The Rocket March 1979 page six

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 12th December 2011 by Liam Physick

Page six from the March 1979 issue of The Rocket gives a brief description of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It mentions how two locomotives in the same class as the Rocket are thought to have hauled a directors’ special train on 21st and 28th August to view the Sankey and Irwell Viaducts: however, it does not name the locomotives in question. Then the piece mentions the opening day of the famous Railway, in particular the death of William Huskisson: it notes that Joseph Locke, driver of the Rocket on the fateful day, must “all his life . . . have carried the image of the crowds around the Duke’s [of Wellington] carriage as the Rocket approached with no brakes and no way of stopping in time.” The article also mentions a “Prince Esterhazy”: the House of Esterhazy was a major landowning family in Hungary (then under Austrian rule). The senior line of the dynasty was granted the title Prince in 1712 by the Holy Roman Emperor: the Prince in 1830 was Nikolaus II, who reigned from 1794 until his death in 1833

Tagged under: steam locomotives, liverpool and manchester railway, tender locomotives, rocket, rainhill, william huskisson, robert stephenson, northumbrian, sankey viaduct, parkside station

Categorised under: The Station & Railway Pioneers