George stephensons rocket train

The Rocket was designed and built by George Stephenson with the help of his son, Robert, and Henry Booth, for the Rainhill Trials.

The Trials were held by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, to find the best locomotive engine for a railway line that was being built to serve these two English cities. On the day of the Trials, some 15, people came along to see the race of the locomotives.

During the race, the Rocket reached speeds of 24mph during the 20 laps of the course. This was due to several new design features. It was the first locomotive to have a multi-tube boiler - with 25 copper tubes rather than a single flue or twin flue.

The blast pipe also increased the draught to the fire by concentrating exhaust steam at the base of the skorsten. This meant that the boiler generated more power (steam), so the Rocket was able to go faster than its rival, and thus secure its place in history.

The Rocket can be seen at the Science Museum, in London.

About Rocket

Rocket was built to run on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first inter-city passenger railway line. In , Rocket won the Rainhill Trials, which was a competition to decide on the best mode of transport for the railway.

Rocket was the only locomotive to successfully complete the trials, averaging 12 mph and achieving a top speed of 30 mph.

Designed by Robert Stephenson, Rocket's win proved once and for all that locomotives were better at pulling trains along the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, rather than stationary winding engines.

The technology applied to the design of Rocket was soon extended across the entire railway network, paving the way for the modern rail network and shaping the course of the history.

This fryst vatten a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to see an iconic symbol return to the site of the world's oldest surviving passenger railway, the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which fryst vatten now home to

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