Robert Stephenson’s Planet class locomotive was the first true design of mainline express passenger locomotive. Delivered less than a year after Rocket it was one of the most successful early locomotive designs. Planet set the mold for British locomotive design for more than the next century featuring a multi tubular boiler; inside cylinders; crank axle; and the first use of proper frames. The Planet class, and its 0-4-0 Samson derivative, found use across Britain with examples being supplied to railways in London and Glasgow. The Planet class proved popular in Europe too with examples being first exported and then built in France. Two were exported to Austria, and the first locomotive to steam in Russia was based on the design. Planet and Samson also crossed the Atlantic with more examples being built in the United States than in Europe. A working replica of the revolutionary design was built in Manchester in 1992: the first mainline express passenger steam locomotive to be built in Britain since the 1960s. This book outlines the technical design of the Planet and Samson locomotive, and charts the careers of the class members at home and abroad.

The Liverpool & Manchester Railway was Britain’s first mainline, intercity railway; opened in 1830 it was at the cutting edge of railway technology. Engineered by George Stephenson and his team – John Dixon, William Allcard, Joseph Locke – the project faced many obstacles both before and after opening, including local opposition and the choice of motive power, resulting in the Rainhill Trials of 1829. Much of the success of the line can be attributed to the excellence of its engineering but also its fleet of pioneering locomotives built by Robert Stephenson & Co. of Newcastle. This is the story of those locomotives, and the men who worked on them, at a time when the locomotive was still in its infancy. Using extensive archival research, coupled with lessons learned from operating early replica locomotives such as Rocket and Planet, Anthony Dawson explores how the locomotive rapidly developed in response to the demands of the first intercity railway, and some of the technological dead ends along the way.

Anthony Dawson looks at some of the iconic, trailblazing locomotives that helped shape British railway history.

A fascinating insight into what it was like to work on the world's first railways.