2 Pounds - Charles III 200 Years of the Modern Railway

The "modern railway" anniversary being commemorated here traces to the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which opened in September 1825 and became the first public steam-hauled line — though it still used horse traction for passenger coaches in its early years. George Stephenson's locomotive Locomotion No. 1 hauled the inaugural freight run, covering roughly nine miles. The Royal Mint has issued railway-themed £2 pieces intermittently since the mid-1990s, making this a continuation of a well-established commemorative thread rather than a novel departure.