Wagonways are the horses, equipment, and tracks used for hauling wagons which preceded steam powered railways. There are two styles of waggonway and two spellings. "Wagonway" tends to relate to examples based on the smaller Shropshire model, and "waggonway" to examples based on the Newcastle area model.

Overview

The idea of using "tracked" roads is at least 2000 years old; quarries in Greece, Malta, and the Roman Empire used cut stone tracks to haul loads pulled by animals. Around 1550 German miners used wooden tubs known as "hunds" running on two wide boards for rails to move ore within mines. These hunds used a guide pin system for steering utilising the slot between the two board rails. In 1604 Huntingdon Beaumont completed a wagonway, (the Wollaton Wagonway) built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton just west of Nottingham, England. Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... Events February 7 - Julius III becomes Pope. ... Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine in the world, Chile. ... Iron ore (Banded iron formation) Manganese ore Lead ore Gold ore An ore is a volume of rock containing components or minerals in a mode of occurrence which renders it valuable for mining. ... Events January 14 – Hampton Court conference with James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans September 20 – Capture of Ostend by Spanish forces under Ambrosio Spinola after a three year siege. ... Huntingdon Beaumont was an Elizabethan gentleman, born circa 1560 who died in 1624. ... The Wollaton Wagonway (or Waggonway), built between October 1603 and 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont in partnership with Sir Percival Willoughby, is currently credited as the worlds first wagonway and therefore extremely significant in the development of railways. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel formed in swamp ecosystems where plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization and biodegradation. ... Strelley is the name of a village and civil parish to the west of Nottingham. ... Wollaton (often mistakenly spelt Woolaton) is an area in the west of the City of Nottingham, England. ... Nottingham is a city (and county town of Nottinghamshire) in the East Midlands of England. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the  United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130...

Wagonways improved coal transport by allowing one horse to deliver between 10 to 13 tons of coal per run - an approximate fourfold increase. Wagonways were usually designed to carry the fully loaded wagons downhill to a canal or boat dock and then return the empty wagons back to the mine. The Canal du Midi, Toulouse, France Canals are man-made channels for water. ...

A typical wagonway

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, 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. 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. But 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Wagonway. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Wagonway. ... A Watt steam engine. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Bath is a city in South West England most famous for its baths fed by three hot springs. ... Events January 8 - Premiere of George Frideric Handels opera Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. ...

Iron rails, flangeways

In 1767, the Coalbrookdale Iron Works cast a batch of "L" shaped iron rails or plates, each 3 ft (1 m) long and 4 in (100 mm) wide, having on the inner side an upright ledge or flange, 3 in (75 mm) high at the center and tapering to a height of 2 in (50 mm) at the ends, for the purpose of keeping the flat wheels on the track. Subsequently, to increase the strength, a similar flange was 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, 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" applied to the men who lay and maintain the permanent way of a railway. 1767 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Coalbrookdale is a settlement in a side valley of the Ironbridge Gorge in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. ... 1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Benjamin Outram (1 April 1764 - 22 May 1805) was an English civil engineer. ... The permanent way refers to the rails and sleepers of a railway line. ...

Edgeway, edge rails

Another form of rail, the edge rail, was first used by William Jessop on a line which was opened between Loughborough and Nanpantan in 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, 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 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, on the Aire & Calder Navigation, near Wakefield, UK, and ran to Outwood, a distance of approximately 3 miles. Edge-rails were also used on the near by Middleton Railway. William Jessop (23 January 1745 - 18 November 1814) was a noted English civil engineer, particularly famed for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. ... Loughboroughs carillon Loughborough parish church The Brush engineering works Loughborough University Loughborough (pronounced locally as either , LUFF-burra or , LUFF-bruh, and more widely as [ˈlʌfˌb(ə)ɹə]) is a town in Leicestershire, central England with a population of 57,600 as of 2004. ... Nanpantan is a settlement in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. ... Leicestershire ( IPA: (RP), IPA: (locally)), abbreviation Leics. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... A reconstructed section of flangeway track A plateway is an early kind of railway or tramway or wagonway that started to appear in the century prior to 1830. ... The Hyde Park Toll Gate, London. ... The Lake Lock Rail Road was an early narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield, UK. The Lake Lock Rail Road Company was formed in 1796 with the capital being raised from 128 shares. ... The Aire and Calder Navigation is a river and canal system of the River Aire and the River Calder in the county of West Yorkshire, England. ... Wakefield The Town Hall, Wood St. ... Outwood is a district to the north of Wakefield, a city in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. ... The Middleton Steam Railway is the worlds oldest working railway. ...

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, from Wandsworth to West Croydon, which, sanctioned by parliament in 1801, was finished in 1803, and like the Lake Lock Rail Road was available to the public on payment of tolls, previous lines having all been private and reserved exclusively for the use of their owners. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) linked Wandsworth in south London and Croydon in Surrey via Mitcham. ... Wandsworth is a town on the south bank of the River Thames in south-west London. ... West Croydon is a locality to the north west of central Croydon in South London. ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Lake Lock Rail Road was an early narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield, UK. The Lake Lock Rail Road Company was formed in 1796 with the capital being raised from 128 shares. ...

In South Wales again, where in 1811 the railways were in connected with canals, collieries, iron and copper works had a total length of nearly 150 miles, 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. This article is about the sub-division of the United Kingdom. ... 1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The manufacture of the rails themselves was gradually improved. By making them in longer lengths a reduction was effected in the number of joints, always the weakest part of the line; and another advance consisted in the substitution of wrought iron for cast iron, though that material did not gain wide adoption until after the patent for an improved method of rolling rails granted in 1820 to John Birkinshaw, of the Bedlington Ironworks, Northumberland. 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 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 (1 m), and were fish-bellied between the points of support. As used by George Stephenson on the Stockton & Darlington and Canterbury & Whitstable lines they weighed 28 lb/yd (14 kg/m). On the Liverpool and Manchester Railway they were usually 12 or 15 ft (4 or 5 m) long and weighed 35 lb/yd (17 kg/m), and they were fastened by iron wedges to chairs weighing 15 or 17 lb (7 or 8 kg) 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 (500 mm) square by 10 in (250 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 (25 kg/m). John Birkinshaw was a 19th Century railway engineer from Bedlington, County Durham. ... Northumberland is a county in the North East of England. ... George Stephenson George Stephenson For the British politician, see George Stevenson. ... Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway by John Dobbin, circa 1825. ... The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the worlds first intercity passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and operated for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. ...

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 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 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. Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ...

Steam power

Richard Trevithick, in 1804, in the first recorded use of steam power on a railway, ran a high-pressure steam locomotive with smooth wheels, on an 'L' section plateway near Merthyr Tydfil, 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 (edgeway, rack rail) successfully used twin cylinder steam locomotives made by Matthew Murray of Holbeck, Leeds. In 1821 a wagonway was proposed that would connect the mines at West Durham, Darlington and the River Tees at Stockton, George Stephenson 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 in 1825 coal transport prices began falling rapidly. Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (April 13, 1771 – April 22, 1833) was a British inventor, engineer and builder of the first working railway steam locomotive. ... Union Pacific Big Boy #4012 at work on a cold November 29, 1941 A steam locomotive is a locomotive powered by steam. ... Merthyr Tydfil (Welsh: ) is a town and county borough in Wales, with a population of about 55,000. ... The Middleton Steam Railway is the worlds oldest working railway. ... Matthew Murray was a steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder The Salamanca in 1812. ... Holbeck is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, through which passes the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. ... Leeds is a major city in West Yorkshire, England. ... The coronation banquet for George IV 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Darlington, including the town clock. ... The Tees is a river in Northern England. ... Stockton-on-Tees is an industrial town and port on the River Tees in north-eastern England. ... George Stephenson George Stephenson For the British politician, see George Stevenson. ... Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 1825 (MDCCCXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

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 base before the American Revolutionary War. The Stockton and Darlington had two inclined sections powered by cable. Combatants American Patriots France Spanish Empire Dutch Republic Oneida and Tuscarora tribes Polish volunteers Prussian volunteers United Kingdom of Great Britain Iroquois Confederacy Hessian mercenaries Loyalists Commanders George Washington Nathanael Greene Gilbert de La Fayette Comte de Rochambeau Bernardo de Gálvez Tadeusz Kościuszko Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben King...

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 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, Manx Tramway) are still in use today. 1876 map The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, with an original line from the port of Baltimore, Maryland, west to the Ohio River at Wheeling and Parkersburg, West Virginia. ...

References

• Illustrated History of the Railroads, John Westwood, Brompton Books

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. Encyclopædia Britannica, the 11th edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

• Lewis, M J T (1970), Early Wooden Railways, London, England: Routledge Keegan Paul (out of print).

Johnrnew 22:06, 31 May 2007 (UTC) London — containing the City of London — is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England and a major world city. With over seven million inhabitants (Londoners) in Greater London area, it is amongst the most densely populated areas in Western Europe. ... A reconstructed section of flangeway track A plateway is an early kind of railway or tramway or wagonway that started to appear in the century prior to 1830. ...