York Guides

Julie Hemmings (Yorkshire Post)
THE designer of the Rocket rail engine, George Stephenson, is regarded as the father of the railways – but he may just have been a better publicity man than his fellow Victorian innovators.

Papers donated to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York are likely re-ignite the debate over who created the breakthrough technology that made reliable steam locomotives possible.
A letter dated July 25, 1828, to fellow engineer Timothy Hackworth confirms that Stephenson still was using inefficient bellows to help to power his engines.
This was more than six months after Hackworth built his locomotive, The Royal George, in 1827, featuring a "blast pipe", which saved the Stockton and Darlington Railway some £532, compared with the cost of horse-drawn trains.
However, Stephenson took credit for the blast pipe innovation after his locomotive Rocket, built by his son Robert, won the Rainhill Trials of 1829 to haul the first inter-city train from Liverpool to Manchester the following year.
The blast pipe is a simple device which creates a partial vacuum, enabling the locomotive's fire to burn more strongly. It speeds up the production of steam, giving the engine more power.
The professor of railway studies at York University, Colin Divall, said: "Fans of Stephenson have always argued that the replacement of the bellows with the blast pipe, which was a distinguishing feature of the Rocket, was George's idea, but this letter seems to cast some doubt on that.
"However, the blast pipe is almost certainly an instance of the same device being invented by two people at more or less the same time."
The great-great-granddaughter of Timothy Hackworth, Jane Hackworth-Young, said Stephenson, with his business and public relations nose, was happy to take the credit for the innovation. She said: "Gradually though, both historians and the general public are beginning to recognise my great-great-grandfather's contribution to railway history."
Miss Hackworth-Young, from Teesdale, recalls that as a child, trunks full of family documents were stored in the loft at home, including letters between Hackworth's children which tell much about the social history of the time.
Hackworth was born in 1786 and played a large role in creating the locomotives Puffing Billy, Locomotion, The Royal George and Sans Pareil, for which he is most famous. He died in 1850.
Documents handed over to the NRM collection include the passport that enabled Hackworth's son, John Wesley Hackworth, to leave Russia after he had delivered his father's engine – the first in Russia – to the Tsar.