Puffing Billy (locomotive)
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| Puffing Billy | |
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| Puffing Billy as seen from the front | |
| Power type | Steam |
| Builder | William Hedley, Jonathan Forster and Timothy Hackworth |
| Build date | 1813–1814 |
| Gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) |
| Locomotive weight | 8 tons |
| Top speed | 5 mph (8.0 km/h) |
| Career | Wylam Colliery |
| Retired | 1862 |
| Current owner | Science Museum, London |
| Disposition | static display |
Puffing Billy is an early railway steam locomotive, constructed in 1813-1814 by engineer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive.[1] It was the first commercial adhesion steam locomotive, employed to haul coal chaldron wagons from the mine at Wylam to the docks at Lemington-on-Tyne in Northumberland.
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[edit] History
It was one of a number of similar engines built by Hedley, the resident engineer at Wylam Colliery, to replace the horses used as motive power on the tramway. In 1813 Hedley built for Blackett's colliery business on the Wylam Colliery line 2 prototypes, "Puffing Billy" and "Wylam Dilly"; they were rebuilt in 1815 and then both served successfully until at least 1830.[2] Due to the Napoleonic Wars, the demand for horses by the army made them very expensive to obtain. The engines remained in service for many years and were not retired until as late as 1862.
In 1862, Edward Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery, lent Puffing Billy to the Patent Office Museum in South Kensington, London (later the Science Museum). He later sold it to the museum for £200. It is still on display there. Its sister locomotive, Wylam Dilly, is preserved in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.
A replica has been built and was first run in 2006 at Beamish Museum.
[edit] Design
Puffing Billy incorporated a number of novel features, patented by Hedley, which were to prove important to the development of locomotives. Piston rods extended upwards to pivoting beams, connected in turn by rods to a crankshaft beneath the frames, from which gears drove and also coupled the wheels allowing better traction.
The engine had a number of serious technical limitations. Running on cast iron Wagonway plates, its eight-ton weight was too heavy and broke them, encouraging opponents of locomotive traction to criticise the innovation. This problem was alleviated by redesigning the engine with four axles so that the weight was spread more evenly. The engine was eventually rebuilt as a four-wheeler when improved edge rails track was introduced around 1830. It was not particularly fast, being capable of no more than 5 mph (8 km/h).
[edit] Legacy
Puffing Billy was an important influence on George Stephenson, who lived locally, and its success was a key factor in promoting the use of steam locomotives by other collieries in north-eastern England.
It also entered the language as a metaphor for an energetic traveller, and phrases like "puffing like Billy-o" and "running like Billy-o" are thought to derive from the locomotive's name.
[edit] References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Puffing Billy |
- ^ "Puffing Billy becomes world's oldest surviving locomotive". the Railway Magazine 154 (1,292): 9. December 2008.
- ^ Stretton, Clement E. (June 1895). "History of the "Bogie," as Applied to Locomotives". The Railway World: 13–16. http://books.google.com/books?id=EpRDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA13.
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