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The Dawn of the Railway

Our special London correspondent's review of the famous Rainhill trials, printed in another part of this issue, calls to mind the controversy that raged at the time concerning the merits of “The Rocket” and its competitors. One interesting letter in that controversy was written by a qualified eye-witness of the trials, John Dixon, the engineer who carried out George Stephenson's plan for the crossing of Chatmoss. He wrote, on 16th October, 1829, to his brother James as follows:—

“We have finished the grand experiments on the Engines, and G.S. or R.S. has come off triumphant, and of course will take hold of the £500 so liberally offered by the Company, none of the others being able to come near them. ‘The Rocket’ is by far the best engine I have ever seen for Blood and Bone united.

“Timothy (Hackworth) has been very sadly out of temper ever since he came … nothing our men did for him was right … he openly accused all G.S.'s people of conspiring to hinder him, of which I do believe them innocent; however he got many trials but never got half of his seventy miles done without stopping. She burns nearly double the quantity of coke the Rocket does, and rumbles and roars and rolls about like an empty Beer Butt on a rough pavement … and as for being on springs, I cannot find them out … she is very ugly…. The London engine … called ‘The Novelty,’ was a very light one, no chimney upright, but a boiler blown by a blast by bellows … all covered with copper, like a new Tea Urn which tended to give her a very parlour-like appearance, and when she started she seemed to dart away like a greyhound for a bit, but every time he had some mishap … so that it was no go…. Vox Populi was in favour of London from appearances, but we showed them the way to do it, for Messrs. Rastrick and Walker, in their report, stated that the whole power of the Loco. Engines would be absorbed in taking their own bodies up Rainhill incline, 1 in 96, consequently they could take no load; now the first thing Old George did was to bring a coach with about 20 people up at a gallop and ever since has run up and down to let them see what they could do up such an ascent, and has taken 40 folks up at 20 miles an hour.”