Rainhill trials

File:Rainhill Trials in the Illustrated London News.jpg

Later conjectural drawing of the Rainhill trials. In the foreground is Rocket and in the background are Sans Pareil (right) and Novelty.

The Rainhill trials were a competition run from 6 to 14 October 1829, to test George Stephenson's argument that locomotives would have the best motive power for the then nearly-completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR).Template:Sfn Ten locomotives were entered, of which five were able to compete, running along a Template:Convert length of level track at Rainhill, in Lancashire (now Merseyside).

Stephenson's Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials, and was declared the winner. The directors of the L&MR accepted that locomotives should operate services on their new line, and George and Robert Stephenson were given the contract to produce locomotives for the railway.

Background

The directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had originally intended to use stationary steam engines to haul trains along the railway using cables.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They had appointed George Stephenson as their engineer of the line in 1826, and he strongly advocated for the use of steam locomotives instead.Template:Sfn As the railway was approaching completion, the directors decided to hold a competition to decide whether locomotives could be used to pull the trains; these became the Rainhill trials.Template:Sfn A prize of £500 (equal to £Template:Inflation today) was offered to the winner of the trials.Template:Sfn

Three engineers were selected as judges: John Urpeth Rastrick, a locomotive engineer of Stourbridge; Nicholas Wood, a mining engineer from Killingworth with considerable locomotive design experience; and John Kennedy, a Manchester cotton spinner and a major proponent of the railway.Template:Sfn

Rules

The L&MR company set the rules for the trials. The rules went through several revisions; the final set, under which the competition was held, was:

Entries

Ten locomotives were officially entered for the trials, but on the day the competition began – 6 October 1829 – only five were available to run:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

• Cycloped, a horse-powered locomotive built by Thomas Shaw Brandreth.
• Novelty, the world's first tank locomotive, built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite.
• Perseverance, a vertical boilered locomotive, built by Timothy Burstall.
• Rocket, designed by George and Robert Stephenson; built by Robert Stephenson and Company.
• Sans Pareil, built by Timothy Hackworth.Template:Sfn

Competition

The length of the L&MR that ran past Rainhill village was straight and level for over Template:Convert, and was chosen as the site for the trials. The locomotives were to run at Kenrick's Cross, on the mile east from the Manchester side of Rainhill Bridge.<ref name=dickson/> Two or three locomotives ran each day, and several tests for each locomotive were performed over the course of six days.Template:Sfn Between 10,000 and 15,000 people turned up to watch the trials, and bands provided musical entertainment.<ref name=dickson/>

Cycloped was the first to drop out of the competition. It used a horse walking on a drive belt for power and was withdrawn after an accident caused the horse to burst through the floor of the engine.

The next locomotive to retire was Perseverance, which was damaged in transit to the competition. Burstall spent the first five days of the trials repairing his locomotive, and though it ran on the sixth day, it failed to reach the required Template:Convert speed and was withdrawn from the trial. It was granted a £25 consolation prize (equal to £Template:Inflation today).

Sans Pareil nearly completed the trials, though at first there was some doubt as to whether it would be allowed to compete as it was Template:Convert overweight. It completed eight trips before cracking a cylinder. Despite the failure it was purchased by the L&MR, where it ran for two years before being leased to the Bolton and Leigh Railway.

The last locomotive to drop out was Novelty which used advanced technology for the time, and was lighter and considerably faster than the other locomotives in the competition. It was the crowd favourite and reached a then-astonishing Template:Convert on the first day of competition.<ref name="dickson">Template:Cite book</ref> It later suffered damage to a boiler pipe which could not be fixed properly on site. Nevertheless, it ran the next day and reached Template:Convert before the repaired pipe failed and damaged the engine severely enough that it had to be withdrawn.

The Rocket was the only locomotive that completed the trials. It averaged Template:Convert and achieved a top speed of Template:Convert) hauling 13 tons, and was declared the winner of the £500 prize (equal to £Template:Inflation today). The Stephensons were given the contract to produce locomotives for the L&MR.<ref name="Wolmar, Fire and Steam, 36-37" >Wolmar, Fire and Steam, pp. 36–37</ref>

The Times carried a full report of the trials on 12 October 1829 from which the following extract are taken:

Additional trials

After the Rainhill trials, Rocket was tested on the Whiston Incline and was able to haul eight tons at Template:Convert and 12 tons at Template:Convert up the 1:96 gradient.Template:Sfn

Re-enactments

Rocket 150

Template:Commons category In May 1980, the Rocket 150 celebration was held to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the trials the year before.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A replica of Novelty was built for the event, which was also attended by replicas of Sans Pareil and Rocket (plus coach). On the first day of the Trials, the Rocket came off the rails as it was exiting the Bold Colliery sidings and buckled the rim of one of its large drive wheels. That evening, senior staff from a St Helens road transport company met a former colleague of the builder of the Rocket replica at a Liverpool hotel and agreed that, in the early hours of the following morning, they would urgently manufacture some steel parts (wedges) in their nearby workshops, to fix the bent drive wheel before the second day's parade commenced.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> At the same time, British Rail agreed to put a team of staff into the sidings at Bold to straighten the bent rails. Both activities were achieved on time and the Rocket ran successfully on the following two days of the Trials, though Sans Pareil was pushed by Lion and Novelty was on a wagon hauled by LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 5000. As the line was then not electrified, the Advanced Passenger Train was also pushed, but by the latest diesel, Class 56, 077.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The 'Grand Cavalcade' on each of the three days featured up to 40 steam and diesel locomotives and other examples of modern traction,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> including:

• Lion, at the time of Rocket 150 the oldest operable steam locomotive in existence
  (The British-built US locomotive John Bull, seven years older, was steamed again in 1981)
• LNER Class A3 4-6-2 No. 4472 Flying Scotsman
• LMS 5XP Jubilee Class 4-6-0 No. 5690 Leander
• LNER Class A4 4-6-2 No. 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley
• LNER Class V2 2-6-2 No. 4471 Green Arrow
• GWR 2551 Collett Goods 0-No. 3205
• LMS Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 No. 43106
• BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 No. 92220 'Evening Star', the last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways
• LMS Princess Royal Class 4-6-2 No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth

Two Class 86 locomotives 86214 Sans Pareil<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and 86235 Novelty<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> were painted in a variation of the Large Logo Rail Blue livery where the BR logo was replaced by the Rocket 150 motif on a yellow background.

2002 Restaging

In a 2002 restaging of the Rainhill trials using replica engines, neither Sans Pareil (11 out of 20 runs) nor Novelty (10 out of 20 runs) completed the course. In calculating the speeds and fuel efficiencies, it was found that Rocket would still have won, as its relatively modern technology made it a much more reliable locomotive than the others. Novelty almost matched it in terms of efficiency, but its firebox design caused it to gradually slow to a halt due to a buildup of molten ash (called "clinker") cutting off the air supply. The restaged trials were run over the Llangollen Railway, Wales, and were the subject of a 2003 BBC Timewatch documentary.

For the restaging, major compromises were made for television and because of the differences in crew experience, the fuel used, the modifications made to the replicas for modern safety rules, modern materials and construction methods, and following operating experience. Comparisons were made between the engines only after calculations took into account the differences.Template:Fact

References

Sources

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Rocket and its Rivals – details of 2003 Timewatch episode at Highbeam.com, archived in 2014