Twin Sisters (locomotive)

Twin Sisters was an early steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829 for use while the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was being constructed. It took its name from its most distinctive feature, two vertical boilers each with its own chimney. The engine was designed from the outset to burn coke rather than coal, because the railway's enabling Act required that locomotives should not produce smoke, and it was sometimes called the Liverpool Coke Engine. It ran on six sprung wooden wheels with wrought iron tyres, and two inclined cylinders drove the end wheels, which were coupled to the others. Twin Sisters worked on the line's construction near Liverpool while Rocket served on the Chat Moss section, carried on ballasting work after the line opened in September 1830, and was scrapped around December 1831.