No. 1

"It is the intention of the proprietors to meet below the tower at Brusselton near West Auckland, about 9 miles west of Darlington, at eight o'clock A.M. and after inspecting the inclined planes proceed at nine o'clock precisely to Stockton-upon-Tees, where they will arrive about one o'clock." "Four hours to do twenty-six miles? Impossible!" Set in Regency England, "No. 1" draws on the real and the imagined from every region of the North East present at the birth of the railways, starting on 18th September 1810 in Stockton and finishing there on 28th September 1825, the day after the first ever railway trip between two towns, an event that changed history, though history didn't record it inadvertently carrying a boy fleeing from a miscarriage of justice and an ex-Waterloo veteran intent on silencing him but history can now be straightened out. In this ambitious and unique re-creation by Darlington-born writer Tony Stowers, reality and fiction are blended through the eyes of real-life celebrated figures and everyday ordinary people impacted by the revolutionary technology. It also includes an hour-by-hour account of the opening day on 27th September 1825.