Stephenson's Rocket: Historic Engine returns home for the first time in 180 years

Stephenson’s Rocket is back in Manchester for the first time in more than 180 years.

It was built specially to run on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world’s first inter-city passenger railway line, and will be on display at the Museum of Science and Industry until 21 April 2019.

Rocket secured its place in railway history after winning the Rainhill trials, in 1829.

The competition was to decide which locomotive candidate would be used to pull the trains on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opening the following year. Rocket, designed by Robert Stephenson, won the competition and secured the tender for George Stephenson, his father, known as the “Father of the Railways”.

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 stationery 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 sits on 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.