Puffing Billy when it made its last run on the Wylam Railway, 1862. William Hedley (July 13, 1779 - January 9, 1843) was an English industrial engineer. Puffing Billy is an early railway steam locomotive, constructed in 1813-14 by Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth. It is the world's oldest surviving steam locomotive. Puffing Billy was the first commercial adhesion steam locomotive, employed to haul coal chaldron wagons from the mine at Wylam to the docks at Lemington-on-Tyne. Puffing Billy incorporated a number of novel features, patented by Hedley, which were to prove important to the development of locomotives. It had two vertical cylinders on either side of the boiler, and partly enclosed by it, and drove a single crankshaft beneath the frames, from which gears drove and also coupled the wheels allowing better traction. Puffing Billy remained in service until 1862 and was an important influence on George Stephenson.