The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-10-26
WOODEN RAILROADS
THE FIRST CRUDE METHODS USED
IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Tracks Were Merely Stout PinnIxs or
Maybe Blocks of Stone-The Flange
| Was Invented Toward the End of
the Seventeenth Century.
1t Is not known with any certainty
| wnen the first pair of parallel tracks
| for wheeled traffic was laid down in
Great Britain or whether it was Of
wood or of stone. Perhaps the former
Is the more probable, the material be-
ing found everywhere and its long
shape being much more suggestive Of
fitness for such Il purpose than stone.
But so long as each neighborhood pro-
duced everything it wanted such things
were not needed. At last the destruc-
ton of timber near London made the
use of coal Indispensable This could
only be conveyed by sea, and one of
the few places where it could be got
with the limited appliances and skill
Of those days was the valley of the
Tyne, just above and below Newcastle
About 800 years ago a considerable
trade in coal for shipment began there,
which soon led to difficulties as to get
ting 1t from the mines into the boats.
The distances were small. but the art
Of roadmaking had died out and In
bad weather pack horses could not
carry enough to render their use profit
able. Some unknown benefactor to his
species at last laid down two parallel
lines of timber for carts to run on
Probably they were merely stout
planks at first, but the sinking at the
joints would soon suggest that other
planks should be placed under them,
the structure then becoming fairly eff
ficient. When flanges. either on the
wheels or the rails, were first invented
or by whom is not known, but 1t was
apparently toward the end of the
seventeenth century.
Those wooden railroads seem to have
survived throughout the greater part
Of the following century, and even into
the nineteenth in some cases. The Mid
dleton colliery railroad at Leeds, for
instance, was of wood until it was
relaid for the Use of BlenkinSOps rack
rail engines. These were started in
1872 and We're unquestionably the first
commercially successful locomotives.
Many other wooden railroads had eX-
listed in the same neighborhood for
fifty or sixty years previously, and no
doubt in other colliery districts as
we'll. One was laid down near Shelf
field, for instance, so early as about
1I12 from the Duke of Norfolk's col
liery ut The Manor into the town. near
ly one and one-half miles down hill. 1t
lasted till 1II5, when 1t was destroyed
in Il riot. Next year it was reconstruct
ed with the first east iron Hanged rails
by James Outram, their inventor. \
wooden railroad long existed at Bath.
1t was laid down in 1871 by Ralph
Allen, who, having gained fortune by
postotfice contracts, acquired and de-
veloped extensive quarries of the cele-
brated Bath oolite stone Oh Combe
down. These being at Il great height
and away from any regular mode Of
transit, 1t became necessary to devise
a means of bringing down such heavy
material. The wooden railroad occu-
pied the site of what is now called
Prior Park road and was laid partly
upon low walls and partly on the
ground, like the wagon ways belong
ing to the collieries in the north Of
England"
The colliery lines about Newcastle
used in the eighteenth century rails
Of beech wood, carefully planned on the
top and pegged down to crosspieces,
which were even then termed "sleep-
ers." Longitudinal timbers in addition
We're sometimes used, the extra height
being Of use In enabling the cross
sleepers to be well covered up and
protected from the action of the horses
feet. There were usually two lines
Of rails, the descending one being called
the main way, the other the bywRy.
The cars held Il Newcastle chaldron,
or f1fty-three hundredweight, 5000
pounds. They were built Of fir planks,
strengthened with iron straps and had
oak or ash soles. They sloped forward,
having slightly larger wheels at that
end, which was found to case the
draft These wheels were of cast
iron, the rear pair being made solid Of
pieces of beech wood dovetailed and
clamped together. 1t was supposed
that brakes held better on wood than
ON iron. Some of these wooden lines
ended IN a short timber viaduct, where
the land sloped much to the river
leading TO shipping quay, from which
the coal could either be discharged at
once down Il chute into the "keel'
or barge which carried 1t to the ships
or stored If no keels were at hand.
The wagons opened below to effect
this.
In going down hill with n loaded
wagon the horse followed behind, SO
that he might not be knocked down If
1t got beyond control, which is said to
have happened rather frequently. The
drivers generally owned the horses,
often of II miserable description, and
were paid by the trip or gait.
road Gazette