As we near the end of the first year of the Society’s new website, this note is just to thank you for visiting us, and for your interest in the Society, the Study Centre and the Midland Railway itself. Following on from this year’s Railway 200 celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway opening, and The Greatest Gathering event in Derby this summer, hosted by our friends and neighbours at Alstom, which we and many other organisations supported, the coming year 2026 brings further anniversaries with a direct Midland connection.
Foremost amongst them is surely the 150th anniversary of the Settle & Carlisle line opening to passengers on 1 May 1876, giving the Midland its own through route to Scotland, enabling it to compete with the West and East Coast routes completed more than 25 years earlier, as a worthy rival to the established players in terms of quality of the trains and the landscape through which they ran, if not always the speed. To mark the occasion, we are already planning special events, also in cooperation with the Friends of the Settle & Carlisle Line. For further details, please watch this space and the Members’ Newsletter.
In the meantime seasonal greetings and all the best for the new year, for your research, your modelling or other interest which has brought you to us.
