Replacement buses as railway celebrates 200 years

Northern runs an hourly service between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn, which includes parts of the 200-year-old railway

Replacement buses will run along the route of a 200-year-old railway line so it can close to celebrate its anniversary.

A weekend of events are planned to mark the bicentenary of Stockton and Darlington Railway, which first ran on 27 September 1825.

Some services will be replaced with buses to allow a replica of the Locomotion No 1 engine to recreate that first journey, starting at Locomotion Rail Museum in Shildon on Friday and ending in Stockton on Sunday.

Northern, which operates a service using parts of the historic line, said buses would run for an hour between Bishop Auckland and Darlington on Friday and Saturday and for a short period on Sunday between Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.

A Northern spokesperson said: "We have made a small number of changes to the timetable to allow the replica of Locomotion No 1 to run for this special 200th anniversary celebration.

"We are expecting a lot of people to travel by train to the anniversary event this week and are working hard to ensure we can get everyone where they need to go."

Three services will not run between Darlington and Bishop Auckland from 12:00 to 13:00 on Friday and Saturday, but replacement buses will be provided.

On Sunday, the 10:31 from Newcastle to Nunthorpe will terminate at Hartlepool with a replacement bus operating to Middlesbrough.

The 11:31 Middlesbrough to Carlisle will start at Hartlepool, with a connecting bus operating from Middlesbrough.

There are a number of locations the Locomotion No 1 journey can be viewed from, with booking free but essential at several of them.