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September 2018 saw the return to Manchester of the iconic locomotive “Stephenson’s Rocket” for the first time in over 180 years when it was put on display at the Science and Industry Museum (previously the known as the Museum of Science and Industry).

Rocket, arguably the most famous of all early locomotives, was designed by Robert Stephenson in 1829 for the Rainhill Trials Link , the competition to decide which locomotive candidate would be used to pull the trains on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opening the following year. Five locomotives were entered for the trials, running along a 1 mile length of level track at Rainhill, in Lancashire (now Merseyside). Stephenson's Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials as it rattled along at an average speed of 12mph with Its top speed 30mph, and was declared the winner securing its place in history. 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. Rocket’s win not only secured fame and fortune for the Stephensons, it also decided the future of the entire rail industry by proving once and for all that locomotives, rather than stationary winding engines, were the best technology to pull trains on the Liverpool to Manchester line and, by extension, across the railway network that followed.

The Museum of Science and Industry is a particularly apt venue, as it is housed at the site of the terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and the Grade I listed booking office and first class waiting room are still open to the public. The iconic locomotive first went on display in South Kensington in 1862 at the Patent Museum, which later became the Science Museum and, apart from a tour of Japan and a visit to York, it stayed in London until its return to Newcastle for the Great Exhibition of the North in the summer of 2018. It will remain in Manchester from 22 September until 21 April 2019 and then will be put on long-term display at the national Railway Museum in York.
Link Science and Industry Museum Blog
Link ITV Granada News
Link The Guardian