Sans Pareil is a steam locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth of Shildon in 1829 for the Rainhill Trials.
Hackworth used a large single flu boiler, then a proven design, and attempted to push it to its limit for maximum performance. However, this proved to be a dead end. The future lay with the multi-tube boiler developed by the Stephensons for their Rocket Locomotive which won the Rainhill trials.
Hackworth’s failure at Rainhill demonstrated that the future of railway design and innovation lay with larger concerns. These concerns had the intellectual and financial capital needed to compete in a rapidly changing market.
By Timothy Hackworth (1756-1850)
On display at Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon
www.nrm.org.uk/locomotion
