The Rocket May 1980 page 11

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 12th December 2011 by Liam Physick

This article, headed, “Smiles on the Trials”, describes the Rocket’s performance at the Rainhill Trials, with a picture of the famous locomotive itself. The article gives a vivid description of how the Rocket was steamed, and notes how it achieved “three times the speed that one of the judges of the competition had declared to be the limit of possibility”: certainly, it went three times faster than the maximum limit stipulated in the Trials criteria, and, as the article notes, its average speed was twice the stipulation. With heavily religious language, the article next states how Stephenson “rejoiced to think that in spite of all the false prophets and fickle counsellors [surely those who doubted the use of locomotives could hardly be described as evil, as this implies], his locomotive system was now safe.” More religious imagery comes in the final sentence, in which, as a result of the Rocket’s success and superb performance at the Trials, “Mr. [James] Cropper - one of the directors favourable to the fixed engine system - lifted up his hands, and exclaimed, ‘Now has George Stephenson at last delivered himself!’ “. Truly a sinner that repenteth!

Tagged under: steam locomotives, tender locomotives, rocket, rainhill trials, george stephenson, rainhill, religion, fixed engines, the rocket magazine, james cropper

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives