The North-East has the richest railway heritage in the world, and The Northern Echo works hard to promote and celebrate railway heritage initiatives across the region.
The paper's starting point for the Railway Heritage campaign was in 2000, when the 175th anniversary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway - the world's first publicly-owned steam-powered passenger railway - fizzled out disappointingly into a funfair.

If this had been the US, it would have been impossible to move for signs shouting about this being "the birthplace of the railroad", and for crowds spending their money on souvenirs.

Having an interest in railway heritage is not about being an anorak. It is not even about catering for the exploding interest in local history.

It is about making money and financing a future.

In September 2004, Locomotion: the National Railway Museum at Shildon opened. It is an £8 million Lottery-financed extension of the York museum. It is the first national museum to be built in the North East. It combines the historic buildings and workshops of the Timothy Hackworth Museum with a new 557 sq metre (6,000 sq ft) building housing 60 vehicles from the National Collection, classrooms, conservation, workshops, cafe and shop on a one kilometre (1091 yards) long site which will also include public art, picnic facilities and play area.

Now the region has to take the next step. It has to link, with steam-power, the mainline at Darlington with the museum at Shildon and then encourage people to take a train journey up the beautiful dale on the Weardale Railway. And encourage them to spend their money...

We can only do that if we treasure our railway heritage, and not allow it to continue to decay.