Liverpool & Manchester 0-2-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Rocket (Locobase 649)

Rocket was the winning competitor in the Rainhill trials -- the other two were Timothy Hackworth's Sanspareil (Locobase 634) and John Ericsson's Novelty (Locobase 635) -- and maker of the Stephenson legend, the Rocket for the first time combined a multi-tubular boiler, angled pistons, and blast-pipe drafting (after the trials).

The firebox was carried just ahead of the small trailing wheels. Performance at Rainhill included pulling a 12.75-ton load at 15 mph and reaching a top speed of 24 mph (some sources say 29 1/2 mph); the engine also proved able to climb a 1 in 96 grade with a wagon load of 20 persons. Rocket was the only locomotive to complete all 10 runs within the allotted time.

Daniel Kinnear Clark, C. E. , in his Historical Progress of the Locomotive (an 1855 work hosted on [] (viewed 26 Dec 2004)), says that during the 70 miles of the test "...the consumption of coke per mile, per ton of total load of train, was 0.91 lbs., and per cubic foot of water evaporated, 11.7 lbs.; the evaporation, 18.24 cubic feet of water per hour."

The Rocket later proved to be relatively unsatisfactory, even though Stephenson added some features. He mounted a dome on the boiler in November 1830 to cut down on priming in the cylinders and improved the design of the wheels. Even so, Rocket was unstable at high speed and the bolt-on firebox was not very sturdy.

She was sold to Midgeholme colliery in 1836 for 300 pounds and retired in 1839-1840. She's been "restored" often, but in the last go-round was the engine reconfigured to its original state.