The Railway Centenary celebrations were held on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on the 2nd July, 1925. The great feature of the celebrations, was the hundreds of years of railways, witnessed by the Duke and Duchess of York and a large company.
Part of the celebrations was the use of steam locomotive and tender, Stockton & Darlington Railway No.1, 0-4-0 “Locomotion” originally built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in Newcastle and was used on the opening day of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on 27th September 1825.
On the celebration day, the caption on the back of the photograph states: ‘Locomotion No 1, was driven by an old L & N. E. R. servant dressed as Stephenson and which carried a number of musicians dressed in the costume of 1825.’
Over 54 locomotives spanning the 100 years of railway operations took part, including the Sir Nigel Gresley-designed class A3 locomotive number 2563 ‘William Whitelaw’ built in 1924. The event was a landmark anniversary and proved very popular.
David Bill MBE, who is a director of the Melton Constable Trust, has kindly supplied these photographs, along with this fascinating letter below:
It would appear from the letter, that Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley visited Sheringham in 1925. However, it would be wonderful if we could find out a bit more information on Mr A. J. Sadler and the Church Street Garage in Sheringham.
If you have any information, then please contact:
David Bill MBE on d.bill@ntlworld.com