[Illustration: FIG. 55.--The "Rocket," 1829.] The little engine does not seem to have been very prepossessing in appearance, and the "Novelty" is said to have been the general favorite, the Stephenson engine having few, if any, backers among the spectators. On its first trial, it ran 12 miles in less than an hour. After the accident which disabled the "Novelty," the "Rocket" came forward again, and ran at the rate of from 25 to 30 miles an hour, drawing a single carriage carrying 30 passengers. Two days later, on the 8th of October, steam was raised in a little less than an hour from cold water, and it then, with 13 tons of freight in the train, ran 35 miles in 1 hour and 48 minutes, including stops, and attained a speed of 29 miles an hour. The average of all runs for the trial was 15 miles an hour. This success, far exceeding the expectation of the most sanguine of the advocates of the system, and greatly exceeding what had been asserted by opponents to be the bounds of possibility, settled completely the whole question, and the Manchester & Liverpool road was at once equipped with locomotive engines. The "Rocket" remained on the line until 1837, when it was sold, and set at work by the purchasers on the Midgeholme Railway, near Carlisle. On one occasion, on this road, it was driven 4 miles in 4-1/2 minutes. It is now in the Patent Museum at South Kensington, London. In January, 1830, a single line of rails had been carried across Chat Moss, and, six months later, the first train, drawn by the "Arrow," ran through, June 14th, from Liverpool to Manchester, making the trip in an hour and a half, and attaining a maximum speed of over 27 miles an hour. The line was formally opened to traffic September 15, 1830.