Talk:Puffing Billy (locomotive)

Pub

As an interesting aside, there is a pub called "The Puffing Billy" in North Devon, England, between Bideford and Great Torrington. It is a converted station that is part of a now defunct railway in Devon. This is probably not worth mentioning in the main article though. [[User:Norm|Norm]] 23:12, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 08:37, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)) I added it to the disambig page instead: Puffing Billy

Gauge

Question: What gauge is the original Puffing Billy, and its replica in the Science Museum?

Syd1435 08:15, 2004 Oct 30 (UTC)

PB line in Victoria

The narrow gauge (2' 6") line from Belgrave to Gembrook east of Melbourne, is often called "Puffing Billy".

Syd1435 22:49, 2004 Oct 31 (UTC)

New Orleans locomotive

"Puffing Billy" was also the nickname of a mid-19th century vintage locomotive which saw decades of service on the Pontchartrain Rail-Road in New Orleans, Louisiana. I suppose this is worth a passing mention. Suggestions of the best way of doing so? -- Infrogmation 22:04, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Billy-o

The claim that Puffing Billy is being referred to by the phrase "like billy-o" can't be verified: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/like-billy-o.html, though it's certainly a vague possibility. --Rfsmit 20:47, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I came by this article looking for an expression used in my childhood in West Yorks referring to a heavy blizzard of snow, when it was said to be "Snowing like Billy Steam" - which is still used to day, but less commonly. I must have also heard snowing like Billy-O - it clearly means exactly the same thing. The fact that I could only find references in search engines to "Puffing Billy Steam train" tends to make me think that the locomotive may well be the source of this expression. Otherwise I'd be tempted to think that Billy-O was a "minced oath" and that Billy-O meant Bloody Hell - which would certainly fit with the expression "Snowing like Bloody Hell", "Running like Bloody Hell" - but I've spent most of my life wondering who the legendary Billy Steam was.

78.32.193.115 (talk) 20:09, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Puffing Billy was one of three (not two)?

A web article that seems knowledgeable and reputable at http://www.locos-in-profile.co.uk/Articles/Early_Locos/early3.html states Hedley built three locomotives for Wytham colliery - Puffing Billy, Wylham Dilly and Lady Mary. It also states that -

The locomotive was lent to the Patent Office Museum, London (the forerunner of the Science Museum) in 1862 and it was only after three years of acrimonious letters that Christopher Blackett agreed to part with it for £40 as he said ‘It could still do useful work’.

£40 is a lot less than stated in the article (£200)! Some research is needed to a) verify Lady Mary and b) establish which sum was paid for Puffing Billy. Sources from published books are required! Pete Hobbs (talk) 16:09, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

Like Brunel scholarship, there are some very fragmentary books from the 1950s and these still colour the "common knowledge" of the day, even though, later, more complete, but less well-known works have clarified things.

The likelihood here is that "three locomotives" refers to Grasshopper (1812), Puffing Billy and Wylam Dilly. Grasshopper (which is almost unknown) was the "prototype", the others were the "production" locomotives. Grasshopper's name seems to be a nickname and in most correspondence it was called the 'travelling engine'. We know little about it. What we do know is that it was a single cylinder, inspired by Trevithick, and it was built on the chassis of the hand-cranked wagon (1811) used for adhesion tests on plain rail (from which the Wylam arrangement of geared drive derives). We don't know if the single flue was straight or a return flue. We don't even know if the cylinder was vertical or horizontal.

Also Puffing Billy(1813) and Wylam Dilly(1815) weren't built as a simultaneous pair, as this article claims. 1814 separated them, and their builders were different. Timothy Hackworth had left Blackett in May 1815, after refusing to work on the Sabbath. Nor did Hedley, not an engineer, design either of them (the descendants of the two families are divided on this) - he was a colliery viewer, or manager, and didn't have the engineering, engine-tending or blacksmithing background to do so. He probably did contribute the name though, as the asthmatic and overweight William Hedley, became "Puffing Billy" to the pitmen. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:10, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

References