Wagonways, also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, were used. The advantage of wagonways was that far bigger loads could be transported with the same power.
John Blenkinsop was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive.
The history of rail transport began in the BCE times. It can be divided into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used.
{{Infobox locomotive | name=William Crooks | powertype=Steam | image=William Crooks 1939.JPG | caption=William Crooks in Chicago, en route to the 1939 New York World's Fair | builder=New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Works | builddate=1861 | rebuilddate=1869, after damaged in 1868 fire | whytetype=4-4-0 | gauge=4 ft 8+1⁄2 in | leadingdiameter=28 in (710 mm) | driverdiameter=63 in (1,600 mm) | length=50 ft 8+1⁄4 in (15.45 m) | weightondrivers=35,950 lb (16,310 kg) | locoweight=55,400 lb (25,100 kg) | tenderweight={{ |17975|lb|kg t|abbr=in|sp=us}} | boilerpressure=110 psi (760 kPa) | cylindercount=Two | cylindersize=12 in × 22 in
305 mm × 559 mm | tractiveeffort=4,700 lbf (20.91 kN) | factorofadhesion = 7.65 | operator=St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, Great Northern Railway | operatorclass=1 | fleetnumbers=1 | firstrundate=June 1862 | retiredate=September 1897 | currentowner=Minnesota Historical Society, loaned to Lake Superior Railroad Museum | disposition=static display at Lake Superior Railroad Museum }}
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960.
The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR) was a railway in Scotland that provided train services between Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Ayr. It opened its first line, between Glasgow and Ayr, in stages from 1839 to 1840. The section between Glasgow and Paisley was made jointly with the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway. Later it built a line from Dalry via Kilmarnock to Cumnock, linking there with the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway, and together forming a through route from Glasgow to Carlisle. The two companies merged to form the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway was an early railway line in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was constructed to bring coal from pits around Kilmarnock to coastal shipping at Troon Harbour, and passengers were carried.
The history of rail transport in Great Britain to 1830 covers the period up to the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first intercity passenger railway operated solely by steam locomotives. The earliest form of railways, horse-drawn wagonways, originated in Germany in the 16th century. Soon wagonways were also built in Britain. However, the first use of steam locomotives was in Britain. The invention of wrought iron rails, together with Richard Trevithick's pioneering steam locomotive meant that Britain had the first modern railways in the world.
Laigh Milton Viaduct is a railway viaduct near Laigh Milton mill to the west of Gatehead in East Ayrshire, Scotland, about five miles west of Kilmarnock. It is probably the world's earliest surviving railway viaduct on a public railway, and the earliest known survivor of a type of multi-span railway structure subsequently adopted universally.
The village or hamlet of Gatehead is located in East Ayrshire, Parish of Kilmaurs, Scotland. It is one and a quarter miles from Crosshouse and one and a half miles from Kilmarnock. In the 18th and 19th centuries the locality was a busy coal mining district. The settlement runs down to the River Irvine where a ford and later a bridge was located.
Events from the year 1812 in Scotland.
Several mineral railways were constructed around Dunfermline in western Fife, Scotland, in the eighteenth century and later. Their purpose was to convey minerals to market from the outcropping coal deposits that had encouraged industrial activity in the area from an early date.
