Wylam Colliery (Wylam Waggonway)

About

The Wylam Colliery and its associated Wylam Waggonway were a coal mine and tramroad eight miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne. The waggonway, originally a wooden plateway built about 1748, ran along the north bank of the River Tyne to staiths at Lemington for shipment of coal. From 1808 it was relaid in iron with cast-iron plate rails.

Wylam is most famous as the testing-ground for the locomotives Grasshopper (1813), Puffing Billy (1814) and Wylam Dilly (1814), designed by colliery viewer William Hedley, assisted by enginewright Jonathan Forster and the young blacksmith Timothy Hackworth. Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly are the world's oldest surviving railway locomotives, preserved respectively at the Science Museum, London and the National Museum of Scotland.

Wylam was also the birthplace of George Stephenson in 1781, his birth-cottage stood directly adjacent to the waggonway and is preserved as a National Trust property.

Locomotives owned

Chittaprat — An 1815 William Hedley-built Wylam Colliery locomotive that proved unsuccessful and was quickly superseded; named for the distinctive irregular exhaust beat ("chitta-prat") of its unevenly set valves. Worked briefly at Wylam alongside Puffing Billy before being broken up.
Newcastle (Trevithick 1805) — Richard Trevithick's 1805 Wylam locomotive, a lighter development of Penydarren built by John Whinfield's foundry at Pipewellgate, Gateshead, for Christopher Blackett of Wylam Colliery. The engine was intended to demonstrate that the principles proven at Merthyr could be transferred to Tyneside colliery working, but the Wylam Waggonway's wooden plate-rails were too weak even for the lightened design, and the engine never ran successfully on rails. It was reportedly used as a stationary engine at Whinfield's foundry instead.
Puffing Billy — William Hedley's 1813 Wylam Colliery locomotive, the oldest surviving steam locomotive in the world. Built at Wylam Colliery's own workshops to a design by colliery viewer Hedley with engineman Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth, Puffing Billy demonstrated for the first time that simple wheel-on-rail adhesion (without rack-and-pinion drive) was sufficient for steam locomotion, a fundamental discovery that shaped all subsequent locomotive practice. The engine worked at Wylam from 1814 to 1862, nearly 50 years' service. Currently on permanent display at the Science Museum, London.
Wylam Dilly — Sister engine to Puffing Billy and one of the two oldest surviving steam locomotives in the world. Built at Wylam Colliery in approximately 1815 to William Hedley's design (with Jonathan Forster and Timothy Hackworth), Wylam Dilly is the sister of Puffing Billy of 1813, both engines using the same general arrangement and working the Wylam Waggonway from Wylam Colliery to the staiths at Lemington-on-Tyne. The engine worked at Wylam from approximately 1815 to 1862, nearly 50 years' service. Currently on permanent display at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Founded	1 January 1748
Country	England
Headquarters	Wylam, Northumberland