This weekend sees the North East steam festival in Beamish museum and one of the guests is a replica of the Rocket. George Stephenson's locomotive which won the Rainhill trials in 1829 and went on to haul the first ever train on the Liverpool to Manchester railway in 1830. Was also the first locomotive to knock down and kill a passenger, William Huskisson, a local MP. A dash was made to get him to hospital using Rocket and although the locomotive reached an estimated speed of 36 mph , Mr Huskisson was declared dead on arrival. Here Rocket gives some travellers a more sedate trip along Beamish waggonway
