ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (03/23/84)
Stephenson's Rocket (1829) was not the earliest steam locomotive. The earliest was in 1804, and I am fairly sure it was built by Trevithick. However, this was not used on a proper railway, for there were none then. The first proper railway was the Stockton and Darlington (1825), and its first steam locomotive was Stephenson's Locomotion (which, the last I heard, is preserved at Darlington station). However, the S&D was operated partly by horse traction. The second proper railway in Britain was the Liverpool and Manchester (1830). This was exclusively steam-operated and commercially important. Stephenson's Rocket was tried against two other steam locomotives (Novelty and, I think, Perseverance) and one horse-powered locomotive (Cycloped -- it contained a treadmill!) in 1829 at Rainhill; Rocket won the trials, set a new speed record of 29 mph, and was used as the basis for the locomotives built for the L&M. The L&M became the prototype for the later British railways. The 150th anniversary of the L&M was celebrated by a great cavalcade of genuine historic locomotives past Rainhill station, plus replicas of the three steam engines that participated in the 1829 trials in a partial reenactment. Unfortunately, only 106,000 spectators attended (I was one) out of a capacity of 50,000 x 3 shows; I think British Rail broke even. Incidentally, successive reballastings have raised the track level so much that the replica Rocket had to have its chimney built 2 feet shorter than the original, to clear the road bridge at Rainhill, which dates from the building of the L&M! The first railway outside Britain was the Baltimore and Ohio (also 1825); I don't know much about its early history and I don't know whether it also mixed horses and steam locomotives in its early days, or not. Mark Brader