Rocket at Rainhill Trials

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 24th October 2011 by Liam Physick

One of the images supplied to Metal by Eric Shenton. This mural of the Rainhill Trials shows the eventual winner, the Rocket. On 5th October, the day before the Trials started, the Rocket put in an impressive performance. Three days later, it got its chance in the competition. It was able, as the rules required, to pull three times its own weight. Its performance was faultless and on its last run, as its crew grew more expert in handling it, reached 24 miles per hour - nearly as fast as the Novelty. On 10th, the Rocket gave some demonstration runs after the Novelty’s feed pipe burst. On the 14th, with all of its rivals having withdrawn, the Rocket was declared the winner, and George and Robert Stephenson and Henry Booth received the £500 first prize, with Robert Stephenson and Company given the contract to build locomotives for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Rocket then celebrated its historic victory with another superb run, reaching 35 miles per hour - the first time a man-made object had travelled faster than a horse. Later, the Rocket proved able to climb a 1 in 96 incline at 15 to 18 miles per hour, pulling a coach with 30 passengers, thus establishing that there would be no need to use fixed winding engines on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, except at Wapping Tunnel

Tagged under: steam locomotives, liverpool and manchester railway, eric shenton, tender locomotives, rocket, coaches, carriages, tunnels, tunnels, rainhill trials

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives