Hitachi Rail has opened its doors to its Newton Aycliffe factory for the first time today and invited RailAdvent to take a look.

The state-of-the-art factory is located right next to the original Stockton and Darlington Railway, and visitors were able to take a behind-the-scenes look.

The factory is currently working hard to complete the order of Aurora trains that are for East Midlands Railway, and it was great to be able to see the same train, multiple times, but at various stages of being built, from the shell that was being built, all the way to a line up of four awaiting final testing.

Tickets for the open day sold out in under 72 hours, and allowed visitors to ride on Locomotion No. 1.

Inspiration was also visiting, which is the touring exhibition train full of fun activities.

Hitachi says that they will be moving on to making the new trains for Lumo and Hull Trains before the new Grand Central trains take centre stage.

The factory has up to 700 employees, and Hitachi says it supports around 2000 jobs in its supply chain.

This event is just one of the few initiatives that Hitachi is doing to celebrate 200 years of the modern railway, another is the significant donation Hitachi has made to help save Heighington’s original station.

Jim Brewin, Chief Director for UK & Ireland said: “Welcoming hundreds of families and rail enthusiasts through our doors is a wonderful way to celebrate 200 years of progress on the railway.

Alan Strickland MP said: “We can all be proud that Newton Aycliffe is at the forefront of rail technology today, just as it was in 1825. It was brilliant to see so many visitors exploring the Hitachi train factory, just a stone’s throw away from Heighington station, where Locomotion No. 1 was placed on the tracks for the first time.”

A big thank you to Hitachi for inviting us up to take a look around their factory. A video will follow soon on our YouTube channel.