Wylam Dilly

Wylam Dilly

300px Wylam Dilly in 1862.

Type and origin Power type Steam Builder William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth Build date circa 1815

Specifications Configuration 4w Gauge 5 ft (1,524 mm) Driver diameter 39 in (991 mm) Loco weight 8 long tons (8.1 t; 9.0 short tons) Fuel type Coal Cylinders 2 Cylinder size 9 in × 36 in (229 mm × 914 mm)

Career Disposition static display at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh

Wylam Dilly is one of the two oldest surviving railway locomotives in the world; it was built circa 1815 by William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam colliery. Wylam Dilly was initially designed for and used on the Wylam Waggonway to transport coal. The four driving wheels are connected by a train of spur wheels driven by a central crankshaft.

Because it proved too heavy for the cast iron plateway in its original form, the locomotive was rebuilt with eight wheels in 1815, but returned to its original design in 1830 after the track was relaid with wrought iron rails. The locomotive was still at work in 1862 when it was moved to Craghead Colliery. After withdrawal it was presented to the Royal Museum in Edinburgh in 1883, where it is currently on display. A similar steam locomotive, Puffing Billy, is in the Science Museum in London.

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

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.

File:Wylam Dilly, National Museum of Scotland.JPG

Wylam Dilly at the National Museum of Scotland