The Hetton Colliery ''Lyon'' or ''Lyons'' is an early British steam locomotive that still survives in preservation. It is remarkable for having continued working into the early 20th century.

Hetton Colliery

The Hetton colliery railway opened in 1822 with steam traction. Although once thought to date from this time, ''Lyon'' is now thought to have been built by the colliery in 1851-52. Its designer is thought to be an engineer named Young. A descendant, David Young, now works on the restoration of steam engines at Beamish. ''Lyon'' would have been of archaic design by 1852. The view has been put forward that it was one of a pair of replicas built by Sir Lindsay Wood (1834–1920) from interest in his father

Nicholas Wood Nicholas Wood FGS FRS (24 April 1795 – 19 December 1865) was an English colliery and steam locomotive engineer. He helped engineer and design many steps forward in both engineering and mining safety, and helped bring about the North of Englan ...

's earlier designs. The other example was destroyed by a boiler explosion in 1858/1859.

1882 rebuilding

It was extensively rebuilt in 1882. This included modern features, such as paired Salter spring balance safety valves.

Late service

The locomotive continued in service at Hetton colliery until either 1908 or 1912. This was already remarkable at the time and a photograph of it was published in the '' Railway Magazine'' in 1905. It has worked out its last days at the Colliery driving machinery in the pit sawmill.

Preservation

In 1925, the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...

celebrated its centenary. The

LNER LNER may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 *London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a type ...

organised a cavalcade of locomotives to commemorate this. '' Locomotion No. 1'' was propelled by a dummy petrol engine in its tender, but ''Lyon'' was steamed and ran under its own power, leading the cavalcade of fifty three locomotives. The locomotive became part of the initial collection of the National Railway Museum at York. In 1974 was loaned to the new

Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it wa ...

where it was initially displayed in the Colliery and latterly at the Waggonway, together with working replicas of contemporary locomotives. In 2006 it was moved to the

Locomotion museum Locomotion, previously known as Locomotion the National Railway Museum at Shildon, is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum was renamed in 2017 when it became part of the Science Museum Group. Overview The museum was ...

at Shildon, but returned to Beamish in May 2011.

Dating

There is some debate over the locomotive's original construction date, and even its name. Lowe (1975) gives the name as ''Lyons'', but most current sources favour ''Lyon''. Both are probably derived from the name of Hetton Lyons Colliery, which closed in 1960 and is now the site of an industrial estate and a country park. The Hetton colliery railway used steam locomotives from the outset; four built in 1820 and one in 1822. They were developments of George Stephenson's earlier Killingworth design. These were of 0-4-0 arrangement with two vertical cylinders, one above each axle, and the wheels coupled by drive chains. They used

steam spring Steam springs or steam suspension are a form of suspension used for some early steam locomotives designed and built by George Stephenson. They were only briefly used and may have been used for fewer than ten locomotives. Requirements for suspen ...

s for suspension, there not yet being a way of forging an adequate steel spring to carry the weight of a locomotive. For many years, before and during preservation, it was thought that ''Lyon'' was one of this original group of locomotives, built in 1822. Lowe describes four named 1820 locomotives and an unnamed 1822 locomotive, which he identifies as this one, the only one to be preserved. Its designers were held to be George Stephenson and

. It is now thought to have first been constructed in 1852, some years after Stephenson's death. The design is little changed from Stephenson locomotives of the 1820s (i.e. before '' Rocket'') and this confused early researchers. The use of either the single flued boiler or the vertical cylinders were obsolete by ''Rocket''. One distinctive difference from these locomotives was the enlarged smokebox with an easily opened door, providing more space for and easier cleaning of ashes.

Vertical-boilered ''Lyons''

Two quite separate locomotives, ''Lyons'' and ''Eppleton'', were built at the colliery much later on, similar to those also built locally by

Head Wrightson Head Wrightson was a big heavy industrial firm based at Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England. It specialised in the manufacture of large industrial products such as fractional distillation columns, which sometimes needed special transport ...

. These were small vertical-boilered well tank, with

chain drive Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles. ...

from a small vertical engine. ''Lyons'' locomotive was described in '' The Locomotive Magazine'' in 1901. Lowe's view is that ''Lyon'' dates from 1822 and the ''Lyons'' he describes is this later locomotive with a vertical boiler and chain drive,.

Notes

References

External links

{{Commons category, Lyon, Hetton Colliery Railway, ''Lyon'', Hetton Colliery Railway Beamish photostream @ Flickr * https://www.flickr.com/photos/janner2011/14810664347 * https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdjt42/13910446739 * https://www.flickr.com/photos/exfordy/6010012144 * https://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelmenzies/13903006071 Early steam locomotives Preserved steam locomotives of Great Britain 0-4-0 locomotives