Tickets going on sale for the largest gathering of railway locomotives in a generation
Over 50 historic locomotives and trains will gather in one place later this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway, and tickets to see them are going on sale.
Over three days in August, Alstom’s historic Litchurch Lane Site in Derby will open to the public for the first time in over 50 years — for an unprecedented gathering of railway locomotives. To give a teaser of what the weekend will be like, on Thursday, the depot gathered together some iconic locomotives to blow their whistles for the visitors.
There will be a lot more of that over the three day gathering.
During the preview, the Alstom-built 390016 train was also named ‘Railway 200’ and renumbered 390200. Later this year, this train will also attempt to break the UK rail speed record for a trip between London and Glasgow set by an APT in December 1984.
The three-day Greatest Gathering forms part of the wider Railway 200 festivities, a year-long celebration marking the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) on 27 September 1825 – and a journey that gave birth to the modern 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 company in the world created specifically to build railway engines and 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.
Alongside displays of historic and modern mainline locomotives, Britain’s biggest rail celebration will also feature rides along Derby’s test railway track and a variety of narrow-gauge trains will be in operation.
Elsewhere, layouts staged by some of the biggest names in model railways – including a section of Pete Waterman’s record-breaking Railnuts layout – will take centre stage in the Model Railway Village, while historians and industry leaders will take part in engaging talks and discussions in the Mobility Theatre.
Tickets are on sale from here.
Ticket sales were suspended after their website crashed — resumed on a new website on 5th Feb.
- Adults: £30
- Children: £15
- Family (2A+2C): £65
Children under five go free.
Getting to Alstom Derby for Rail200
For Londoners visiting Derby, it’s about 1.5 hours by train from London St Pancras station, and you can walk to the Alstom site in about 15 minutes.
It will likely be very well signposted over the weekend or just follow the crowds.
Somehow the link to tickets seems to present all sorts of security risks and comes up on three different browsers as “403 Forbidden”
The site was overloaded, but multiple refreshes and form resubmissions got my two tickets ordered. Worth persisting for what promises to be a spectacular event!
I got a cloudflare error when adding tickets to the basket hit refresh and put back into the queue. This site needs to be closed until its fixed, I can’t be done with this. An hour waiting and now more than an hour again. Yea, thanks but no thanks.
Tried 4 times to get tickets , won’t acknowledge me adding items to basket . Real disappointment
My wife has been trying to buy tickets all day. Keeps being dumped to the back of the queue. Pity such a high profile even as this has employed such a bunch of wallies es as this to handle their ticket sales. Doesn’t take an Einstein to predict this.
I’ve emailed radio derby see if they could find out anything as my husband had been trying to buy tickets constantly since 9 15am this morning to no avail.
I am very interested in this event but at £30 a ticket I’m only prepared to turn up if there’s any Deltics. A regulat Class 55 could get me to turn up but I’ll definately be there if DP1 the Deltic prototype is there.
Also will we get access to the loco’s cabs?
I missed out on getting my photo taken sitting in the drivers seat of Mallard when they did the Gathering of all the remaining A4’s at York, regetted that ever since. If this gives the oppertunity to rectify that over sight it would be the crown on the day.
I know I’m late to the party but as of Sunday morning ticket sales have been suspended due to demand.
Given the predictable large demand for tickets, I wonder how the exhibits will separated from the guests, to allow clear pictures of same, especially if cab visits are available ?
I remember that for Old Oak Common’s open day, they sent out a message to the train photographers to be more tollerant of people who are there to look and admire the locomotives and might not realise that photographers expect a 50 metre exclusion zone around every exhibit for their personal use.
Personally, I think some of my best photos from the day are the ones that include people in them.