Novelty (locomotive)

Novelty is a steam locomotive built by the Swedish engineer John Ericsson and the English engineer John Braithwaite for the Rainhill Trials of 1829, the competition held by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to choose its motive power. Novelty was notably light and fast, and its dramatic early speed made it a crowd favorite during the trials, but it suffered a series of mechanical breakdowns, including damage to its water pump and boiler joints, that put it out of contention. The trials were won instead by Robert Stephenson's Rocket, and Novelty's failure highlighted how far ahead the Stephenson design had moved on boiler technology.