After watching King of the Railway a few times, I began to wonder what it would be like if we had a story about Stephen's life. So here it is, written by me with some help from D.J. Scales.
The Birth of a Legend
May 1829
It was a cold and wet morning at the Forth Street Works in Newcastle Upon Tyne. It had rained the previous night and the ground was sopping wet. The clouds showed no sign of retreating, meaning no warm sun to brighten up the day.
Meanwhile a man wearing a black suit and coat was walking down the nearby sidewalk. He had his head down and a few papers tucked under his arm. He walked up to the entrance to the works and walked inside.
The many people inside walked around getting work done, but this did not bother the man. He walked past the working men and passed through a door into a smaller office place. The few people inside were too busy writing and passing papers back and forth to notice the man.
Then the man came to a door on the other side of the room. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, unlocked the door, and walked inside.
He walked into an office, where a big wooden desk with many papers, ink bottles, and crumpled up papers lay. He put the papers he had under his arm on the desk and sat down on a large chair behind it.
He began looking over the papers he had brought, which were notes describing steam power and traction. He spread the papers out and looked at each one individually.
"This design has to work. We've come too far for it to fail" said the man. But then he heard a knock on his door. "Come in" he said leaning back in the chair. A man poked his head through the door.
"Excuse me Mr. Stephenson, your son is here to see you" said the man. "Yes alright, send him in" said George.
The man walked away, and a few minutes later, another man in a grey suit walked into the office. "Morning father" said the man. "Hello Robert" said George.
Robert sat down on a chair that was in front of his father's desk. "So, how is progress" asked Robert. "Going very well, in fact it's almost done" said George "It may be finished in the next few hours". "Well that's what we need. If we want to win the competition at Rainhill, then we need to get it completed as fast as we can so we can test it" said George.
But then, the man from before walked in. "Excuse me sirs, but I've gotten word from the workshop. They saw it's nearly done" he said excitedly. The two men immediately stood up. "Excellent news, let's go see its completion" said Robert. "Indeed" said George. So the two men walked out of the office, through the smaller office space, and into the workshop.
They walked passed men hammering steal and pounding rivets. But the two men could only think about their newest work being finished.
Then, they reached a small corner of the shop, where six men were busily working on a strange looking machine.
It had four wheels, two pistons, a smokestack, whistle, and a tender. Its boiler was painted yellow and its smoke box was painted black. It sat on rails that ran out of the shop to a test loop.
George and Robert walked up to their locomotive. "It's nearly done sir. The last part is its nameplate" said a man, holding onto a large black and gold nameplate reading 'Rocket'. "And it's we all agree that you two should be the ones to put it on" said another workman.
"Well, I agree" said Robert. "So do I" said George. So Robert took the nameplate and placed it on the engines boiler. Then George took a hammer and bashed the rivets into the holes in the plate. Then, he pounded the last rivet into place.
But then, all the men who were looking at the side of the engine heard a voice. "OOOAAAHHH" said the voice. It sounded like it was yawning. "Who said that" asked George looking around. "Me" said the voice sleepily.
George and Robert noticed that the voice was coming from the front of their engine, which no one was looking at. The two men walked up to the front of their engine. But when they did, they nearly fell back in surprise.
There, on the front of their engine, was a face. It was young, and it also looked sleepy. Like when you wake someone up from a long sleep and they're all tired.
George and Robert didn't know what to say. They had only seen machines with faces at certain mines and on some steam wagons. But never before had they seen one on a steam locomotive.
George slowly walked up to the face. "Uh, hello there" he said cautiously. The face looked at them. "Oh Hello, I'm guessing you're the ones who woke me up" he said looking at the men standing near him. "Well, yes. Sorry about that. We just finished building you" said Robert, who had walked up to the face.
"Oh, I see. Well it's nice to meet you. Who are you two" the face asked. "My name is Robert Stephenson, and this is my father George Stephenson" said Robert. "Well hello Robert and George" said the face.
But then, George spoke up. "I just thought of something, you don't have a name do you" he said. "What are you talking about, we agreed to call it Rocket" said Robert. "Yes, but that was before "IT" got that" said George, jerking his head towards the face on their engine.
"Well, if it must have a proper name, then shouldn't it be named after its creators" said a workman. George and Robert thought about this for a minute. "Well we both built it, so it has to be something that relates to us" said George. "Something that we have in common" said Robert. The two men spoke to each other for a moment, then they turned to the engine.
"We have talked, and we think we have a name for you" said George. "Really, what is it" asked the face. Robert smiled "Stephen" he said happily.
The engine pondered for a moment, and said the name over and over again silently. "Ya, I like it" he said a minute later. "Alright then, Stephen it shall be" said George.
"Does that mean we have to make a new nameplate" asked a workman. "No. Stephen may have a proper name, but he's still the Rocket. Leave it, as a reminder of his speed" said George.
"Oh, how fast can I go" asked Stephen. "We don't know yet, we have to test you" said a workman.
"That's right" said Robert "But I think since it's too wet and cold out today, we'll hold off on the testing until it dries up". Stephen's face fell a little "Oh, okay then. I guess I can wait" he said sadly.
George decided to try to cheer him up. "But that's a good thing. If we want you run you at your top performance, then we need good conditions. We also need time to check your parts and make calculations. This will be important when you're facing the competition" he said smiling.
Stephen went from sad to confused. "Competition, what competition" he asked. "That's right" said Robert "we haven't told you. Well, the reason we built you is so you can participate in a competition at Rainhill."
"Why am I entering" asked Stephen. "Well" said George "the few railways today are run by horses. They pull carriages on rails so they won't veer off course. Then the Liverpool Railway board had the Ludacris idea to have rope pulling machines work the Liverpool line. I was strongly against that, I knew steam engines were the better idea. After a lot of arguing, they eventually decided to hold a contest to see which engine would perform the best, and run the new Liverpool Railway. The competition is in October at Rainhill. So far ten other competitors have entered. This means that you have to be at the top of your game to win this. Operation of a new line and 500 pounds are on the line. We've pull all of our locomotive experience into you. We know you will win the competition Stephen, we just know it" said George.
Stephen showed a confident smile "Don't worry; I'm shure I'll win. I want to show everyone that Rocket isn't just a name, it's a representation of my speed".
"That's the spirit" said Robert. "Now that you know what you're going to be competing in, we have to get some work done. Our men will make shure you're taken care of. Remember that we'll test run you tomorrow" said George. "Yes sir" said Stephen. So then George and Robert walked away.
That night, Stephen was still sitting in the small corner of the shop. The whole day, he had been thinking about his test run tomorrow. "The question is though, will I really be as fast as my name (Rocket) implies" he thought. He kept thinking about this, until he eventually fell asleep.
