Wagonway
Encyclopedia
Steam railroad
Steam railroad is a term used in the United States to distinguish conventional heavy railroads from street railways, interurban streetcar lines, and other light railways usually dedicated primarily to passenger transport....
s. The terms "plateway
Plateway
A plateway is an early kind of railway or tramway or wagonway, with a cast iron rail. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later....
", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.
Early developments
The idea of using "tracked" roads is at least 2000 years old; quarries in Ancient GreeceAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
and the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
used cut stone tracks to haul loads pulled by animals, as the Greek Diolkos
Diolkos
The Diolkos was a paved trackway near Corinth in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth. The shortcut allowed ancient vessels to avoid the dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnese peninsula...
did for transporting ships overland. Around 1568, German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
miners
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
working in the Mines Royal
Society of Mines Royal
The Society of Mines Royal was one of two mining monopoly companies incorporated by royal charter in 1568, the other being the Company of Mineral and Battery Works.-History:...
near Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
had knowledge of tub railways, as archaeological work at the Mines Royal site at Caldbeck in the English Lake District has now confirmed the use of "hunds", as track fragments have been found. The wooden tubs, known as "hunds" ("dog" in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) ran on two wide boards or rails and were used to move ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
within the mines. These hunds used a guide pin system, utilising the slot between the two board rails to keep them on course.
The first true railways, using a flange to keep the wheel on a rail, were developed in the early 17th century. In 1604, Huntingdon Beaumont
Huntingdon Beaumont
Huntingdon Beaumont was an innovative entrepreneur in coal mining, who built what is currently credited as the world's first wagonway. Regrettably he was less successful as a businessman and died having been imprisoned for debt....
completed the Wollaton Wagonway
Wollaton Wagonway
The Wollaton Wagonway , built between October 1603 and 1604 in the East Midlands of England by Huntingdon Beaumont in partnership with Sir Percival Willoughby, is currently credited as the world's first overland wagonway and is therefore regarded as a significant step in the development of...
, built to transport coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton
Wollaton
Wollaton is an area in the western part of Nottingham, England. It is home to Wollaton Hall with its museum, deer park, lake, walks and golf course...
, just west of Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Wagonways have been proven to exist in Broseley
Broseley
Broseley is a small town in Shropshire, England with a population of 4,912 . The River Severn flows to the north and east of the town. Broseley has a town council and is part of the area controlled by Shropshire Council. The first iron bridge in the world was built in 1779 to link Broseley with...
and in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
from 1605, but it has recently been suggested that used by James Clifford to transport coal from his mines in Broseley to the river Severn was somewhat older than that at Wollaton.
Wagonways improved coal transport by allowing one horse to deliver between 10 LT (10.2 t; 11.2 ST) of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
per run an approximate fourfold increase. Wagonways were usually designed to carry the fully loaded wagons downhill to a canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
or boat dock and then return the empty wagons back to the mine.
Until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, the rails were made of wood, were a few inches wide and were fastened down, end to end, on logs of wood or "sleepers", placed crosswise at intervals of two or three feet. In time, it became a common practice to cover them with a thin flat sheathing or "plating" of iron, in order to add to their life and reduce friction. This caused more wear on the wooden rollers of the wagons and towards the middle of the 18th century, led to the introduction of iron wheels, the use of which is recorded on a wooden railway near Bath in 1734. However, the iron sheathing was not strong enough to resist buckling under the passage of the loaded wagons, so rails made wholly of iron were invented.
The first iron rails
In 1767, the CoalbrookdaleCoalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...
Iron Works began to cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
rails. These were probably 6 ft (1,828.8 mm) long, with four projecting ears or lugs 3 in (76.2 mm) by 3+3/4 in to enable them to be fixed to the sleepers. The rails were 3+3/4 in wide and 1+1/4 in thick. Later, descriptions also refer to rails 3 ft (914.4 mm) long and only 2 in (50.8 mm) wide.
Flangeways
A later system involved "L" shapedCross section (geometry)
In geometry, a cross-section is the intersection of a figure in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane, etc...
iron rails or plates, each 3 ft (914.4 mm) long and 4 in (101.6 mm) wide, having on the inner side an upright ledge or flange, 3 in (76.2 mm) high at the centre and tapering to a height of 2 in (50.8 mm) at the ends, for the purpose of keeping the flat wheels on the track.
Subsequently, to increase the strength, a similar flange might be added below the rail. Wooden sleepers continued to be used the rails being secured by spikes passing through the extremities but, circa 1793, stone blocks also began to be used, an innovation associated with the name of Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.-Personal life:...
, who, however, was not the first to make it. This type of rail was known as the plate-rail, tramway-plate or way-plate, names which are preserved in the modern term "platelayer
Platelayer
A platelayer or trackman is a railway employee whose job is to inspect and maintain the permanent way of a railway installation.The term derives from the plates used to build plateways, an early form of railway....
" applied to the men who lay and maintain the permanent way
Permanent way
The permanent way is the elements of railway lines: generally the pairs of rails typically laid on the sleepers embedded in ballast, intended to carry the ordinary trains of a railway...
of a railway.
The wheels of a flangeway were plain, and could theoretically operate on ordinary roads. This was probably not often done as the narrow wheels would dig into the surface.
Edgeway, edge rails
Rail profile
The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to the length of the rail.In all but very early cast iron rails, a rail is hot rolled steel of a specific cross sectional profile designed for use as the fundamental component of railway track.Unlike some other uses of...
, was first used by William Jessop
William Jessop
William Jessop was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
on a line which was opened as part of the Charnwood Forest Canal
Charnwood Forest Canal
The Charnwood Forest Canal, sometimes known as the "Forest Line of the Leicester Navigation", was opened between Thringstone and Nanpantan, with a further connection to Barrow Hill, near Worthington, in 1794...
between Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
and Nanpantan
Nanpantan
Nanpantan is a small village in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is located in the south-west of the town of Loughborough, but the village is slightly separated from the main built-up area of Loughborough...
in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
in 1789. This line was originally designed as a plateway on the Outram system, but objections were raised to rails with upstanding ledges or flanges being laid on the turnpike road
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
, this difficulty was overcome by paving, or "causewaying", the road up to the level of the top of the flanges. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge-rails. Another example of the edge rail application was the Lake Lock Rail Road
Lake Lock Rail Road
The Lake Lock Rail Road was an early narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England.- The Company :The Lake Lock Rail Road Company was formed in 1796 with the capital being raised from 128 shares. These were purchased by a broad range of people including a lawyer, banker,...
used primarily for coal transport. This was a public railway (charging a toll) and opened for traffic in 1798. The route started at Lake Lock, Stanley
Stanley, West Yorkshire
Stanley is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is about north-east of Wakefield city centre.Stanley was an Urban District in the West Riding of Yorkshire prior to 1974, being made up the four electoral wards of Lake Lock, Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe...
, on the Aire & Calder Navigation, near Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, and ran to Outwood
Outwood, West Yorkshire
Outwood is a district to the north of Wakefield, a city in West Yorkshire, England. The district is centred on the A61 Leeds Road south of Lofthouse. It was originally a small pit village, but there has been so much new housing in the last twenty years that the old village is now only a minority of...
, a distance of approximately 3 miles (4.8 km). Edge-rails (with a side rack) were also used on the nearby Middleton - Leeds rack Railway
Middleton Railway
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd...
(a length of this rail is on display in Leeds City Museum
Leeds City Museum
Leeds City Museum, originally established in 1819, re-opened on 13 September 2008 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is housed in the former Mechanics' Institute built by Cuthbert Brodrick, in Millennium Square, which has been redeveloped to a design by Austin-Smith:Lord architects and Buro...
).
The wheels of an edgeway have flanges, like modern railways and tramways. Causewaying is also done on modern level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
s and tramways.
These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well on into the 19th century. In most parts of England the plate-rail was preferred, and it was used on the Surrey Iron Railway
Surrey Iron Railway
The Surrey Iron Railway was a horse drawn plateway whose width approximated to a standard gauge railway that linked the former Surrey towns of Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham...
, from Wandsworth
Wandsworth
Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...
to West Croydon
West Croydon station
West Croydon station is a transport interchange for National Rail and Tramlink services, as well as London Buses. It is in the London Borough of Croydon and Travelcard Zone 5...
, which, sanctioned by parliament in 1801, was finished in 1803, and like the Lake Lock Rail Road
Lake Lock Rail Road
The Lake Lock Rail Road was an early narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England.- The Company :The Lake Lock Rail Road Company was formed in 1796 with the capital being raised from 128 shares. These were purchased by a broad range of people including a lawyer, banker,...
was available to the public on payment of tolls, previous lines having all been private and reserved exclusively for the use of their owners. Since it was used by individual operators, vehicles would vary greatly in wheel spacing (gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
) and the plate rail coped better.
In South Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
again, where in 1811 the railways were connected with canals, collieries, iron and copper works, and had a total length of nearly 150 miles (241 km), the plateway was almost universal. But in the North of England and in Scotland the edge-rail was held in greater favor, and by the third decade of the century its superiority was generally established. Wheels tended to bind against the flange of the plate rail and mud and stones would build up.
John Birkinshaw
John Birkinshaw was a 19th Century railway engineer from Bedlington, Northumberland noted for his invention of wrought iron rails in 1820. Up to this point, rail systems had used either wooden rails, which were totally incapable of supporting steam engines, or cast iron rails typically only 3 feet...
, of the Bedlington Ironworks
Bedlington Ironworks
Bedlington Ironworks, in Blyth Dene, Northumberland, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron rails were invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
. His rails were wedge-shaped in section, much wider at the top than at the bottom, with the intermediate portion or web thinner still, and he recommended that they should be made 18 ft (5.49 m) long, even suggesting that several of them might be welded together end to end to form considerable lengths. They were supported on sleepers by chairs at intervals of 3 ft (914.4 mm), and were fish-bellied between the points of support. As used by George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
on the Stockton & Darlington
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
and Canterbury & Whitstable
Canterbury and Whitstable Railway
The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, sometimes referred to colloquially as the Crab and Winkle Line, was an early British railway that opened in 1830 between Canterbury and Whitstable in the county of Kent, England.- Early history :...
lines they weighed 28 lb/yd. On the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
they were usually 12 or long and weighed 35 lb/yd, and they were fastened by iron wedges to chairs weighing 15 or each. The chairs were in turn fixed to the sleepers by two iron spikes, half-round wooden cross sleepers being employed on embankments and stone blocks 20 in (508 mm) square by 10 in (254 mm) deep in cuttings. The fishbellied rails, however, were found to break near the chairs and from 1834, they began to be replaced with parallel rails weighing 50 lb/yd.
The wagonway had come into considerable use in connection with collieries and quarries before it was realized that for the carriage of general merchandise it might prove a serious competitor to the canals, of which a large distance had been constructed in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
during that period. In the article on "Railways" in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1824, it is said: "It will appear that this species of inland carriage is principally applicable where trade is considerable and the length of conveyance short; and is chiefly useful, therefore, in transporting the mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
produce of the kingdom from the mines to the nearest land or water communication, whether sea, river or canal. Attempts have been made to bring it into more general use, but without success; and it is only in particular circumstances that navigation, with the aid either of locks or inclined planes to surmount the elevations, will not present a more convenient medium for an extended trade." It must be remembered, however, that at this time the railways were nearly all worked by horse-traction, and that the use of steam had made but little progress.
Steam power
In 1804, Richard TrevithickRichard Trevithick
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive...
, in the first recorded use of self propelled steam power on a railway, ran a high-pressure steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
with smooth wheels, on an 'L' section plateway near Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
, but it was found more expensive than horses. He made three trips from the iron mines at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal and each time broke the rails that were designed for horse wagon loads. In 1812, the Middleton Railway
Middleton Railway
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd...
(edgeway, rack rail) successfully used twin cylinder steam locomotives made by Matthew Murray
Matthew Murray
Matthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca in 1812...
of Holbeck
Holbeck
Holbeck is a district in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.The district begins on the southern edge of the Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 Leeds postcode area. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
. In 1821, a wagonway was proposed that would connect the mines at West Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
, Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and the River Tees
River Tees
The River Tees is in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines, and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar.-Geography:...
at Stockton
Stockton-on-Tees
Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...
, George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
successfully argued that horse drawn wagonways were obsolete and a steam powered railway could carry 50 times as much coal. Shortly after the completion of the Stockton and Darlington railway
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
in 1825, coal transport prices began falling rapidly.
Stationary steam engines for mining were generally available around the middle of the 18th century, wagonways and steam powered railways that had steep uphill sections would employ a cable powered by a stationary steam engine to work the inclined sections. British troops in Lewiston, New York used a cable wagonway to move supplies to bases before the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. The Stockton and Darlington had two inclined sections powered by cable.
The transition from a wagonway to a fully steam powered railway was a gradual evolution. Railways up to 1835 that were steam powered often made runs with horses when the steam locomotive were unavailable. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
, which initially opened in 1830 with 13 miles (21 km) of track, was horse powered. Railroads powered by stationary engines and cables (San Francisco cable cars) and horse-drawn trams (Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
, Douglas Bay Horse Tramway
Douglas Bay Horse Tramway
The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway is a horse-drawn tramway in Douglas on the Isle of Man. The route runs along the seafront promenade for approximately , from a southern terminus at the Victoria Pier, adjacent to the Sea Terminal to a northern terminus at Derby Castle, the southern terminus of the Manx...
) are still in use today.
In 1999, the Beamish Museum
Beamish Museum
Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open-air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, England. The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early...
in North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
replicated a steam-operated railway of 1825, the "Pockerley Waggonway", going on to recreate a wooden wagonway alongside.
Shunting
Even in the steam age, it has been convenient to use horses in station yards to shuntShunt
Shunt may refer to:* Shunt - a hole or passage allowing fluid to move from one part of the body to another* Shunt - a device allowing electrical current to pass around a point in a circuit...
wagons from one place to another. Horses do not need lengthy times to raise steam in the boiler, and can also take short cuts from one siding to another. At Hamley Bridge tenders were called for the supply of horses, in part because normal railway staff lacked horse handling skills.
Australia
A number of short and isolated lines were originally operated by horse, unless connected to the main system and converted to locomotive operation. These include:- Goolwa tramway from 1850. Later converted to steam locomotive operation.
- Port Broughton tramway which was always isolated until closure.
- Port Wakefield tramway until lengthened and converted to locomotive operation.
External links
- http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/view_structure_information.asp?struct_id=1747Description and photographs of the archaeological excavation of a wooden waggonway on the site of Lambton CokeCoke (fuel)Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
Works in North East EnglandNorth East EnglandNorth East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
.]