Lumo’s fleet of trains is 100% electric, connects Newcastle to London in under three hours, and to Scotland in under two, and is 25 times cleaner than flying. The service provides visitors and delegates with a greener, and cost-effective way to access the city when visiting for conferences or for leisure.

Newcastle’s clean energy eco-system goes beyond the main transport sector with many companies that are developing sustainable energy solutions for low carbon sectors such as electric vehicles and offshore wind also calling the city home, including Connected Energy and Kinewell Energy. In the era of the second industrial revolution – with data, AI and globalisation as key pillars for growth – Newcastle’s sector strengths in electrification and clean energy play, and will continue to play, a leading role.

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