In 1825 the Stockton & Darlington Railway began operations as the world’s first public railway to be operated by steam. The first train, that opened the railway on the 27th September, was drawn by the locomotive that became known as LOCOMOTION No.1, and from this origin all public railways the world over developed to become the driving force behind economic progress. The brief history that accompanied the locomotive’s preservation in 1857 was both inadequate and factually incorrect. In anticipation of the railway’s bicentenary a major archival and archaeological study was initiated by the National Railway Museum to establish the true history of the locomotive both in service and during retirement. This is the story revealed by the study.