Rocket Locomotive, Patent Office Museum

Photograph taken in March 1876 by Colonel Stuart Wortley outside the Patent Office Museum in South Kensington, London; the precursor of the present Science Museum. This is probably one of the two earliest photographs of this locomotive in existence. The ‘Rocket’ was designed by George (1781-1848) and Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) and built by Robert Stephenson & Co in Newcastle in 1829. It became famous by winning the Rainhill Trials; a competition held to establish the most efficient locomotive for railway haulage. It ran on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway between 1829 and 1836, and the Midgeholme Colliery Railway between 1836 and 1840.