Steam locomotive returns to Underground for 150th anniversary celebration

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Steam will return to the London Underground next year as the network celebrates its 150th anniversary.

In January, Met Locomotive No. 1 will make a special service to mark the very first public passenger journey on the Tube in 1863.

The Met Locomotive No. 1 was built in 1898 and headed the opening train on the Uxbridge branch of the Metropolitan line in July 1904.

The original Underground line was built and financed by the Metropolitan Railway, a private company which had been formed in 1854 to undertake the ground-breaking project to link the mainline stations at Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross with the city centre business district to the east.

On 10 January 1863, the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station to make the first public passenger journey.

The line was a huge success with 26,000 passengers using the railway each day in the first six months.

Met Locomotive No. 1 will pull the Metropolitan Railway ‘Jubilee’ carriage No. 353 which was built in 1892 and is being restored thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Chesham set of coaches which will be on loan from the Bluebell Railway. No. 12 Sarah Siddons will also form part of this train.

A fundraising campaign to secure £250,000 to restore Met Locomotive No. 1 has been launched by London Transport Museum.

Anyone supporting the restoration of Met Locomotive No. 1 will be entered into a ballot to win a pair of tickets to ride on the recreation of the inaugural passenger journey, which will take place in January 2013.

The Royal Mint will also be issuing two commemorative £2 coins and Art on the Underground will run a programme including new commissions by top British artists to mark the anniversary.

London Underground’s managing director, Mike Brown, said: “London Underground has always played a hugely important role in the success of our city – from the growth of the early network which led to the expansion of the suburbs in the last century, to the development of Canary Wharf’s financial powerhouse in the 1980s, and on to today’s system which successfully moved record numbers of people during the Queen’s Jubilee and London 2012 Games.”

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