thumb|upright=1.5|Later conjectural drawing of the Rainhill Trials.
In the foreground is Rocket and in the background are Sans Pareil (right) and Novelty.
The Rainhill Trials was an important competition run  from the 6th to 14th October 1829, to test George Stephenson's argument that locomotives would provide the best motive power for the then nearly-completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR).
Five locomotives were entered, running along a  length of level track at Rainhill, in Lancashire (now Merseyside).
Stephenson's Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials, and was declared the winner.
The directors of the L&MR accepted that locomotives should operate services on their new line, and George and Robert Stephenson were given the contract to produce locomotives for the railway.
Background
The directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had originally intended to use stationary steam engines to haul trains along the railway using cables.
They had appointed George Stephenson as their engineer of the line in 1826, and he strongly advocated for the use of steam locomotives instead.
As the railway was approaching completion, the directors decided to hold a competition to decide whether locomotives could be used to pull the trains; these became the Rainhill Trials.
A prize of £500 (equal to £ today) was offered to the winner of the trials.
Three notable engineers were selected as judges: John Urpeth Rastrick, a locomotive engineer of Stourbridge, Nicholas Wood, a mining engineer from Killingworth with considerable locomotive design experience, and John Kennedy, a Manchester cotton spinner and a major proponent of the railway.
Rules
The L&MR company set the rules for the trials.
The rules went through several revisions; the final set, under which the competition was held, was:
"The weight of the Locomotive Engine, with its full complement of water in the boiler, shall be ascertained at the Weighing Machine, by eight o'clock in the morning, and the load assigned to it shall be three times the weight thereof.
The water in the boiler shall be cold, and there shall be no fuel in the fireplace.
As much fuel shall be weighed, and as much water shall be measured and delivered into the Tender Carriage, as the owner of the Engine may consider sufficient for the supply of the Engine for a journey of thirty-five miles.
The fire in the boiler shall then be lighted, and the quantity of fuel consumed for getting up the steam shall be determined, and the time noted."
"The Tender Carriage, with the fuel and water, shall be considered to be, and taken as a part of the load assigned to the Engine."
"Those engines which carry their own fuel and water, shall be allowed a proportionate deduction from their load, according to the weight of the Engine."
"The Engine, with the carriages attached to it, shall be run by hand up to the Starting Post, and as soon as the steam is got up to fifty pounds per square inch (), the engine shall set out upon its journey."
"The distance the Engine shall perform each trip shall be one mile and three quarters () each way, including one-eighth of a mile () at each end for getting up the speed and for stopping the train; by this means the Engine, with its load, will travel one and a-half mile () each way at full speed."
"The Engines shall make ten trips, which will be equal to a journey of ;  whereof shall be performed at full speed, and the average rate of travelling shall not be less than ten miles per hour ()."
(Note: The only other passenger railway in the world at that time, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, had an average speed of only about .)
"As soon as the Engine has performed this task, (which will be equal to the travelling from Liverpool to Manchester,) there shall be a fresh supply of fuel and water delivered to her; and, as soon as she can be got ready to set out again, she shall go up to the Starting Post, and make ten trips more, which will be equal to the journey from Manchester back again to Liverpool."
"The time of performing every trip shall be accurately noted, as well as the time occupied in getting ready to set out on the second journey."
"The gauge of the railway to be ."
Entries
Ten locomotives were officially entered for the trials, but on the day the competition began — 6 October 1829 — only five locomotives were available to run:
Cycloped, a horse-powered locomotive built by Thomas Shaw Brandreth, was disqualified for not being steam powered.
Novelty, the world's first tank locomotive, built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite.
Perseverance, a vertical boilered locomotive, built by Timothy Burstall.
Rocket, designed by George and Robert Stephenson; built by Robert Stephenson and Company.
Sans Pareil, built by Timothy Hackworth.
Competition
The length of the L&MR that ran past Rainhill village was straight and level for over , and was chosen as the site for the Trials.
The locomotives were to run at Kenrick's Cross, on the mile east from the Manchester side of Rainhill Bridge.
Two or three locomotives ran each day, and several tests for each locomotive were performed over the course of six days.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people turned up to watch the trials and bands provided musical entertainment on both days.
Cycloped was the first to drop out of the competition.
It used a horse walking on a drive belt for power and was withdrawn after an accident caused the horse to burst through the floor of the engine.
The next locomotive to retire was Perseverance, which was damaged in transit to the competition.
Burstall spent the first five days of the trials repairing his locomotive, and though it ran on the sixth day, it failed to reach the required  speed and was withdrawn from the trial.
It was granted a £25 consolation prize  (equal to £ today).
Sans Pareil nearly completed the trials, though at first there was some doubt as to whether it would be allowed to compete as it was  overweight.
However, it did eventually complete eight trips before cracking a cylinder.
Despite the failure it was purchased by the L&MR, where it ran for two years before being leased to the Bolton and Leigh Railway.
The last locomotive to drop out was Novelty.
In contrast to Cycloped, it used advanced technology for 1829 and was lighter and considerably faster than the other locomotives in the competition.
It was the crowd favourite and reached a then-astonishing  on the first day of competition.
It later suffered damage to a boiler pipe which could not be fixed properly on site.
Nevertheless, it ran the next day and reached  before the repaired pipe failed and damaged the engine severely enough that it had to be withdrawn.
The Rocket was the only locomotive that completed the trials.
It averaged  and achieved a top speed of ) hauling 13 tons, and was declared the winner of the £500 prize (equal to £ today).
The Stephensons were given the contract to produce locomotives for the L&MR.Wolmar, Fire and Steam, pp.
36-37
The Times carried a full report of the trials on 12 October 1829 from which the following extract are taken: ''Rocket'' 150
In May 1980 the Rocket 150 celebration was held to mark the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the trials the year before.Event poster
A replica of Novelty was built for the event, which was also attended by replicas of Sans Pareil and Rocket (plus coach).
The 'Grand Cavalcade' on each of the three days featured up to 40 steam and diesel locomotives and other examples of modern traction,Rocket 150 event leaflet including:
Lion, at the time of Rocket 150 the oldest operable steam locomotive in existence(The British-built US locomotive John Bull, seven years older, was steamed again in 1981)
Flying Scotsman No. 4472
LMS 4-6-0 Jubilee class No. 5690 Leander
Sir Nigel Gresley No. 4498
Green Arrow No. 4771
GWR 0-6-0 No. 3205
LMS Class 4 MT 2-6-0 No. 43106
BR 92220 Evening Star, the last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways
LMS 4-6-2 Princess Elizabeth No. 6201
Two Class 86 locomotives 86214 Sans Pareil and 86235 Novelty were painted in a variation of the Large Logo Rail Blue livery where the BR logo was replaced by Rocket 150 motif on a yellow background.
Restaging
In a recent (2002) restaging of the Rainhill Trials using replica engines, neither Sans Pareil (11 out of 20 runs) nor Novelty (10 out of 20 runs) completed the course.
In calculating the speeds and fuel efficiencies, it was found that Rocket would still have won, as its relatively modern technology made it a much more reliable locomotive than the others.
Novelty almost matched it in terms of efficiency, but its firebox design caused it to gradually slow to a halt due to a buildup of molten ash (called "clinker") cutting off the air supply.
The restaged trials were run over the Llangollen Railway, Wales, and were the subject of a 2003 BBC Timewatch documentary.
This restaging should not be taken as accurate as there were major compromises made for television and because of the differences in crew experience, the fuel used, the modifications made to the replicas for modern safety rules, modern materials and construction methods, and following operating experience.
Sensible comparisons were made between the engines only after calculations took into account the differences.
The replicas had major differences from the 1829 originals.
References
External links
Rocket and its Rivals Details of 2003 Timewatch episode at Highbeam
