Recently restored to full working order by the London Transport Museum with a £422,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, it's being hauled by the newly restored Met Steam Locomotive No. 1 along the original route as part of a series of special trains to mark #Tube150.

The special steam train rides (taking place on Sunday 13 and 20 January) are recreating the first journey on the original stretch of the Metropolitan Railway, which took place on 9 January 1863 through 3½-miles of new tunnels on the Metropolitan line between Paddington and Farringdon - now part of the Circle & Hammersmith Line. The opening of the railway took place only 26 years after Queen Victoria came to the throne and was considered a great novelty - ‘the most stupendous engineering undertaking yet achieved in the railway world’.

The Metropolitan Railway Jubilee Carriage No 353 is the oldest operational underground carriage in existence and has recently been restored with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund by the Ffestiniog Railway - specialists in heritage railway carriage restorations - on behalf of the London Transport Museum. Over 150 participants have been given the opportunity to work towards a heritage and transport qualification via the National Open College Network as part of the project.

Note to editors

For more about the 150th Anniversary of the London Underground please see the TFL website.

London Transport Museum website.

Further information

Vicky Wilford, HLF press office on 020 7591 6046 or vickyw@hlf.org.uk.