Hetton Dart

Dart was one of the original steam locomotives of the Hetton Colliery Railway, built to George Stephenson's design around 1822 for the opening of one of the world's first steam-hauled railways. The Hetton Colliery Railway ran from the coal mines at Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham to staiths on the River Wear at Sunderland, and Stephenson's fleet of five original locomotives — named Dart, Hetton, Star, Tallyho, and one unnamed example — hauled the coal trains on the level and gently graded sections of the line while self-acting inclines handled the steepest gradients.

Dart was an 0-4-0 locomotive of the early Stephenson pattern, with vertical cylinders driving a pair of coupled axles, reflecting the design principles that Stephenson had developed at Killingworth Colliery before moving to the Hetton project. The name Dart — suggesting speed and directness — was typical of the names applied to early locomotives in this period, before formal classification systems replaced individual naming.

Dart was not preserved and no detailed technical record specific to this locomotive (as distinct from the general Hetton fleet) survives. For the broader context of the Hetton Colliery Railway and its locomotive fleet, see the Hetton Colliery locomotives entry.