Celebrate 200 Years of Railway History!
In 1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened the world’s first passenger railway station on Tuesday 27th September — a milestone that transformed travel forever. Steam locomotives carried passengers and goods at unprecedented speed, sparking a transport revolution that connected towns, boosted industry, and shaped modern Britain.
This special SideTracked Railway 200 event at Eaglescliffe is part of a nationwide celebration running from Wednesday 24th to Tuesday 30th September 2025. All finds and hides from this event count towards your SideTracked statistics, and a unique profile badge will be created especially for this event. Whether your chosen location is old, disused, miniature, or still bustling today, it’s part of a railway story that’s been 200 years in the making.
Date: Sunday 28th September 2025
Time: 6.45am to 7.30am
Please join me at the stated coordinates early on Sunday morning to talk about geocaching and celebrate 200 years since the first trains that ran through the area. This is an outdoor event please dress appropriately for the weather conditions on the day. The station has a car park, you have to pay to park car here, however, there is free car parking in the nearby roads on a Sunday
A brief history about the railways in and around Eaglescliffe
The first railway line ran on the east side of Yarm Road, through the grounds of Preston Hall. It is said that Lord Preston (Marshall Robinson Fowler) was unhappy the disruption that trains, such as Locomotion No. 1 caused to his cattle and had insisted that it was moved west of the road when the Stockton and Darlington Railway re-aligned their line.
The railway station serving the parishes of Preston-on-Tees and Egglescliffe, was known as Preston. Displeased at the cost of moving the station, the railway owners decided to name the new station after Egglescliffe (ultimately using a different spelling) instead.
The current railway station was opened by the Leeds Northern Railway on 25 May 1852, with their line from Melmerby to Stockton. That line deviates from the original alignment of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The station became known as Eaglescliffe Junction, as passengers could change between services on the two respective lines. Originally the station had four platforms: the westernmost platforms were taken out of use in the late 1960s and since been removed.
As part of the bi-cenetary celebration there is a planned anniversary journey starting at NRM Locomotion, Shildon on Friday September 26th, Darlington on Saturday September 27th and will arrive at Stockton Station on Sunday September 28th.
If the timings published on the S&D 200 are correct, replica steam locomotive 'Locomotion No. 1', replica wagons and replica coach (as depicted in the above picture) should pass through Eaglescliffe railway station sometime during this SideTracked event.