Railway 200: Gearing up for the ‘Greatest Gathering’

Alstom is planning a major event in August to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the railways. The ‘Greatest Gathering’ will take place at the company’s Litchurch Lane factory in Derby, and it will be one of the biggest events during the year-long celebrations. Peter Plisner has been finding out more.

It’s been labelled the ‘Greatest Gathering’ - and it looks set to live up to that description.

Even the launch event at the end of January was packed full of historic rail vehicles - ranging from the LNER Class A4 (60007) Sir Nigel Gresley, built in 1937, to a Class 720 Aventra electric multiple unit built last year at Alstom Litchurch Lane factory in Derby.

The event itself takes place on the first weekend in August, and it promises to be an event to remember.

Although the programme has still to be finalised, we know that it will house one of the largest collections of historic rail vehicles ever brought together.

There can’t be many sites in the country that could house such a large event. Indeed, the Derby site itself is steeped in railway history.

One of the world’s largest rolling stock factories, it was opened by the Midland Railway in 1876. And the city of Derby has been building trains continually since 1839.

The fact that Derby looks set to play a key role in the latest reforms of the railways, as the planned home for Great British Railways, further makes the city an entirely apt place to stage such a major event.

The Greatest Gathering is one of a growing number of events marking the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) on September 27 1825 - a momentous day in the journey to the modern railway.

The Railway 200 group that’s co-ordinating the year-long celebration is a cross-industry partnership. A small core team is delivering key national initiatives, but most of the nationwide activities will be taken forward by partner organisations, supported by the core team.

Emma Roberts, Programme Manager at Railway 200, tells RAIL: “It’s a great moment for us - and it’s really important to celebrate that pioneering spirit of the railway and the people that created it and essentially gifted it to the world.

“The railway shaped Britain and has changed the way we live. People perhaps don’t appreciate what the railway has meant to the country and their everyday lives.

“It’s a great opportunity to build a positive profile for rail and really inspire that next generation to come and work on the railway.

“I think that’s really the important part of having this anniversary year - to raise awareness and see the railway, perhaps, a bit differently and a great place to come and have a career.”

The Railway 200 website shows hundreds of events taking place all over the country. There’s even an interactive map allowing people to find the nearest events to where they live - and young and old are expected at the events throughout the year.

Roberts says: “We have more than 200 entries to our interactive map. They range from very small local community events, such as history talks and displays, through to much bigger events, taking place on heritage railways such as the Bluebell and Severn Valley.”

And, of course, there are clearly going to be major celebrations in the North East - home to the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Tees Valley, for example, is planning a nine-month-long festival charting the pioneering story of the first passenger railway, starting in March.

But one of the biggest events in the Railway 200 calendar has to be August 1-3’s Greatest Gathering.

Despite there being a long history of train making on the site at Derby, Alstom itself can claim a link with the original Stockton and Darlington Railway.

The first locomotive to run on the S&DR, Locomotion No. 1, was built by the Newcastle-based Robert Stephenson and Company.

It was the first firm in the world created specifically to build railway engines, and it later manufactured several of the first locomotives for other countries around the world.

Through successive mergers, Robert Stephenson and Company became part of Alstom in 1989, giving the company a direct link to the dawn of the railways and making it the custodian of a unique legacy.

“We are proud of the heritage of Robert Stephenson and this company,” says Gian Luca Erbacci, Europe Region President at Alstom.

“Of course, the train has now evolved, but everything started from Stephenson, so I think all the British people must be proud in the history. Alstom is more than proud and it’s an honour to have this within our company.”

So, what can those who have secured tickets expect to see in August?

Alongside displays of historic and modern main line locomotives, Britain’s biggest rail celebration will also feature rides along Derby’s one-mile-long test track, where many of the companies’ most recent railway offerings have been put through their paces.

There will also be a variety of narrow-gauge trains running around the site, along with fairground attractions, street food and live music.

And a railway event wouldn’t be complete without model railways - and the Greatest Gathering won’t disappoint here either.

Layouts are planned from some of the biggest names in model railways, including a section of Pete Waterman’s record-breaking Railnuts layout.

The music entrepreneur and railway enthusiast attended the launch event, telling RAIL that while he’s looking forward to celebrating the history of the railways, for him the year-long celebrations are about people.

“It’s not about trains. The railway family is what we’re celebrating. It’s a unique family where everybody has chipped in to make it work.

“It’s great to see these wonderful trains, but without the people they don’t run - and we never would have made them, and we certainly wouldn’t have invented them.

“At the end of the day we talk about climate change, we talk about connectivity and everything. But without the people there is no community.”

Although clearly associated with Alstom, the event in August is being organised as part of a collaboration across the railway industry.

Management at the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) will be supplying a large part of the standard gauge heritage exhibits on display during the weekend, having already staged a Railway 200 event of its own.

In January, around 100 heritage railway volunteers from across the UK came together at Severn Valley to help launch Railway 200.

Representatives from 15 UK heritage lines and locomotive owning groups assembled at the SVR’s Engine House at Highley, to see the recently overhauled Stanier Mogul No. 13268 pass through the station carrying a specially commissioned Railway 200 headboard.

Other events are planned throughout the year, but the August event in Derby will feature its biggest involvement in the Railway 200 festivities.

SVR managing Director Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster says: “Myself and a colleague, James Dobson from Avanti West Coast, are organising the standard gauge exhibits. James is more concerned with today’s industry side of things, and I’ve been more concentrated on the heritage side of things. It’s reasonable to say that SVR will have more heritage exhibits at the event than any other heritage railway.”

Dunster maintains that as a railway, SVR is very keen to be involved in the August event: “There are quite a few people at SVR making sure that we can provide all the vehicles that the organising team have suggested that they would like.”

And getting so many heritage locomotives to the site in Derby requires a mammoth amount of planning.

Dunster adds: “The diesel locomotives are easy to do as they regularly transit around the network. That’s simple and quite straightforward. A number of our heritage diesels are main line-registered. The more difficult element will be steam locomotives and some pre-nationalisation carriages that we want to display.

“We have a couple of LMS carriages that were built in Derby that we’d like to be part of the event. We are going to have to go through some processes with Network Rail to make sure that gauge clearance will be OK for those vehicles. We’ll be kicking that process off fairly soon, to make sure there aren’t any hidden difficulties.”

It seems that much of the expertise to stage the Greatest Gathering has been born out of an earlier event in Crewe in 2019, when Virgin Trains partnered with Locomotive Services Limited.

Dunster, who was working for Virgin at the time, was part of the organising team: “The organisers of that event have all gone their separate ways, myself included, but we got back together last summer and had a conversation around: wouldn’t it be good to do an open day event for Railway 200?

“That's how the Greatest Gathering was born.”

Alstom has chosen August for the Greatest Gathering because, along with other large manufacturers, it will be having a two-week shutdown.

Erbacci explains: “We have the opportunity to have the factory with not many workers. Normally we stop a couple of weeks to do the maintenance of the workshops, so we have people available to prepare the events. It’s quite complex and it will require a lot of safety and security.”

And talking of the workers, Railway 200 and the Greatest Gathering isn’t all about looking at locomotives and carriages. It’s hoped that the year-long celebrations will inspire more young people to consider a career on the railways.

Railway 200’s Emma Roberts says: “We’re hoping it will inspire the future generation, so who knows: for younger children who come to the event, it might be a memorable enough experience which defines their career moving forward.”

Waterman agrees: “We’re bringing our layout here from Milton Keynes so the kids can play with it. We’ve been on this mission to introduce young people to the railways so that they become comfortable with it. That’s how I got involved - you play with your train set and you become part of the railway family.”

The January launch event also included naming a nine-car Class 390 Pendolino Railway 200, allowing Avanti West Coast to play its part in the celebrations (RAIL 1029). The Alstom-built 390016 was also renumbered 390200.

AWC Managing Director Andy Mellors says: “Our newly named Railway 200 Pendolino will be seen the length and breadth of the West Coast Main Line, a route at the heart of the UK’s rail network, and just one of a number of events we have planned in the coming months.”

There’s talk that the same Pendolino will be involved in an attempt to break the London to Glasgow speed record, set by the Advanced Passenger Train.

The record of 3hrs 52mins and 40secs has stood since 1984. A previous attempt at the record took place in June 2021, when Pendolino 390044 Royal Scot failed to capture the record by just 21 seconds. The average speed on that occasion was 103mph for the 400-mile journey.

“What better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the railways with a record attempt,” says Mellors.

It’s expected that the attempt will take place sometime in the spring and that passengers on the train will consist of 200 invited guests.

Although the speed record will be an invite-only event, thousands have already booked their place for the Greatest Gathering. And it is already a sell-out.

It promises to be an amazing event, and one that will be remembered for many years to come.

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