George Stephenson was the builder of the first successful steam locomotive, depicted in late middle age, wearing a toga-like scarf over his shoulder and holding a rolled-up plan in his right hand. He stands on top of a tapering pedestal resting on a plinth. At the corners of the base there are four over-sized reclining figures, half-Greek hero, half-contemporary worker: a plate-layer with a model of Stephenson's 'fish-bellied-rail'; a miner with Stephenson's patent safety-lamp; a blacksmith with a small anvil; and a locomotive engineer leaning on a model of a locomotive.