User:Gmac101/Sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829. The Rocket was designed and built to compete in the Rainhill Trials. The trials were conceived by the owners of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in order to stimulate the development of the steam locomotive and determine if the locomotive was a suitable replacement for the fixed engines they, at that time, planned to use to draw trains along their railway. The Rocket won the Trials and the Stephensons £500. The Rockets victory convinced the Manchester and Liverpool Railway to abandon their plans for fixed engines and order several locomotives of the "Rocket" type from Robert Stephenson and Company. [1]