Puffing Billy Photo
Date: 2003-09-27, Publication: The Journal
One of the earliest railway photographs in the world has been snapped up by Beamish Museum as an invaluable aid to a reconstruction project.
The County Durham museum is building a replica of the world's first locomotive, Puffing Billy, and staff were amazed when an 1860 photo of the train was put up for sale at the Anderson and Garland auction house, in Newcastle.
The picture shows Puffing Billy passing by George Stephenson's cottage in Wylam, Northumberland - the village where it was built by railway pioneer William Hedley.
It is of particular value to Beamish as it shows Puffing Billy in its original state, before the many alterations that were carried out later in its career.
Beamish's deputy director John Gall said: "It's one of the earliest railway photographs in the world, which is superb in itself, but it also shows some of the detail on the Puffing Billy that was altered later on.
"It was an 1813 engine that worked for a long time and it gradually was altered.
"At present we're building a replica to work on our railway and this gives us an invaluable tool in getting as close as possible to the original engine.
"The thing about our railway history is that it's important on a world stage, it's a time when the North-East led the world. Our first locomotives are the first practical railways in the world so this is a superb find.
"It does make you wonder what else is out there because this is totally unknown and should be in the Science Museum or somewhere like that."
The Puffing Billy was the world's first working locomotive - pre-dating the more famous Rocket by 13 years - and took coal from Wylam to docks at Scotswood.
The original train is at the Science Museum, in London but Beamish has started a project to make a working replica that can run on its railway.
Other items sold at Anderson and Garland yesterday included a crayon drawing by the Belfast artist William Connor that fetched £9,000 - 20 times the estimated price.
The drawing, that is just over a foot square, was found in a house in Blyth, Northumberland Back to Archive | 
