Category:Stephenson's Rocket

Photograph of a sectional 1:8-scale model of the "Rocket, made by Bassett-Lowke [image info]

1963: Tri-ang Railways R.651S/R.652 model of Stephenson's Rocket [image info]

1965: catalogue entry [image info]

Hornby G100 working steam model, closeup [image info]

1975: Hornby Railways Stephenson anniversary edition catalogue [image info]

Stephenson's "Rocket" locomotive was built for the 1829 Rainhill trials, and achieved a speed of 24mph, establishing the legitimacy of mobile steam locomotives (as opposed to stationary engines with winding gear). "Rocket"'s performance wastaken a sa "proof of concept", and triggered an explosion of railway-building and steam locomotive development.

The "Rocket"'s remains have been at the Science Museum, London since 1862 (inventory number: 1862-5). It's currently a rather sooty and charred-looking black, and not immediately recognisable if you're expecting so see a bright yellow engine, but it does still proudly show "No. 1" painted on its front buffer-board.

Evolution of the steam locomotive

Rocket represented a major breakthrough in locomotive design due to its method of "steaming" - instead of simply lighting a fire underneath a boiler, Rocket had tubes running through th eboiler to massively increase the surface area of the interface between the fire's flames and hot gases and the water to be heated.

External links

• Scroll to the end of the page for photos of the Hornby model (mikes-steam-engines.co.uk)

• Remains of Stephenson's 'Rocket' (1829) on display, 2001 (sciencemuseum.org.uk)

Video

• What made Stephenson's Rocket so special? (guardian.co.uk) - John Liffen of the Science Museum talks to James Bruce of the Open University
• Stephenson's Rocket, description and animations (bbc.co.uk)