ONE of the railways' greatest treasures returned home this week to take its place as one of the star attractions at a multi-million pound railway museum.
The Sans Pareil, the engine that was built by North-East railway pioneer Timothy Hackworth, was hoisted on to a low loader at the National Railway Museum in York on Monday night and arrived, with police escort in Shildon on Tuesday.
The engine is to be at the centre of an audio-visual introduction to the £11m Locomotion National Railway Museum, housed in the 1884 Sunday School in Soho Street, just yards from where it was created by Hackworth in 1829.
Museum staff went to painstaking lengths to make sure they were ready to welcome the locomotive, having knocked down part of the Sunday School wall and strengthened the floor to ensure it can be accommodated at its final resting place.
Meaning 'without parallel,' Sans Pareil was built to compete in the famous Rainhill Trials, held to decide the method of operating the world's first intercity passenger railway, which was opened between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830.
Sans Pareil was a strong competitor until it broke down, leaving Stephenson's Rocket the winner.
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