Timothy Hackworth - Youth and early work, Further locomotive constructions, Legacy

Locomotive engineer, born in Wylam, Northumberland, NE England, UK. He was manager of the Stockton–Darlington railway (1825–40), and builder of a number of famous engines, including the Royal George and the Sans Pareil, rival of George Stephenson's Rocket.

Timothy Hackworth (December 22, 1786 – July 7, 1850) was a steam locomotive mechanical engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and worked with George Stephenson on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

Youth and early work

Born in Wylam in 1786, Hackworth worked with William Hedley at Wylam Colliery in the early 1800s and assisted in the production of Puffing Billy, the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive. With Stephenson, Hackworth helped develop Locomotion, a moderately successful engine that Hackworth adopted as a pet project. The engine was however subsequently used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and can still be seen in action at the Timothy Hackworth Museum.

Further locomotive constructions

His design in 1827 for the Royal George used a steam blastpipe in the chimney to draw the fire, and he is usually acknowledged as the inventor of this concept. According to another source (Brown, 1871), Stephenson used the steam blast already before 1815.

He also built, at Shildon in 1836, the first locomotive to run in Russia for the St Petersburg railway and in 1837 the Samson for the Albion Mines Railway in Nova Scotia, one of the first engines to run in Canada.

Legacy

Today he has a school named after him in his hometown of Shildon where the pupils annually learn of Timothy Hackworth and his work on trains.