Copyright © 2004 Alan J. White; all rights reserved. Last updated January 2004. Illustrations may be seen by clicking on any word highlighted as follows: sample image. Note that many of these are on other websites, and so may be absent or changed by the time you view them – apologies!
The railway revolution originated in the colliery waggonway systems of north-eastern England. The Northumberland and Durham or Great Northern Coalfield, although not the biggest coalfield in Britain, was certainly the chief exporting coalfield – why? because, being close to the east coast, its coal could readily be shipped down to London or to other British and continental European ports. Once the coal was onboard ship, great distances could be covered with relative ease – although ask the crews! – but great difficulties attended the apparently simple problem of getting the coal the short distance from the pit-head to the sailing ships waiting at the staithes on the Tyne and Wear rivers. Early "coal-shifting" systems, such as pack-horse and ox-cart – on roads little better than cart-tracks – were horribly inefficient, especially in winter when coal was needed most but when the roads were at their muddiest.
By the late 18th century, however, the coal barons of Northumberland and Durham had perfected a solution to this problem – the waggonway. In its fully developed form it consisted, in outline, of (1) a wooden railway sloping gently down to the staiths, and (2) wooden waggons, each holding two or three tonnes of coal, pulled by a horse, and controlled by a man – the waggoner. This system had evolved over a long period of time starting around the beginning of the 17th century and was the height of efficiency by 18th century standards, yet in the early 19th century it was swept away in a revolutionary change in which wooden rails were replaced by metal ones and horses were replaced by mobile seam engines pulling multiple waggons. The railway age had begun!
The realisation that this new technology could be applied to the general transportation of goods and people seized the imagination of the British people. The Stockton and Darlington railway (25 miles long, really half way between a waggonway and a railway) opened in 1825, and the Liverpool and Manchester line (31 miles of double track) opened in 1830. For the rest of the 19th century, the whole world busied itself constructing railways far and wide.
A typical late 18th-century waggonway for hauling coal in horse-powered waggons was constructed as follows.
This was normally a single-track railway with passing places, but sometimes there were two tracks – the main way and the bye-way. Waggonways generally passed over land owned by various people, and considerable sums had to be paid out annually in wayleaves to landowners.
The typical waggon ("wain") had the following features:
Ideally, the waggonway sloped gently downhill all the way from the coalmine to the staithes. In that case, the waggons trundled downhill under their own weight, with the driver sitting on the back, foot on brake, or actually sitting on the brake lever itself which stuck out at the back. The horse would trot along behind on a lead, and was only needed to haul the empty waggon back up the slope.
However, the landscape of the Tyne and Wear region is undulating, with sharply-cut little valleys ("denes") here and there, and indeed the main rivers, the Tyne and the Wear, also tend to run in steep-sided valleys. Consequently, cuttings, embankments and bridges had to be resorted to. Even so, many waggonways had steep sections, where horses struggled to pull the empty wains back uphill. These were often the final sections running down to the river's edge.
Much effort went into solving this problem. The first idea was to use additional horses – "helpers up". But horses and their handlers were expensive to keep up, so other means were sought. The self-acting plane or balanced incline became popular in the second half of the 18th century. In this scheme, a descending train of loaded waggons would pull a like number of empty waggons uphill via a long rope wrapped round a drum at the top of the incline. Of course, this implied a double-track waggonway, at least for the steep section, and the drum would often have a brake mechanism lest the heavily-laden waggons ran out of control!
With the invention of steam engines, the cutting-edge technology to tackle this issue came to be the stationary engine. This stood in its own engine-house at the top of the incline, and hauled empty waggons uphill via a long rope or chain. The final solution to the problem, however, was the steam locomotive – it had all the advantages: no horses, no ropes to break, and infinitely extensible.
This is a brief chronology for the emergence of railway technology from waggonway technology.
|
Date |
Event |
|---|---|
|
c.1603 |
First recorded railed colliery waggonway in Britain – at Wollaton in Nottinghamshire. |
|
c.1605 |
First railed colliery waggonways in Tyne & Wear area – three: from pits at Bedlington, Bebside and Cowpen to the River Blyth. |
|
1726 |
Tanfield or Causey Arch (bridge) completed – near Stanley, Co. Durham. A major civil engineering project illustrating how much wealth coal generated even in the first half of the 18th century. |
|
1784 |
Balanced incline already in use in Tyne & Wear area – loaded waggons used to pull empty ones up on a parallel track via a rope going round a drum at the top of the incline. |
|
1797 |
First iron rails in Tyne & Wear region – Lawson Main colliery's waggonway – cast iron. The idea had been adopted elsewhere in Britain earlier (where cast iron was more readily available). Stone sleepers were generally required. Iron superseded wood c. 1810-1830. You could have flanged wheels on edge (i.e. ordinary) rails, or plain wheels on plate (i.e. flanged) rails. |
|
1801 |
Richard Trevithick's first steam road carriage, Cornwall. [Picture] |
|
c.1802 |
Mysterious possibly-first steam engine on rails made at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. Trevithick may have been the designer. [Picture] |
|
1804 |
Trevithick's first fully-attested steam locomotive – Penydarren ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil. Not a success because it tended to break the plate (flanged) rails. [Picture] |
|
1805 |
First steam locomotive in Tyne & Wear area. Designed and built by Trevithick and John Steele of Gateshead. However, the Wylam colliery would not buy it as hoped – perhaps because it damaged the wooden rails. [Picture] |
|
1809 |
First recorded stationary steam engine in Tyne & Wear area – to pull waggons uphill – on Urpeth Waggonway, Chester-le-Street – a long rope was used. |
|
1812 |
First successful steam locomotive project – Salamanca – Middleton colliery near Leeds – John Blenkinsop (born Tyneside) and Matthew Murray, the latter being the main designer – twin cylinders – cogwheel and rack rail. [Picture] |
|
1813 |
First successful steam locomotive project in Tyne & Wear area – Blenkinsop & Murray-style rack-rail system at Kenton & Coxlodge colliery. |
|
1814 |
Three steam locos made for Wylam colliery, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne – twin-cylinder – adhesion (smooth wheel on smooth rail) – two bogies and eight unflanged wheels on plate (flanged) rail – Puffing Billy, Wylam Dilly and Lady Mary – designed by William Hedley and/or Timothy Hackworth. |
|
1814 |
George Stephenson's first locomotive – My Lord – at Killingworth, Northumberland – two cylinders – adhesion. |
|
1815 |
Steam Elephant – probably designed by William Chapman under John Buddle, a famous viewer (chief engineer) known as the "King of the Coal Trade" – Wallsend etc collieries – two cylinders – adhesion. [Picture] |
|
1820 |
Wrought or malleable iron rails patented by John Birkinshaw – laid at Willow Bridge colliery (near Blyth) – lengths of 18 feet (5.5 metres) or more possible, versus 3 or 4 feet for old cast iron rails – highly praised by George Stephenson. |
|
1825 |
Stockton and Darlington opened – 25 miles long – first true railway – actually half-way house between colliery waggonway and general-purpose railway – much of the traffic was coal, and horses were used as well as engines – George Stephenson's Locomotion the initial engine. [Picture of Locomotion] |
|
1829 |
Rainhill trials to decide the best design of locomotive for the Liverpool and Manchester railway – winner: Robert Stephenson's Rocket. [Animated picture of Rocket] |
|
1830 |
Liverpool and Manchester railway opened – 31 miles of double track – George Stephenson the chief engineer. |
Steam and Speed: Railways of Tyne & Wear from the Earliest Days; Andy Guy; 2003; Tyne Bridge Publishing (Newcastle-upon-Tyne Libraries & Information Service); ISBN 1857951611. Gives a good explanation of how the railways evolved from the Tyne and Wear horse-powered waggonways, as well as a history of railways in that region and the colourful high-achieving characters who made it happen. Contains many excellent pictures.
Black Diamonds by the Sea: North-East Sailing Colliers 1780-1880; Dick Keys & Ken Smith; 1998; Newcastle-upon-Tyne Libraries & Information Service; ISBN 1857950194. Gives great insights into the adventures the coals went through after being loaded onto collier ships in the days of sail. Also contains many excellent pictures.
Early Wooden Railways; M. J. T. Lewis; 1970; London.
A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Tyne & Wear; compiled by Ian Ayris and Stafford M. Linsley; 1994.
George and Robert Stephenson: the Railway Revolution; L. T. C. Rolt; 1960; London.
Waggonways and Early Railways of Northumberland; C. R. Warn; 1976.
Stephenson Railway Museum, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 88 grid reference NZ322692. Features:
Bowes Railway, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 88 grid reference NZ286590. Features:
Tanfield Railway, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 88 grid reference NZ206563. Features:
North of England Open Air Museum, Beamish, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 88 grid reference NZ219542. Features (of relevance):
Darlington Railway Museum, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 93 grid reference NZ289156. Features:
National Railway Museum, York, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 105 grid reference SE594519. Greatest railway museum in the world! Features:
Science Museum, London, Ordnance Survey Landranger map 176 grid reference TQ266791. Features:
Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Ordnance Survey Landranger map 66 grid reference NT258733. Features:
See also Steam and Speed, which has a gazetteer of railway sites in its back pages.
