RAILWAY enthusiasts are waiting with baited breath for one of the industry's greatest treasures to return home.

Sans Pareil, which was built by North-East rail pioneer Timothy Hackworth, will next week return to the town where it was created, to take pride of place at a multi-million pound railway museum.

Many say that it is fitting that the steam locomotive should come home to Shildon as one of the main exhibits at Locomotion: National Railway Museum.

Its final resting place will be inside the 1884 Sunday school opposite Hackworth's former home and yards away from where it was built in 1829.

It will be a star attraction in the middle of an audio-visual introduction to the £11m museum, which is a joint project between the National Railway Museum (NRM) and Sedgefield Borough Council.

Staff at the museum have already been preparing for the engine's arrival from the National Rail Museum in York, having knocked down part of the wall in the Sunday school to get it in. The floor of the building also had to be reinforced.

Museum manager George Muirhead said: "We are looking forward to welcoming the Sans Pareil home.

"It is of huge significance and importance to the town of Shildon."

Meaning "without parallel", Sans Pareil was built to compete in the famous Rainhill Trials.

The trials were 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.

Mr Muirhead said the museum is on schedule for its September 27 opening when the people of Shildon will be formally welcomed to "their museum".

Last week, the Deltic Prototype, the subject of many a schoolboy's fantasy in the 1950s and 1960s, took its place in the 6,000sq ft hanger, which will house 60 of the finest vehicles in the NRM's collection.

Mr Muirhead said: "The Deltic Prototype was the trail blazer of its time. It was iconic, certainly for the railway men of that generation."

There are now 26 vehicles at the museum, including wagons that were built at the Shildon Shops.

Mr Muirhead said: "The museum is filling up quite nicely. There are no engines arriving this week, which gives us breathing space to organise the engines we have and prepare for the arrival of the Sans Pareil."

Published: 23/07/2004