Wylam Colliery 0-4-0 Geared No. 'Wylam Dilly'
Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK 		Location: National Museum of Scotland
Status: Display
Posted: Jun 26, 2007 @ 14:06:41 by Steve Frost
William Hedley worked with Timothy Hackworth and Jonathan Foster building adhesion locomotives at Wylam in the early 19th Century. Originally built to operate on a plateway as 0-4-0, the loco and its twin 'Puffing Billy' (in the Science Museum, London) proved too heavy for the plates and it was altered to an 8 wheeled loco to try and solve the problem. The only drawing of the loco in this form suggests that it was articulated, but how the geared drive from the cylinders accommodated the articulation is unknown. Later it was rebuilt with four flanged wheels for edge rail operation.

The wrought iron boiler was a return flue type with an egg end and the two cylinders operated lever type beams which linked to a crankshaft between the two axles, the drive being transmitted to them by gears.

When the assets of the Wylam Colliery were being sold, Hedley bought 'Wylam Dilly' and displayed it at his own mine in County Durham for a number of years before it was presented to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh.