SHILDON, England — Shildon is forever enshrined in the annals of railroad history thanks to the events of Sept. 27, 1825.
On that day, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, when a train pulled by Locomotion No. 1 completed the 12-mile journey from Shildon to Darlington. The trip took two hours.
Timothy Hackworth built the original station in town, which is one of the oldest railway stations ever built, and Shildon is considered to be the world’s first railway town. Shildon soon became a major center for British railway engineering with the opening of the Shildon wagon works, which opened in 1833 and closed in 1984.
