Stephenson's Rocket Locomotive in the Science Museum in London
A common misconception is that Rocket was the first steam locomotive. In fact the first steam locomotive to run on tracks was built by Richard Trevithick 25 years earlier, but his designs were not developed beyond the experimental stage. Then followed the first commercially successful twin cylinder steam locomotives built by Matthew Murray in Holbeck for the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds, West Yorkshire. George Stephenson, as well as a number of other engineers, had built steam locomotives before. Rocket was in some ways an evolution, not a revolution. Rocket's claim to fame is that it was the first 'modern' locomotive, drawing together several recent strands of technological improvement, some tried elsewhere and some still experimental, to produce the most advanced locomotive of its day, and the template for most steam locomotives since. In fact, the standard steam locomotive design is often called the "Stephensonian" locomotive. The locomotive still exists, in the Science Museum (London), in much modified form compared to its state at the Rainhill Trials. The cylinders were altered to the horizontal position, compared to the angled arrangement as new, and the locomotive was given a proper smokebox. Such are the changes in the engine from 1829 that The Engineer magazine, circa 1884, concluded that "it seems to us indisputable that the Rocket of 1829 and 1830 were totally different engines".
Size: 5110px × 3407px
Location: Science Museum, London
Photo credit: © Bruce McGowan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1830, blastpipe, britain, british, chimney, detail, engine, engineer, engineering, england, english, george, liverpool, locomotive, london, manchester, modifiaction, modifications, modified, museum, piston, pistons, rail, railway, rivet, rivetts, rocket, science, sign, steam, stephenson, stephensons, tourism, track, tracks, train, wheel, wood, wooden
