Two Newcomen Society Members – Dr Michael Bailey and Peter Davidson – conducted a forensic analysis on the steam locomotive Lyons, claimed to have been designed by George Stephenson and to pre-date Locomotion I (1825) and Rocket (1829). Minute examination shows key components used in manufacture of Lyons were not available until twenty years after Rocket was built. The locomotive Lyons hauled coal at Hetton Colliery near Durham for 60 years and was actually built around 1849, Bailey and Davidson concluded!

The story featured on the BBC website and can be viewed here.