About

Welcome on board The Story Train!

 

The Story Train is no ordinary train carriage, it's a train that takes you on an imaginative journey. It's a coach that encourages you to experiment, try something new, discover your own story and those of your fellow passengers.

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The Story Train opened to the public for the first time on 3 December 2022. The First Class Buffet Car that once ran on the East Coast Main Line is now a special storytelling carriage inspiring visitors, schools and local communities in the story of the railways in the North East of England.

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In partnership with Weardale Railway, The Story Train is a creative hub of stories, art, music, theatre and other art forms engaging communities in the story of passenger travel. The coach is currently stabled at Stanhope Station on the Weardale Railway and is open every Saturday 12 - 3pm as well as for special occasions.

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The coach itself has its own story. Once part of LNER's High Speed Train rolling stock, the First Class Buffet Car began in service in 1978, as British Rail introduced the famous High Speed Train, connecting towns and cities across the UK at 125 miles per hour. The ‘Age of the Train’ was born.

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While the coach holds living memories of the past 50 years, we’ll go back another 50 years and 100 more to the birth of rail passengers at the launch of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825, to which the Weardale Railway connects.

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Today, the coach sits at Stanhope Station and is open to the public to experience and enjoy. The project has been designed, and is now delivered, by Citizen Songwriters, a collective of artists working in community, alongside the team at Weardale Railway.

 

Check out our Events page to see what's coming up!

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Also, make sure you subscribe below to receive monthly email updates to learn what's happening
on The Story Train.