175^th Anniversary of The Rainhill Trials (Competition to find the World's First Express Railway Locomotive) - Personalized generic sheet

Issue date: 2004

Click on the sheet to enlarge it

The ten labels and border reports images and drawings of 3 steam locomotives: 0-4-0 "Sans Pareil",
0-4-0 "Novelty" and 0-2-2 "Rocket" (the sheetlet uses the Flag stamp, which is of no railway interest).

The Rainhill Trial consisted in hauling a train weighing three times the locomotive for a 70-mile trip at
the speed of 10 miles/hour. Besides the above three locomotives, the other two participants were the 
"Perseverance" and "Cyclopède". The winner of the trial was the Stephenson's "Rocket".