Hetton Hetton

Hetton was one of the original steam locomotives of the Hetton Colliery Railway, built to George Stephenson's design around 1822, sharing its name with the colliery and village it served. It was one of the five original Stephenson locomotives — named Dart, Hetton, Star, Tallyho, and one unnamed — that constituted the initial locomotive fleet for the railway's opening in November 1822.

The locomotive named Hetton is particularly significant in that it has been identified in some historical accounts as the locomotive that survived in heavily rebuilt form to operate on the Hetton Colliery Railway well into the twentieth century — representing one of the longest working lives of any locomotive descended from an original 1820s Stephenson design. By the time it was finally withdrawn, the locomotive would have been so thoroughly rebuilt that little if anything of the original 1822 construction remained, but the continuous working tradition on the same railway made the lineage historically resonant.

The locomotive was not preserved in any surviving form. For the broader context of the Hetton Colliery Railway fleet, see the Hetton Colliery locomotives entry.