'Opening of the First Public Railway - the Stockton and Darlington', 1825.

Watercolour by John Dobbin showing crowds gathered at the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The S&DR was built under the guidance of the company's chief engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848), to link collieries in West Durham and Darlington with the docks on the River Tees at Stockton in Durham. The line was opened on 27 September 1825 from the Witton Park Collieries near West Auckland. It was the world's first pasenger railway.