THE RAILWAY
REVOLUTION
George and Robert Stephenson
by
L. T. C. Rolt
St. MartinÕs Press New York
1960
Ed. The following
extract on the Rainhill trials is a portion of Chapter 8, The Battle for the
Locomotive. J. McV, May 2008.
On
the morning of Tuesday 6 October (1829), a few days after the date first
proposed, crowds began to converge upon Rainhill from Liverpool, St. Helens,
Warrington, Manchester and all the country round. A large stand had been erected
beside the middle of the course, flags and bunting flew, the inevitable brass
band played Òpleasing and favourite airs" and the neighbouring Rail-Road
Tavern was packed out. A stranger from afar who had neglected to read his
newspapers might have thought he had come upon a race meeting and have looked
in vain for parading horses and jockeys, until he saw that the course consisted
of two lines of iron rails which stretched away, straight and level, for nearly
a mile upon either hand. Or supposing this ignorant and puzzled stranger had
asked for a Ôrace card', he would have been given the following:
No. I Messrs.
Braithwaite and Erickson of London, "The Novelty" Copper and Blue,
Weight: 2 tons 15 cwt.
No. 2. Mr. Ackworth
[sic] of Darlington, "The Sans Pareil" Green, Yellow and Black,
Weight: 4 tons 8 cwt 2 qr.
No. 3. Mr. Robert
Stephenson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, "The RocketÓ Yellow and Black, White
Chimney, Weight: 4 tons 3 cwt.
No. 4. Mr. Brandreth of
Liverpool, "The Cycloped" Weight: 3 tons, worked by a horse.
No. 5. Mr. Burstall of
Edinburgh, "The Perseverance" Red Wheels, Weight: 2 tons 17 cwt.
Our
stranger would then have realized that, along with the rest of the 10,000
spectators who jostled about him, he was to be privileged to witness a contest
the like of which had never been seen before; a contest between new-fangled
mechanical monsters the outcome of which might, in the words of the Liverpool
Courier, "alter the whole system of our internal communications ...
substituting an agency whose ultimate effects can scarcely be
anticipated".
In
the distance, to the east and to the west of the grandstand, white posts
exactly 1-1/2 miles apart had been erected beside the line.
These were known as the starting posts, although the course extended for an
eighth of a mile beyond each of them to terminal points where fuel and water
was available; also a blacksmith's shop and other repair facilities which the
less fortunate competitors would put to good use before the Trials were over.
There was also a weighbridge, for the judges did not propose to take for
granted the weights declared by the competitors. The Trial, or the 'Ordeal' as
they called it, which the three judges decided upon was that each locomotive in
turn, hauling a train three times its own weight, should make a total of twenty
runs to and fro over the 1-1/2-mile course, an interval being allowed after ten
runs had been made. This would be equivalent to a journey from Liverpool to
Manchester and back. The course would be taken 'flying', the distance beyond
the posts being used for braking and getting up speed. On the east to west run
the competitors would have to propel in front of them the wagons of stone which
formed the test loads. Timekeepers with 'second watches' would be stationed at
each post to record not only the time taken to cover the 1-1/2-mile course on
each run but also the time between runs, so that any precious minutes lost by
the competitor in making feverish repairs or adjustments at the terminal depots
would be duly noted down. The time and fuel consumed in raising a fun head of
steam from cold would also be recorded, likewise the fuel used and the water
evaporated during the test runs.
Now
for the competitors. Two of them need not be taken seriously. No. 4, Mr.
Brandreth's Cycloped,
was propelled by a horse trotting on a species of treadmill. This machine the
judges studiously ignored as it was quite outside die terms of the competition,
but as Brandreth was a member of the Board his whimsies had to be indulged and
he was presumably allowed to trundle up and down with his machine and so
provide some light entertainment during the intervals which, owing to various
mechanical derangements, were considerable.
The
road wagon which was bringing No. 5, Mr. Burstall's Perseverance, to the trials, overturned with dire
results, and it was not, until the last day of the competition that the
unfortunate owner was able to get it to the course. Having in the meantime seen
his rivals perform, Burstall told the judges that he stood no chance and after
making a short demonstration run the Perseverance was withdrawn.
It
was not, commented Nicholas Wood briefly, 'adapted for die present celerity of
Rail-road conveyance' having a boiler, which, to judge from Wood's description,
was little more than a glorified domestic copper.
This
meant that the honours lay between the first three competitors, and of these
No. I, Braithwaite & Erickson's Novelty, was easily the favourite not only with
the ignorant populace but also with that company of scientific gentlemen and
engineers which, claimed the local press, was the largest ever assembled on one
spot. The Novelty
represented the London steam-carriage tradition applied to the rails. Two
vertical cylinders drove the cranked leading axle. Provision was made for the
rear axle to be coupled by chain drive, but this was not used on the Trials. It
had a very curious boiler consisting of a vertical unit mounted right at the
back from which a long horizontal element extended to the full length of the
frame. This was in communication with the vertical portion of the boiler and
contained a long flue-tube which, having passed back and forth twice through
the element, emerged in a small exhaust pipe at the front end. A forced draught
was applied to the furnace under the vertical part of the boiler by mechanical
bellows, and this drove the hot gases through the sinuous flue-tube. The
exhaust steam from the engine passed straight to atmosphere. The proud sponsors
of the Novelty were
actively supported by Charles Vignoles, who, doubtless hoped to see it run
rings round the Rocket.
The
Competitors were supposed to undergo their Ordeal in number order, and when the
judges arrived on the scene they found that the Novelty had already been showing her paces
before an admiring crowd. in her royal blue livery with boiler, water tank and
cylinders all clad in highly polished copper sheeting she certainly made a
brave sight. The apparent absence of moving parts also deeply impressed the
spectators, only the tops of the cylinders being visible. "The great
lightness of this engine", wrote a rapturous reporter to the Mechanics'
Magazine, "its compactness, and its beautiful workmanship, excited
universal admiration; a sentiment speedily changed into perfect wonder, by its
truly marvelous performance.... Almost at once it darted off at the amazing
velocity of twenty eight miles an hour, and it actually did one mile in the
incredibly short space of one minute and 53 seconds!"
Alas, pride had its speedy fall. A
sudden dull explosion followed by a belch of smoke, flame and sparks from the
nether regions of the Novelty
brought consternation to the faces of Messrs. Braithwaite and Vignoles and a
halt to their triumphal progress. A blowback from the furnace had burst the
leather of the mechanical bellows. With No. 1 thus temporarily out of the
running the judges then turned their attention to the next on the list only to
find a very hot and disgruntled Timothy Hackworth struggling with a leaking
boiler on the SansPareil.
He, like Braithwaite, begged for time in which to get his engine prepared, so,
as the day was by now well advanced and it was raining heavily, the Judges
ordered the Stephensons to present the Rocket for trial next morning and declared the
proceedings closed.
The
Rocket had also been
demonstrated but was not popular with the crowd, who considered it cumbersome
and 'unmechanical' by comparison with the Novelty, a verdict which was to some extent
influenced by the fact that, with characteristic caution, the Stephensons made
no attempt on this first appearance to vie with the speed of their glittering
rival but conserved the powers of their steed for the trial proper.
On
the morning of 8 October the Rocket
was weighed in the presence of the judges. This must have been an anxious
moment for Robert Stephenson, but though the engine scaled 4T 5cwt -2 cwt more
than he had declared – it was well within the permitted maximum for a
four-wheeled engine. Steam was then raised to 50 lb. from cold in 57 minutes
using 142 1b. of coke, and two wagons loaded with stone were coupled up to make
a train weight with the tender (which was considered part of the load) of 12
tons 15 cwt. The two timekeepers, with their watches at the ready, then took up
their stations, Rastrick at Post No. I at the western end of the course from
which the first run was made, and Wood at the other.
It
is nowhere positively stated who actually drove the Rocket on this famous occasion. Robert M'Cree
of Killingworth was her regular driver, but the evidence suggests that George
Stephenson himself drove her in the Trials accompanied by Robert and possibly
employing M'Cree as fireman. The locomotive performed perfectly. The first
eastbound run was covered in 6m. 15s. and speed continued around that figure
until the last three runs when George Stephenson began to open up, finishing
with a time of 4m. 12s. on the tenth eastward run. In between journeys the
Stephensons put in some Smart 'pitwork': 35 gallons of water were bucketted
into the tender water butt in three minutes, while oiling round and 'greasing
the pistons' occupied another three minutes. The Judges were completely
mystified by the fact that the westbound times were invariably slower than the eastbound.
Possibly George Stephenson drove more cautiously when he was propelling the
loaded wagons in front of him, but it also seems likely that Robert Stephenson
had not entirely succeeded in curing the defect he had mentioned to Booth when
the engine was first tried at Killingworth and that in backward gear the valve
events were not quite correct.
Having
successfully completed the first half of the 'ordeal', a quarter of an hour was
spent weighing-on a further supply of coke and filling the water butt. The
Judges noted that all this time steam was blowing off from the safety valves.
This could not have improved the overall consumption figures, but Robert
Stephenson was obviously more concerned to avoid the mistake he had made on the
Killingworth trial of letting the coke fire get too low. At all costs they must
not get short of steam.
The
second half of die trial went as smoothly and uneventfully as the first. As he
approached the western post for the last time with success in sight, George
Stephenson glanced quickly up at the long mercurial gauge beside the chimney,
saw that steam pressure held steady at the 50 lb. mark and gave the Rocket full regulator. His long battle for the
locomotive was almost won; now he would show the doubters and the mockers, those
clever gentry from London who now clustered in the grand stand with their fine
ladies, what new power he commanded. Flying a white pennant of steam from her
tall chinmey the Rocket
thundered past the grandstand and away to the eastward post. Nicholas Wood
looked at his watch; time: 3m. 44s., equal to a speed of a little over 29 miles
an hour. "We wish", wrote the judges in their report on the Trials,
"to call the particular attention of the directors to the remarkable short
time in which the last Eastward trip of one and a half mile was performed. . .
as demonstrating in a very eminent degree the practicability of attaining a
very high velocity even with a load of considerable weight attached to the
engine."
For
the 60 miles the Rocket
had averaged just under 14 miles an hour, nearly four miles an hour better than
the speed stipulated. Water had been evaporated at the rate of 114 gallons per
hour and 217 lb. of coke per hour had been burnt. It was a triumph for the
Stephensons. By more than fulfilling all the conditions of the competition with
consummate ease, they had at last most convincingly clinched their case for the
locomotive. But they had not yet won the contest. Many spectators announced
that they were not at all impressed by the performance of the Rocket and
predicted that it would very soon be eclipsed by that of the Novelty. So
strongly was the Novelty favoured, indeed, that even the Stephensons'
supporters were alarmed, but George is alleged to have remarked to one doubter
in his broadest Doric: "Eh mon, we needn't fear yon thing, her's got nae
goots." Events proved him right.
At the conclusion of this day's
experiment [wrote the Judges in their report] Mr. Hackworth requested he might
be allowed a further time and declared he could not get his engine ready to
start this week.
Messrs. Braithwaite & Erickson's
Engine appeared to us not likely to be ready before Monday & it was agreed
with a Friend of Mr. Braithwaite's (he not being present himself) that they
should enter upon the trial of their Engine on Monday morning.
On Friday morning, however, Mr.
Braithwaite waited upon us at Liverpool in company with his friend and declared
that his engine would be all complete and perfectly ready for entering upon the
task on Saturday morning, and insisted that his Engine should be put upon trial
on that Day although we did every thing in our power to induce him to defer the
trial until the Monday, being well aware that several joints were to be made
which it would be almost impossible to get done in time to allow of their
setting....
This
shows a most commendable desire on the part of the Judges to ensure fair play,
but the impatient Braithwaite did not heed their good advice. on the Saturday
the Novelty only
managed one easterly run before the joints on the pipe from the feed pump to
the boiler failed, "the water flying about in all directions". So
that put a speedy end to the day's proceedings and it was not until the
following Tuesday that they were officially resumed again, when Timothy Hackworth
at last presented his Sans Pareil
to the judges for trial. The time taken to raise steam could not be checked
because he had already been working the engine during the night and the boiler
was hot. The engine was then weighed and found to scale 4T 15cwt: 2qr, 7cwt
above the weight he had declared and 5cwt over the stipulated maximum for a
four-wheeled engine. For the unfortunate Hackworth, who had been working night
and day to get the Sans Pareil
into shape, this must have been a bitter blow, for it excluded him from the
contest. However, the sympathetic judges determined to let him run and to leave
it to the directors to decide the issue. They also appear to have obligingly
ignored the fact that the Sans Pareil was completely unsprung. Hackworth had adopted his usual
practice of mounting his cylinders vertically and this, combined with a direct
drive by short connecting rods, prohibited the use of springs on the driving
axle. He had also remained faithful to the return-flue boiler, his only
modification being to extend the furnace end of the flue beyond the boiler
proper in the form of a semi-circular water-jacketed canopy over the grate.
Having
had her load attached, the Sans Pareil set off briskly and it was at once
evident from the lumps of red-hot coke that shot from her chimney in true
Shildon fashion that her designer's ideas on the blast pipe had undergone no
modification. The time for this first run was 5m 9s, but it was never bettered.
On the eighth eastbound journey, while his driver, 'Tammy Grey', manned the
regulator, Hackworth could be seen fighting desperately to keep a reluctant
boiler feed pump working. Five more runs along the course and there would be
time to attend to it properly before the next half of the test began but alas
for poor Timothy, it was not to be. The Sans Pareil was just in front of the grandstand on
its return journey when it suddenly disappeared from view in a great cloud of
steam. The lead fusible plug above the fire had melted owing to lack of water
in the boiler, the most humiliating mishap that can befall an engineman, and
the Sans Pareil had
to be pushed by a crowd of willing hands down to the blacksmith's shop at the
end of the course. So ended the challenge of the Stephensons' most formidable
rival. The Sans Pareil
had averaged 14 miles an hour for the 22-1/2 miles traveled with a load of 19
tons but, as we should expect, the consumption of coke had been fantastic, no
less than 6921b per hour as against the Rocket's 2171b.
On
the following day, Wednesday 14 October, the Novelty made its final bid for the horours, What
happened may be summed up in the words of the judges' Report.
The Engine returning westwards the second
trip, the joints of the Boiler gave way, as indeed they might naturally be
expected to do from being then so recently made, which put an effectual stop to
the Experiment, so that the Engine and Train were obliged to be run up by hand.
Mr. Erickson then declared to us that he would now withdraw his Engine from all
further competition so far as regarded the Premium.
Timothy
Hackworth then requested a second run, but this was refused. "Having
considered", said the judges, "the enormous consumption of fuel ...
and the general construction of his Engine we found that we could not recommend
it to the Directors' consideration as a perfect Engine & therefore as it
was also overweight we did not think it necessary to expend further time in
experimenting upon it. Mr. Hackworth then disputed the accuracy of the Weighing
Machine, but as it has been since proved to be correct, this remonstrance in
that head may be considered as fully answered." Having thus disposed of
the Sans Pareil the judges concluded by saying that
'Mr. Stephenson's engine' had alone fulfilled all die terms of the competition
and was the best engine to be exhibited at Rainhill.
There
is no doubt that the unlucky Hackworth was sorely disgruntled by his defeat and
various allegations were, or have since been, made by his supporters, including
that of deliberate sabotage by the Stephensons. It was said that the excessive
coke consumption was due to the failure of a cylinder casting (cast by Robert
Stephenson & Co. for Hackworth!) which cracked across the valve ports,
causing live steam to blow straight up the chimney. Hackworth's biographer,
Robert Young, stated categorically that this was the reason for the failure of
the Sans Pareil , but
there is no shred of evidence for this whatever. It is inconceivable that
Hackworth would not mention such a failure to the judges, even supposing they
had failed to notice it, which is highly improbable. it is equally improbable
that the judges, in their scrupulously fair report, would fail to mention such
a major disaster as a cracked cylinder. As for the high fuel consumption,
Nicholas Wood, at least, had no doubts on this score, stating afterwards that
the Sans Pareil threw most of its fire up the chimney
because of the powerful blast. The engine could never have performed as it did
with only one effective cylinder. Hackworth's supporters also sourly implied
that with the Chief Engineer and the Treasurer of the railway Company both
concerned in the Rocket,
only one result could be expected.
Whatever
may have been alleged at the time or since, we, with the whole perspective of these
past events before us, can say without hesitation that the great issue was
fairly contested and fairly won by a locomotive which was far superior to any
rival. The Rocket and
the Sans Pareil are still to be seen in the Science
Museum, where the superiority of the former both in design and workmanship is
obvious. The fact was that Hackworth's design, though it had proved
satisfactory for the slow-speed haulage of coal, was already obsolete and quite
incapable of the high-speed performance which, as the Stephensons had realized,
the Liverpool & Manchester Railway would demand. As for the Novelty, it was virtually a steam carriage on
rails and, though spectacular when running light, as George Stephenson so
shrewdly put it, it lacked guts. Its supporters declared that its failures were
due only to hasty construction and bad workmanship, but they were proved wrong
when the William IV
and the Queen Adelaide,
which Braithwaite & Erickson subsequently built for the railway on the same
lines, proved equally unreliable and lacking in power.
Many
and varied were the accounts written by eye-witnesses of the historic
encounter, but by far the most graphic and entertaining was that given by John
Dixon in a letter to his brother James at Darlington. It makes an appropriate
postscript to this chapter.
Dear James,
We have finished the grand experiment 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 has been very sadly out of temper
ever since he came for he has been grobbing on day and night and nothing our
men did for him was right, we could not please him with the Tender or anything;
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 70
miles done without stopping. He burns nearly double the quantity of coke that
the Rocket does and
mumbles and roars and rolls about like an Empty Beer Butt on a rough Pavement
and moreover weighs above 4-1/2 Tons consequently should have had six wheels
and as for being on Springs I must confess I cannot find them out.... She is
very ugly and the Boiler runs out very much, he had to feed her with more Meal
and Malt Sprouts than would fatten a pig....
Dixon
then goes on to describe the Novelty, "all covered with Copper like a new Tea Urn all which
tended to give her a very Parlour like appearance", and deals with her
failures. Then:
Burstall from Edinbro upset his in
bringing from L'pool to Rainhill and spent a week in pretending to Remedy the
injuries whereas he altered and amended some part every day till he was last of
all to start and a sorrowful start it was; full 6 miles an hour creaking away
like an old Wickerwork pair of Panniers on a cantering Cuddy Ass. Vox Populi
was in favour of London from appearances but we showed them the way to do it
for Messrs. Rastrig [sic] & Walker in their report as to Fixed and permt.
Engines stated that the whole power of the Loco. Engines would be absorbed in
taking their own bodies up the 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 every day 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.
After
such a demonstration as this, a more striking display of the powers of the Rocket than the Rainhill 'Ordeal' itself, there
could be no more talk of horses or fixed haulage engines. The battle for the
locomotive had been most decisively won and it was as an exclusively
locomotive-worked railway that the Liverpool & Manchester went forward to
completion.