LONDON -- Thousands of people gathered over the weekend to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the historic British train journey that laid the foundations for much of the modern age. The bicentenary commemorations centered around George Stephenson's Locomotion No. 1, the first steam-powered railway engine to run on a public railway, which made its inaugural 26-mile journey on September 27, 1825, between Shildon and Stockton in northeast England.

The Stockton & Darlington Railway, while not the world's first railway, represented a pivotal technological breakthrough as the first to incorporate the standard-gauge, steam-hauled features that would become the foundation of railway systems worldwide. This small but significant milestone heralded rapid changes in how Britain, and subsequently the global community, conducted trade, traveled, and communicated across distances previously considered formidable.

Railway enthusiasts have marked this historic milestone through events across the United Kingdom throughout the year, with particular focus on this weekend's celebrations at the journey's origin point. A newly restored replica of Locomotion No. 1 recreated the original journey, departing from the Locomotion Museum in Shildon and traveling along sections of the original line to Stockton, complete with three coal wagons and a passenger carriage.

The commemorative events attracted participants from across the country, including Prince Edward, King Charles III's youngest brother, who rode in a carriage pulled by the replica engine. Doug Haynes, an 81-year-old retired aircraft engineer who traveled approximately 100 miles to witness the reenactment, described the experience as "tremendous" and well worth the journey. The celebrations echoed the joyous scenes from 200 years earlier, when people including newspaper reporters traveled from across the nation to line the tracks, with Darlington even declaring a local holiday for the original 1825 event.

Families of the 29 victims killed in the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash are escalating their decades-long fight for answers, preparing to deliver a petition with more than 47,000 signatures to Downing Street demanding a public inquiry. The Chinook Justice Campaign has published 110 "critical questions" they want answered about the tragedy that claimed the lives of 25 intelligence experts and four special forces crew members when the aircraft crashed on the Mull of Kintyre on June 2, 1994.

The campaign comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer rejected calls for a judge-led inquiry into the incident, prompting families to declare they will "see the UK government in court." Among those delivering the petition on Tuesday are brothers Andy and Matt Tobias from Watford, whose father John Tobias was killed in the crash. The petition delivery will be accompanied by an attempt to deliver a letter directly to the Ministry of Defence.

Central to the families' concerns are questions about mission authorization, aircraft selection, and whether those on board were properly warned of risks. The campaign has gained momentum amid revelations that key documents related to the crash have been sealed until 2094—a century after the incident occurred. David Hill, technical expert for the Chinook Justice Campaign, characterized the government's position as "a betrayal by the state of them and their loved ones."

The crash investigation has followed a contentious path over the past three decades. Initial findings blamed pilot error for the tragedy, but this conclusion was overturned in 2011. The continuing secrecy surrounding the incident has drawn criticism from campaigners who argue it "undermines trust not only in the MoD but in the government itself." As families prepare to confront the government directly, the case represents one of Britain's longest-running military accountability battles.