Robert Stephenson

Born	16 October 1803
Died	12 October 1859
Nationality	English
Employer	Killingworth Colliery (apprentice); Robert Stephenson and Company (Managing Partner from 1823); London and Birmingham Railway (Engineer-in-Chief); various British and continental railways (consulting engineer)

Summary: Robert Stephenson was a famous British railway engineer whose most notable designs and developments included numerous steam locomotives such as the Rocket, the Invicta, the Planet and the Patentee. He often worked alongside his father, George Stephenson, who was also a well-known British engineer most famous for building the first intercity railway line and his first steam locomotive which was called the Blucher.

Robert Stephenson was an incredible railway engineer who is regarded as one of the best engineers of the 19th Century. The steam locomotives that he built and developed included some of the earliest passenger steam engines in the world. His work greatly influenced the history of the railways not just in Great Britain but in countries worldwide.

Robert Stephenson Fact Sheet: Who was Robert Stephenson? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times, inventions, accomplishments and history of Robert Stephenson, the famous British steam locomotive engineer.

He was born on October 16, 1803 in Willington Quay, Northumberland in Great Britain.

His was a famous English railway engineer who was highly respected and often referred to as one of the greatest engineers of the 19th Century. He was most famous for developing an early steam locomotive called 'The Rocket'.

He was the son of George Stephenson - a well known civil and mechanical engineer nicknamed 'Father of Railways'. He was famous for building the world's first public intercity railway line which was opened in 1830 and linked the cities of Manchester and Liverpool together. He was also famous for building his first steam locomotive, the Blucher.

He didn't have any surviving siblings. The only sibling he had was a sister who was born in 1805 and sadly died three weeks later.

His mother, Frances née Henderson, died on May 14, 1806 from tuberculosis. Robert was still a small child at the time. He was left in the care of a local woman whilst his father worrked away in Scotland for a short period of time. Upon his father's return, he moved to a cottage where he was cared for by Aunt Nelly (his father's sister Eleanor).

As a young child, he attended a school at Long Benton. Despite his success, his father, George, had been treated unfairly at times as he was uneducated and his accent was strong. As George grew wealthier, he decided to pay for Robert to receive a private education at the Percy Street Academy where he would be taught by John Bruce. It wasn't long before the child began losing his accent.

His school was 16km (10 miles) away from home. His father, George, worried about him becoming ill walking to school in cold weather, and so, he bought him a donkey to travel to school and back.

In his spare time, he attended the local parish church, he helped his father with his steam locomotive designs and he learnt how to play the flute.

He left school in 1819 and became an apprentice to the manager of Killingworth Colliery, a mining engineer called Nicholas Wood. He stayed at the mine until 1821 when, due to poor health, he was released early by Nicholas Wood.

He helped his father, George, to survey the lines for the Stockton and Darlington Railway for which he was advocating the use the of steam locomotives.

From October 1822 to April 1823, he attended Edinburgh University. George wanted him to further his education so he paid for him to attend classes in Chemistry, Natural History and Natural Philosophy.

He opened Robert Stephenson and Company with his father and Edward Pease on May 23, 1823. It was a steam locomotive manufacturing company which was located on Forth Street, Newcastle. It became the first company which was formed distinctly to build railway engines.

Robert and George Stephenson created the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line. Originally the steam locomotive was called the Active, however, it was later changed to Locomotion No. 1. It was the first steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company, and it was built to run on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.

They continued to build steam locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, producing locos by the names of Hope, Black Diamond and Diligence. They worked on a way to stabilise the steam locomomotives as these particular ones were known to rock. They tried using steam springs but they proved to be unsuccessful.

The Stephensons developed a steam locomotive called the 'Experiment'. It was built in 1828 and offered added stability as it was designed using inclined cylinders which could be mounted on springs.

The father and son team built the Victory - a steam locomotive which was modified to a six wheeled design.

George and Robert Stephenson began building steam locomotives for America including the America, the John Bull (Stevens locomotive) and the Whistler. The first loco built for American was ordered by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in the northeastern United States, the steam locomotive was named 'America'. The Boston and Providence Rail Road also ordered a steam locomotive in 1833, it was called Whistler.

He is most famous for inventing the Rocket, also known as 'Stephenson's Rocket'. It was built in 1829 and won the Rainhill Trials. This improved steam locomotive was designed using a multi-tube boiler and a separate firebox. The Rocket's locomotive number was 1829.

He continued to build and develop new steam engines including the Invicta, the Planet and the Patentee. He developed a longer boiler design to avoid problems with the fireboxes and chimneys. It began as a 2-2-2 design which was later changed to a 4-2-0 wheel arrangement allowing the cylinders to be mounted between the supporting wheels.

He became involved with building steam locomotives for Egypt when Abbas I asked him to build the first standard gauge railway for the country. Some of Robert Stephenson's work can be seen in the Cairo Railway Museum. Robert Stephenson and Company became very successful and ended up building steam locomotives for railways all over the world. He died on October 12, 1859 at the age of 55 years.

Biography

Robert Stephenson (1803–1859) was an English locomotive and civil engineer, the only son of George Stephenson. With his father he co-designed Rocket, winner of the 1829 Rainhill Trials, and as Managing Partner of Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle he produced the locomotives that defined the first quarter-century of the railway age. He is regarded by many as the pre-eminent engineer of his generation.

Born at Willington Quay, Northumberland on 16 October 1803, Robert was sent by his father to Bruce's Academy in Newcastle and afterwards spent six months at the University of Edinburgh, an education his father had been denied. Apprenticed at Killingworth Colliery, he was made Managing Partner of the new locomotive works at Forth Street, Newcastle in 1823 at the age of 19. After a three-year spell as a mining engineer in Colombia (1824–1827) he returned to take direct charge of the works.

The early years of Robert Stephenson and Company saw a swift evolution of locomotive design through Lancashire Witch (1828), Rocket (1829), Planet (1830) and the Patentee 2-2-2 of 1833, the first true British express type. Engines from Forth Street worked the opening trains of the Liverpool & Manchester, the London & Birmingham, the Leipzig–Dresden (Adler), the Albany & Schenectady (the John Bull) and many others; by 1860 some 2,000 locomotives had left the works for railways across the world.

From 1833 Robert was Engineer-in-Chief to the London and Birmingham Railway, completed in 1838, at the time the longest railway in Britain. As a civil engineer he is best remembered for a remarkable sequence of bridges: the High Level Bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle (1849), the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick-upon-Tweed (1850), the wrought-iron tubular Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait (1850) and the Victoria Bridge across the St Lawrence at Montreal (1859), for many years the longest in the world.

He sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849. Worn out by overwork on the Victoria Bridge, he died at his London home on 12 October 1859 and was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside Thomas Telford. The cortège from his Gloucester Square house to the Abbey was reportedly watched by 1,500 people; ships on the Tyne, Wear and Tees flew their flags at half-mast.

Locomotives designed

Adler — An 1835 Robert Stephenson & Co. 2-2-2 supplied to the Bayerische Ludwigsbahn (Nuremberg–Fürth Railway) — Germany's first steam-hauled railway. Adler ("Eagle") hauled the first train on 7 December 1835. The original engine was scrapped in 1857; a working replica built in 1935 is preserved at the DB Museum, Nuremberg, where it remains operational for special events.
Aeolus — An 1838 Robert Stephenson & Co. 0-4-0 supplied to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, part of the L&MR's second-generation freight fleet that supplemented the original Planet engines on heavy goods work.
GNR No.1 — Archibald Sturrock's 1848 4-2-2 "Single" express engine for the Great Northern Railway, one of a small early group built by E. B. Wilson of Leeds. Distinct from the much later Stirling Single of 1870.
GWR Star Class (broad gauge) — Robert Stephenson & Co.'s 1833–41 2-2-2 broad-gauge passenger class supplied to the Great Western Railway, the GWR's first reliable express engines and the foundation of Daniel Gooch's broad-gauge locomotive policy. Twelve were built; the prototype, also named North Star, hauled the GWR's first scheduled trains in May 1838 and survived in working order until 1871.
Invicta — Robert Stephenson's 1830 locomotive for the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway, the world's first commercial passenger steam locomotive (the C&W opened 3 May 1830, four months before the Liverpool & Manchester Railway). Built by Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle to a development of the Rocket design with horizontal cylinders, Invicta proved underpowered for the railway's gradients and was withdrawn after only six years. The engine was preserved on withdrawal and is currently displayed at the Whitstable Museum, having previously been at the Canterbury Heritage Museum.
LNWR DX Goods Class — John Ramsbottom's 1858 inside-cylinder 0-6-0, eventually 943 strong — the most numerous British locomotive class ever built. The DX worked LNWR goods traffic from 1858 well into the 20th century; some lasted in industrial service until the 1950s. The original quoted year reflects the long evolution from earlier Trevithick and Allan goods engines that culminated in the DX.
Lancashire Witch — Robert Stephenson's 1828 locomotive for the Bolton & Leigh Railway, a transitional design between the early colliery engines and the Rocket of 1829. Lancashire Witch introduced the inclined-cylinder arrangement that would feature on Rocket, and used a primitive multi-tube boiler arrangement that was a precursor of the multi-tube boilers Rocket would make famous. The engine worked the Bolton & Leigh Railway from 1828, including a brief loan to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway during construction, and was scrapped in approximately 1842. No original survives.
Locomotion — George Stephenson's 1825 locomotive, the engine that hauled the opening train of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825, the world's first public passenger steam railway. Built by Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle to a design by George Stephenson, Locomotion (originally numbered 1, often known retrospectively as "Locomotion No. 1") combined direct connecting-rod drive with two vertical cylinders set into the boiler. The engine worked the S&DR until 1841 and was preserved as a static exhibit thereafter. Currently a centrepiece exhibit at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum, Shildon, County Durham.
North Star — An 1830 Robert Stephenson & Co. 0-2-2 built for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, one of the post-Rocket generation of Stephenson engines that worked the world's first inter-city passenger railway from its 15 September 1830 opening. Not to be confused with the GWR broad-gauge North Star of 1837.
Northumbrian — Robert Stephenson's 1830 development of Rocket for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, the engine that hauled the directors' inaugural train at the line's opening on 15 September 1830, and that carried the fatally-injured William Huskisson MP at speed to Manchester after his accident at Parkside. Northumbrian incorporated improvements over Rocket including a horizontal cylinder arrangement, a separate firebox more substantially water-jacketed, and a smokebox at the front of the boiler, all features that became standard on subsequent designs. No original survives.
Patentee — Robert Stephenson & Co.'s 1833 2-2-2 design — the Planet enlarged with a trailing carrying axle for greater stability and water capacity. Patentee was the universal British express locomotive of the 1830s; over 70 were built for railways across Britain, Europe and beyond, and the layout shaped passenger-engine design for the rest of the 19th century.
Phoenix — An 1830 Robert Stephenson & Co. 0-2-2 built for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway's opening fleet, broadly to Rocket pattern. Hauled some of the L&MR's first revenue trains in autumn 1830 and was rapidly superseded by the Planet class.
Planet Class — Robert Stephenson & Co.'s 1830 2-2-0 design that established the basic layout of the steam locomotive: inside cylinders mounted between the frames at the smokebox end, driving a cranked axle, with the boiler carried on a strong sub-frame. Planet itself was delivered to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in October 1830; over thirty Planet-pattern locomotives were built for British and overseas railways, making it the first true mass-production locomotive class.
Rocket — Robert Stephenson's 1829 locomotive, the engine that won the Rainhill Trials of October 1829 and inaugurated the modern railway age. Built by Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle to a design by Robert Stephenson with his father George Stephenson, Rocket combined three innovations that made it decisively faster and more reliable than its competitors: a multi-tube boiler with 25 copper firetubes, a separate firebox surrounded by water, and a blast pipe directing exhaust steam up the chimney to draw the fire. The engine won the Rainhill prize of £500 and the contract to supply locomotives to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, which opened the following year as the world's first inter-city passenger railway. The original engine survives at the Science Museum, London.
Stephenson Long Boiler — Robert Stephenson & Co.'s 1841 patented locomotive layout with an unusually long boiler positioned over a short rigid wheelbase, giving high steam-raising capacity but poor stability at speed. Built in numbers for Continental railways and as British 0-6-0 goods engines through the 1840s; the layout was the dominant European express engine type of the 1840s before its instability problems became apparent.
Stephenson Planet — Generic name for Robert Stephenson & Co.'s post-1833 production batches of Planet-type 2-2-0s supplied to railways other than the L&MR — early customers included the Stockton & Darlington, the Leicester & Swannington, the Dublin & Kingstown, and several Continental railways.
Stephenson Samson — Robert Stephenson & Co.'s 1830 0-6-0, the first six-coupled locomotive ever built. Developed for heavy mineral haulage on the Stockton & Darlington Railway and effectively the founding ancestor of the British 0-6-0 freight engine — a layout that would dominate British goods traffic for the following 130 years.