Wylam Dilly

Wylam Dilly
Power type Steam
Builder William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth
Build date circa 1815
Gauge 5 ft  (1,524 mm)
Disposition static display at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh

Wylam Dilly is one of the two oldest surviving railway locomotives in the world;[1] it was built circa 1815 by William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth.[2] Wylam Dilly was initially designed for and used on the Wylam Waggonway (or Wagonway) to transport coal.[3] It is currently on display in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.[1] A similar steam locomotive, Puffing Billy is in the Science Museum in London.

In 1822 the locomotive was mounted on a keel and served as the engine for a steam paddlewheeler that ferried strikebreakers on the River Tyne.[3][4]

Until a thorough examination of Wylam Dilly and Puffing Billy was undertaken in 2008, it was thought that Wylam Dilly was the oldest surviving steam locomotive in the world. The research results, released in late 2008, showed that Wylam Dilly was built after Puffing Billy incorporating improvements on the locomotive's design that weren't present in Puffing Billy.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b "Move It Teachers' Notes". National Museums of Scotland. http://www.nms.ac.uk/moveitteachersnotes.aspx. Retrieved June 26, 2007. 
  2. ^ a b "Puffing Billy becomes world's oldest surviving locomotive". The Railway Magazine 154 (1,292): p. 9. December 2008. 
  3. ^ a b "Wylam WagGon Way". Heddon on the Wall. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928121838/http://www.heddon.co.uk/history/village/wagon.htm. Retrieved June 26, 2007. 
  4. ^ "Wylam Dilly and the Keelmen". Working Class Movement Library. http://www.wcml.org.uk/gmb/wylamdilly.htm. Retrieved June 26, 2006. 
"The Coalbrookdale locomotive" (1803) • The "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive (1804) • The "Newcastle" locomotive (1805) • Catch Me Who Can (1808)
 • Salamanca (1812) • Puffing Billy, Steam Horse (1813) • Blücher (1814) • Wylam Dilly, Steam Elephant (1815) • Locomotion No. 1 (1825)
 • The Royal George (1827) • Lancashire Witch, Stourbridge Lion (1828) • Novelty, Sans Pareil, Rocket, Perseverance, Invicta (1829)