October 8 – Anniversary of a Winning Performance by Rocket

nPostednon October 8, 2014

Key points

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nInwas reading about an early (1829) railroad with tracks runningnbetween Liverpool and Manchester, in England. I was shocked to readnthat some people were skeptical that steam locomotives could work tonpower the train—and instead, they proposed sticking with the olderntechnology of a rope hauling the train, and a steam engine thatnstayed in one place, pulling the ropes.

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nCannyou imagine what the world would be like if all railroads worked bynway of rope haulage and stationary engines? Can you imagine ropesncriss-crossing the nation above railroad tracks? It sounds crazy!

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Anman named George Stephenson and his son Robert insisted thatnlocomotive engines (engines that traveled on the tracks with thentrains—what a concept!) were the future. And so thenLiverpool-Manchester Railway directors decided to hold an openncompetition to see if anyone could build a locomotive that couldnstand up to their hopes and dreams.

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nThencontest was called the Rainhill Trials; they were held along a milenlength of level track at Rainhill.

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nTennlocomotives were entered, but on the day that the competition began,nonly five actually began the contest. Each entrant was put through anseries of tests.

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nHerenis what happened with each of the five:

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nCyclopednwas not a steam-powered locomotive, but was instead a horse-powerednmobile platform. It was demonstrated only briefly and was withdrawnnearly. One source said that the horse had an accident (if so, I hopenit wasn’t hurt!), but another source said that the thisnhorse-plus-machine was just a “legacy technology” entry thatnwasn’t expected to compete with the others.

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Perseverancenwas damaged as it was on the way to the competition, so the buildernwas given several more days to repair it before it had to compete.nFinally it joined the competition, but it only reached a speed of 6nmiles per hour—and the contest rules had stated that the winningnlocomotive had to reach at least 10 mph. So this locomotive wasnwithdrawn.

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nSansnPareil was also a rule-breaker, because it was about 300 poundsnoverweight. But it was allowed to compete, and it made 8 of the 10ntrips back and forth the piece of railroad track used for thentrials—but then a cylinder cracked, and that locomotive was done,ntoo.

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nNoveltynwas cutting-edge (for 1829), and a lot of people were very impressednby it at first sight. It was lighter and faster than the othernlocomotives—it reached 28 miles per hour! (Remember, one of themncould only reach 6 mph.)

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nHowever,nthis crowd favorite suffered damage to its boiler pipe. Attempts tondo a quick fix weren’t entirely successful, and the day after, whennit reached 15 mph, the pipe gave way, damaging the engine so badlynthat the locomotive had to drop out of the competition.

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So,nit is no surprise that Rocket won the trials—after all, itnwas the only train “left standing,” the only one that could donall 10 of its trips. It reached a top speed of 30 mph, and itnaveraged 12 mph, and it was able to do so while hauling 13 tons!

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nRocketnwas built by the Stephensons (the father-son team I mentioned above),nand they won a 500 pound prize and a contract to produce locomotivesnfor the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

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