During the first test the “Rocket” drew 12 tons 9 cwt. at the speed of twelve miles per hour, and later ran light at eighteen miles per hour. With a load of 13 tons (including passengers) it covered the course at fifteen miles an hour. The cheering of the dense crowd had scarcely faded away when the “Novelty” locomotive took the field. This engine actually attained a speed of twenty-eight miles an hour without a load, and many a reckless sportsman was at once prompted to “put his shirt” on the “Novelty.” Alas, on the resumption of the trials on October 7th, the “Novelty” upset all calculations by bursting its bellows, after performing one trip loaded at 20 3/4 miles an hour. The following day the “Rocket” performed a seventy mile run at an average speed of fifteen miles per hour, at one time reaching twenty-nine miles per hour. The “Novelty,” patched up by its designers, again faced the trials on October 10, but ill-luck seemed to dog it all along the line, for on its first trip the feed-pipe burst. The “Rocket” then again stepped into the arena and accomplished two runs without tender at thirty miles an hour. Poor old Timothy Hackworth was as unfortunate as his competitors, Messrs Braithwaite and Ericsson. His locomotive “Sans Pareil” met with disaster after attaining a speed of fourteen miles an hour; while the “Perseverance” meeting with an accident during the course of its preparation for the trials, had to be withdrawn after running a short distance at about five miles an hour.