MAYORS past, present and future took part in a fundraising walk along the route of the world's first passenger railway, to celebrate its 190th anniversary.

The walk, along the historic route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, was organised by Darlington mayor Tom Nutt.

Dozens of people took part in the walk at various points along the 20-mile-plus route, with a hardcore of about 15 walking the whole route.

The route celebrates its bicentenary in ten years and it is hoped to turn it into a significant tourist attraction by that time.

Cllr Nutt and the rest of the group set off at 7.30am from the old ticket office in Stockton, at one end of the former line, and reached Shildon, at the other end, shortly after 4pm.

Deputy mayor Brian Jones – who is in line to become the next mayor of Darlington next year – joined in for part of the route.

Cllr Nutt's predecessor, Cllr Gerald Lee, completed the entire route.

Cllr Nutt said: "The day was a great success and raised £1,500 for my mayoral charities, which include the 700 Club, Alzheimer's Society and Darlington Talking Newspaper.

"Smaller charities are suffering at the moment, so I wanted to help causes like that during my time as mayor."

Cllr Nutt added: "The day could not have gone better. I was really worried about the weather, I thought we were all going to get drenched, but we only had about ten minutes of rain all day."