RECENTLY a TV programme, Railways that Built Britain presented by Chris Tarrant, mentioned that the first “real” railway ran between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830.

It may have been the first proper looking passenger train made up with open carriages for the purpose of transporting people and goods, but the first train to pull passengers was the Stockton and Darlington Railway of five years earlier.

George Stephenson’s engine Locomotion No.1 was coupled to coal wagons with an odd-looking covered wooden box vehicle called the ‘Experiment’ for transporting people; effectively the first passenger carriage. Ironically the same carriage was seen from an aerial view of William Hedley’s’ Puffing Billy’ loco at Beamish Museum on which Mr Tarrant rode.

There is a working replica engine seen at Beamish, but the original was formally displayed on a plinth in Darlington train station and is now housed at Head of Steam, Darlington, in the North Road Station, which was built in 1842 and is typical of the era of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

There was no mention of the Sans Pareil, built by Timothy Hackworth, of Shildon, which ran at the Rainhill Trials against George Stephenson’s Rocket and other competitors and was the first to run on the Manchester and Liverpool Railway.

Locomotive design may have been a bit different if Sans Pariel won for it was faster than Rocket, however a cylinder broke and Rocket won for durability. Hackworth’s engine and its replica can be seen at NRM Locomotion at Shildon.

Construction of the railways was mentioned but not in the North-East when railway tracks were laid to transport coal down from the Northumberland and Durham coalfields to the River Tyne.

You can still ride on the Tanfield Railway, near Gateshead, on a trackbed constructed in 1725; one of the earliest in the region.

The oldest existing operating loco shed in the world is found at Marley Hill used by heritage steam and diesel engines of that railway. Another bridge, the first built of iron in 1823 was found over the River Gaunless, west of Shildon, although it was replaced in 1901 and was given to the railway museum at York, where it can be seen today. The forerunner of railway sleepers, or ties, can be seen on an incline at Brusselton, near Bishop Auckland, by the way of large stone blocks that carried iron rails.

Truly the North-East is the birthplace of the railways.

Paula Ryder, Bishop Auckland

LIKE Martin Birtle (HAS, Feb 16) I watched Chris Tarrant in a new TV programme about the story of the railways.

More than once he said that the first passenger railway ran from Manchester to Liverpool in 1829.

As we know the first was the Stockton to Darlington line in 1825 - more wrong information on the TV.

GO Wright, Sadberge