1980

SJ4991 : 'Rocket 150' – 22: NCB 7 'Robert'

taken 44 years ago, near to Rainhill, St Helens, England

'Rocket 150' – 22:  NCB 7 'Robert'
'Rocket 150' – 22: NCB 7 'Robert'
Austerity saddle tank locomotive. Developed for the War Department by the Hunslet Engine Company in 1943, a total of 377 were built, many being subcontracted to other builders. Following WW2, the National Coal Board adopted the design as their standard, and in total 485 were built, making this one of the largest classes of steam locomotive built in Britain. The last was built as late as 1964.
Robert' was in the ownership of the NCB at Bold Colliery at the time of the cavalcade, but is in fact one of the wartime production, many of which found their way into colliery use. It was the only steam locomotive in the cavalcade which was still in commercial use, being withdrawn from service in 1982. It has since been preserved, currently (2018) on the Great Central Railway.
Rocket 150

This was the name given to British Rail's celebration of 150 years since the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, Britain's first steam operated passenger main line.

The event took place at the location of the famous Rainhill Trials of 1829 LinkExternal link , at which the locomotive 'Rocket' was chosen out of 5 contestants to provide the type of locomotive for working the line. For the event, replicas were built of the three principal contestants to be enable to represent the Trials. These were George Stephenson's 'Rocket', Timothy Hackworth's 'Sans Pareil' and Braithwaite and Ericsson's 'Novelty'.

The event took the form of a cavalcade of a representative selection of British locomotives from 1829 onwards, presented over three days, 24, 25, 26 May 1980 over the stretch of line where the trials had taken place. The cavalcade was assembled at the sidings adjacent to Bold Colliery from where the cavalcade proceeded to the west of Rainhill station. Temporary grandstands were erected along both sides of the line for several hundred metres and provided excellent viewing for all spectators. Individual exhibits passed at approximately 5 minute intervals giving ample time to allow the PA announcer to give details to all spectators without overlap.

My own pictures attached to this shared description were taken on the first day, and a notable absentee from the collection is the replica of 'Rocket' itself. Sadly this suffered a derailment on some substandard track in the sidings at Bold Colliery sustaining damage that prevented from running on that day. After strenuous efforts to repair the damage to the locomotive, and the offending section of track, it was able to appear on the other two days.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Alan Murray-Rust and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Historic sites and artefacts Railways People, Events other tags: Rocket 150 Railway Locomotive National Coal Board Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Steam Locomotive [12] · Class Locomotive [11] ·
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SJ4991, 115 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Alan Murray-Rust   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Saturday, 24 May, 1980   (more nearby)
Submitted
Wednesday, 20 February, 2019
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SJ 4989 9166 [10m precision]
WGS84: 53:25.1608N 2:45.3274W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! SJ 4988 9164
View Direction
Northeast (about 45 degrees)
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Image Type (about): geograph 
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