Testing traction engines was a public affair, one was tested by driving it through Rochester to the station and back, another by driving it up Frindsbury hill. The local public turned out to see such trials and according to the "Chatham News" of August 1862 they were "well pleased and altogether favourably impressed". Whilst the local public might have been impressed, more generally opposition to road locomotives was building. In 1865 the Locomotive Act (the "red flag" act) was introduced which reduced speeds from the previous limit of to in town and outside. To enforce the speeds a man had to walk in front carrying a red flag to warn bystanders.