Archive reveals free train travel token – for George Stephenson's use only

Free train travel… if you are George Stephenson.

This pass is one of six similar tokens held within the IMechE’s archive collection. Tokens such as these were presented by a company to an individual and entitled the holder to free travel on that company’s rail services. 

The tokens in our collection were all presented to George Stephenson, many by virtue of his involvement with the railway company through serving positions such as director, engineer-in-chief and civil engineer. 

As well as this pass from the Whitehaven Junction Railway (for which Stephenson was the engineer-in-chief) we also hold passes presented by the following companies: the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway, the Eastern Counties Railway, the Leicester and Swannington Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Grand Junction Railway. 

Dating from the 1830s and 1840s, the tokens signify the boom of small private rail companies.

The tokens have been digitised and 3D versions of them can be viewed at: https://archives.imeche.org/archive/artefacts