Transforming York: Rail’s legacy Steve Davies, Susan Major and Mary-Anne Slater
Event details
On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson’s steam-powered Locomotion No. 1 travelled 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. This single journey changed the world forever, starting a chain of events which would lead to better connected communities, a major shift in the way goods were transported and improvements to the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.
Join expert speakers as they look back over 200 remarkable years of rail history and assess its transformative impact on the city of York and the wider region. Our speakers include Steve Davies, Managing Director of the International Railway Heritage Consultancy Limited and a former director of the National Railway Museum; Susan Major, a rail historian and independent researcher; and Mary-Anne Slater, York Archaeology’s project lead on the York Station Gateway project.
This event is part of the Festival Focus ‘Beyond the Tracks: Innovation and transformation’ presented in collaboration with LNER. You may also be interested in ‘York: A 21st-century rail hub’ and ‘Rail: A gateway to the future’ taking place the same day.
Railway 200
2025 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway. Find out about Railway 200 and LNER’s involvement.
Image credit: Science Museum Group. Steam locomotive No. 1 'Locomotion', Stockton & Darlington Railway. 1978-7010 Science Museum Group Collection Online.
About the speakers
Steve Davies MBE is Managing Director of the International Railway Heritage Consultancy Limited. A former Colonel in the British Army, Steve has been a lifelong railway enthusiast and is involved in a significant number of heritage railway projects both on a professional and voluntary basis. On retirement from the Army Steve served as Director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester – site of the world’s oldest surviving railway terminus (circa 1830) – then as Director of the National Railway Museum in York, during which time he devised, negotiated and implemented the repatriation of two 160 ton steam locomotives from North America to take part in an Award-winning exhibition marking the 75th anniversary of Mallard achieving the World record for steam traction of 126 mph. Steve is the Chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, builders and operators of brand-new main line steam locomotives.
Dr Susan Major is an historian and independent researcher, who is particularly interested in the way that the working classes used railways in the mid-19th century and how it affected their leisure mobility. Susan completed a research Masters (2005) and PhD degree (2012) with the Institute of Railway Studies at the University of York. Her PhD focused on early excursion crowds, using resources offered by the National Railway Museum in York. Her book on this subject, Early Victorian Railway Excursions (2015), was translated into Japanese last year. Her subsequent research focused on the experiences of women working on the railways in wartime, again using oral history resources in the National Railway Museum, and published as Female Railway Workers in World War II (2018). Susan has appeared in a number of television programmes talking about her researches and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Mary-Anne Slater has been a Project Manager at York Archaeology for over six years, managing projects in York city centre as well as further afield across Yorkshire. Recent projects in York city centre include a large excavation at Micklegate, as well as the current long-running site at York Station Gateway.
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