RAILWAYS - THE ROCKETID92910063
For the year 2021-2022, taking advantage of the celebration of the European Year of the Railway and the 80th Anniversary of Renfe, the FNMT-RCM is issuing a collection of 20 coins dedicated to the History of the Railway, with the aim of showing our customers the evolution of one of the most important means of transport in Humanity.
The collection consists of twenty coins. The first fifteen will be issued in 2021 and the remaining five in 2022.
On the obverse is a colour image of THE ROCKET locomotive, considered the most iconic of all as it was the first locomotive in history to be a commercial train traction engine. Above the central image is the legend THE ROCKET. On the outer part of the coin are motifs reminiscent of railway rails.
On the reverse (common to all the coins), the legend RAILWAY HISTORY appears inside a central circle; below it, the value of the coin is 1.5 EURO. Outside the central circle is an image of a railway track.
| Series | History Of Railwais |
| Year | 2022 |
| Colour | Yes |
| Diameter (mm) | 33 |
| Face Value (Euro) | 1.5 |
| Metal | Cupronickel |
| Weight (g) | 15 |
| Maximum Mintage (units) | 7,000 |
RAIL HISTORY - THE ROCKET
Makers: George Stephenson and
Robert Stephenson
Year of production: 1829
Country: United Kingdom
Traction: steam
Transport: passengers and freight
Top speed: 48.3 km/h
Diameter of the driving wheels:
1,435 mm
Tensile stress: 1,089 kg
Working pressure: 3.5 kg/cm2
Heating surface area: 10.9 m2
Cylinders: 2 (203 x 432 mm)
The Rocket has become the most iconic locomotive
of all time on account of its victory at the Rainhill Trials, organised by the Liverpool-Manchester Railway from October 6 to 14 1829 for the purpose of choosing the motive power of the first commercial passenger train in European and indeed, world history.
Each of the locomotives taking part: Cycloped, Novelty, Perseverance, Sans Pareil, and Rocket, was to make 10 return trips on a 2.81 km long track, thus covering the equivalent distance of 56.3 km from Liverpool to Manchester. At eight o’clock on the morning of Tuesday October 8, thousands of people, together with numerous industrialists and technicians eager to acquaint themselves with this novel technology, gathered to watch Stephensons’
Rocket take its turn. From the outset, there was no doubt that this locomotive had the edge over all the others. In fact, in its final trip along the track, it reached a speed of 48.3 km/h whilst comfortably hauling 24 cars full of pioneering passengers.
In addition to this, Rocket earned itself the honour of being considered the matrix of all the locomotives because, despite its understandable limitations, it stood out particularly for two of its main defining features: a fire-tube boiler and the exhaust. The Stephensons had fitted the locomotive with a multitubular boiler made up of 25 three-inch copper
pipes so that the heating capacity of the water inside the boiler in which they were submerged would be increased by the hot air they carried. Although initially this boiler led them to rule out a steam exhaust to activate the air intake, they finally installed this system next to the chimney.
So as not to exceed the maximum weight required in the Rainhill Trials’ rules, the British inventors used only two axles, with the engine at the back, in turn driven by two cylinders located on the left-hand side of the locomotive, set at an angle of 35 degrees from the horizontal. The original Rocket is now on display at the National Railway
Museum in York.