George Stephenson was born in Wylam, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 9 June 1781. When he was 14, he went to work with his father at the Dewley Colliery and at 21 he became a colliery engineman. His only son, Robert, was born in October 1803.

At the age of 27, George Stephenson went to work at the Killingworth Colliery where he spent a lot of time taking the engines apart to see how they were built. In 1812, when he was 31 years old, he was was made the colliery's enginewright.

In 1813, George Stephenson found out that a number of people were trying to develop steam locomotives, and so he asked his manager if he could do the same. His manager agreed and the following year he built one that could pull 30 tonnes up hill at speeds of four miles per hour - he called his machine the 'Blutcher'.

George Stephenson continued to try to improve his locomotive and over the next five years he built 16 more engines. The owners of the colliery where he worked were very pleased with what he had done and in 1819 they asked him to build an eight mile railroad in Sunderland. In doing this, George Stephenson produced the first ever railway that could be used without any animal power.

In April 1821, Parliament passed an Act, which allowed a new horse railway to be built between the collieries in West Durham, Darlington and the River Tees at Stockton. George Stephenson spoke to the owner of the company who planned to build this and told him that a locomotive railway would be much better than one that used horses. Once the owner of this company had seen how the 'Blutcher' worked, he agreed that George Stephenson was right and he asked him to be the chief engineer on the project to build the Stockton to Darlington line. The work to build this railway began in 1822.
In 1823, George Stephenson, his son Robert and two others, Edward Pease and Michael Longdridge, formed a company to make locomotives. Called Robert Stephenson & Company, it was the first locomotive builders in the world. Their first locomotive was completed in September 1825 and was called 'Locomotion'.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825. The first journey was just under 9 miles and took two hours. It was made by George Stephenson himself in the Locomotion.

Other new railways were planned around the country. One of these was to run between Liverpool and Manchester, and George Stephenson was to be its Chief Engineer. The owners of the company building this railway decided to hold a competition for people to design a new locomotive to be used on it. The prize for the winner was £500. The competition was held at Rainhill in October 1829. All the locomotives had to travel about the same distance as the return trip between Liverpool and Manchester at a speed of at least 10 miles per hour. George and Robert Stephenson entered a locomotive called 'The Rocket' into the competition. There were two others entered but 'The Rocket' was chosen above both of them as the winner.

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened on 15 September 1830. After his success working on this project, George Stephenson was made Chief Engineer on a number of other new railways being built. These were between Manchester and Leeds, Birmingham and Derby, Normanton and York and Sheffied and Rotherham.

George Stephenson died at his home, Tapton House in Chesterfield, on 12 August 1848.