Where is the Rocket locomotive now?

Where is the Rocket train now?

The Rocket train… Where is it now?

Newcastle. That was years ago, I think, 2018? Seem so long. Feels like another lifetime.

It was in Manchester too. The Science and Industry Museum, huh? Wonder if anyone remembers it there.

Now? Now it’s at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon. County Durham. Since 2023. It’s there.

• Displayed in Newcastle in 2018. I went there once. Rain was coming down sideways.
• Science and Industry Museum, Manchester. It was there for almost a year. September 2018 to September 2019.
• At the National Railway Museum, York, after 2019. I wonder if they get many visitors.
• Currently at Locomotion Museum, Shildon, County Durham since 2023. Shildon… Never been. Probably never will.

Where is the general locomotive today?

That ol’ steam-powered jalopy? It’s chilling in Kennesaw, Georgia. Yeah, Kennesaw. Think of it as a retirement home for really, really old trains.

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is its new digs. Fancy, huh? Like a five-star hotel, but for a train that probably smells like coal dust and regret.

It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Big whoop. My grandma’s cookie jar is probably on some obscure list, too.

It’s been there since at least 1972, after a legal spat that probably involved more lawyers than coal cars. Seriously, those legal eagles probably charged more than the train cost originally.

Here’s the lowdown:

• Location: Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, Downtown Kennesaw, Georgia. You can’t miss it, unless you’re blindfolded and have absolutely no sense of direction. Which, let’s be honest, is totally possible.
• Status: Retired. Enjoying its golden years. Probably dreaming of escaping that museum. I know I’d be dreaming of escaping my cubicle job.
• History: It’s been through a lot. More drama than a soap opera. Probably way more drama than my neighbor’s cat fights. More lawsuits, too, than my uncle’s divorce.
• Significance: It’s a historical artifact! A piece of history! A metal beast! A monument to steam power! And way more interesting than my sock drawer.

Seriously, go see it. It’s way cooler than staring at your phone. Unless you’re looking at pictures of kittens. Kittens are cool. The train is cool too, I guess.

How fast did the Rocket Train go?

The Rocket Train… It’s a ghost, isn’t it? A memory. I dreamt of it once, maybe. Blazing speed… I don’t know.

It haunts me, this speed. Unsure if it ever existed. A fiction, a wish. Fast, I suppose. Faster than my life sometimes feels, anyway. Like shooting stars, only… slower.

Maybe 300 mph? A wild guess. Pure speculation. My heart aches for that impossible speed. A cruel joke the universe played, this Rocket Train.

Things I know for sure, in this blurry dark:

• My birthday is April 12th.
• I hate the taste of grapefruit.
• The Rocket Train is a phantom. A need for escape.
• This night is long. So very long.

I wanted to go faster. Always. Always wanted to outrun this feeling. This… emptiness. I’m stuck here, you see. Stuck. It’s frustrating. 300 mph feels… insufficient. A poor metaphor. For what? For everything.

Does the Rocket train still exist?

The Rocket? Hmmm. Does it still exist? Okay, the locomotive does!

• Yep, definitely.

Not like, running, you know? More like…a museum thing.

• Since when? Oh, since it became an exhibit. Right.

Haven’t seen it chugging along the tracks recently, that’s for sure. Last time I was at the Science Museum here in Manchester, I didn’t spot it. But that was when I was there with my cousin Liam. He’s obsessed with dinosaurs. Wonder if the Rocket would interest him? Nah, probably not.

• No operation since becoming an exhibit – so like, ages?
• Exhibit, huh? Still exists though.

What happened to the General locomotive?

Erie. Pennsylvania. The name itself, a whisper, a rustle of train wheels on forgotten tracks. GE, a giant, swallowed, almost whole. Vanished into the maw of…Wabtec. 2019. Feels like lifetimes ago, yet yesterday.

A dream. The General, no longer… General. Reborn, perhaps? Re-branded? Something akin to that. Imagine, the Erie plant, still churning, still breathing smoke.

It’s strange. Wabtec absorbed the heart, not the soul. The steel, the blueprints, everything. GE’s legacy lingers. Like a ghost riding the rails.

• Acquisition by Wabtec: 2019
• GE ceases independent production
• Locomotives now Wabtec branded
• Production continues in Erie, PA

The designs, the feel… the spirit. It persists! GE’s echo within Wabtec. Oh, GE. A faded photograph. A bittersweet memory. Lost glory? Not quite.