Rainhill
The first pages of Arthur Cecil Ingram's diary that could be read with any confidence concern the locomotive trials held at Rainhill in October 1829.
The handwriting is hurried in places, but unmistakably the same as that found throughout the rest of the diary.
Arthur appears to have arrived while preparations were already under way.
He writes with the familiarity of an engineer rather than that of a spectator. Boiler arrangements, wheel configuration and the condition of the track receive considerably more attention than the crowds gathered to watch.
One locomotive interested him above all others.
Rocket.
Arthur's notes describe the locomotive in considerable technical detail. He comments favourably on the separate firebox and the use of multiple small boiler tubes, although he appears less impressed by several other aspects of its construction.
None of this is particularly remarkable.
What follows is.
Alongside a small sketch of the locomotive, Arthur wrote:
Stephenson has it. They just don't know it yet.
The entry appears to have been written before the trials were concluded.
Later pages describe Rocket completing its runs and the subsequent difficulties encountered by the competing locomotives.
Arthur records the events without surprise.
His final observation for the day is considerably less technical.
Railways will remember this locomotive.
They will not remember everyone who stood beside it.
Among the material accompanying the diary is a badly faded image believed to show part of the Rainhill gathering.
A figure stands some distance from the locomotive.
The face cannot be identified.
The coat, however, appears remarkably familiar.
