Puffing Billy (locomotive) Totally Explained

Everything about Puffing Billy Locomotive totally explained

Puffing Billy was an early 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. It is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive.
   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. It was one of a number of similar engines built by Hedley, the resident engineer at Wylam Colliery. The engines remained in service for many years and were not retired until as late as 1862.
   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. Relying on smooth wheels running on a flanged track, its eight-ton weight was too heavy for the rails and crushed them. This problem was alleviated by redesigning the engine with eight wheels 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 wasn't particularly fast, being capable of no more than 3 to 5 mph (5 to 8 km/h).
   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.
   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, so that phrases like "puffing like Billy-o" and "running like Billy-o" became common.
   A replica has been built and was first run in 2006 at Beamish Museum.
   Its sister locomotive, Wylam Dilly, is preserved in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Puffing Billy Locomotive'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://puffing_billy__locomotive.totallyexplained.com">Puffing Billy (locomotive) Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.