Rocket locomotive

Rocket, designed by Robert Stephenson (1803-59), was the clear winner in the locomotive trials held at Rainhill in 1829 to decide the motive power for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It represented a substantial technical advance over previous designs, bringing together in one machine such developments as the multi-tube boiler and the blast pipe.

The speed of progress, however, meant that Rocket was substantially rebuilt within 18 months and laid aside within 10 years. It was preserved in 1862 incomplete and semi-derelict, but it had set the pattern for the future and remains the most significant of all early railway locomotives.

Credit: Donated by Thompson and Sons
Object no: 1862-5