![](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Namaqualand_Railway_mule_train.jpg/300px-Namaqualand_Railway_mule_train.jpg)
This is a worldwide list of horse-drawn railways, an early form of rail transport that utilised horses and other similar animals to pull rail cars. Horses were also used for shunting.
Examples
[edit]Before 1800
[edit]Horses were used to pull railways in funiculars and coal mines as early as early 16th century. The earliest recorded example is the Reisszug, a. inclined railway dating to 1515. Almost all of the mines built in 16th and 17th century used horse-drawn railways as their only mode of transport[citation needed].
1800–1849
[edit]Name | Years of operation | Gauge | Location | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ticknall Tramway | 1802–1913 | 4 ft 2 in (1,270 mm) | Ticknall, England | ![]() |
|
Swansea & Mumbles Railway | 1804–1877 | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | Swansea, Wales | ![]() |
The world's first passenger railway service. Later electrified[1][2] |
Leiper Railroad | 1810–1828 | 4 ft (1,219 mm) | Delaware County, Pennsylvania | The first permanent tramway in America | |
Bryn Oer Tramway | 1814–1861 | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) | Talybont-on-Usk, Wales | ![]() |
|
Hill's Tramroad | c. 1815 – c. 1926 | 2 ft (610 mm) | Llanfoist, Wales | ![]() |
|
Hay Railway | 1816–1860 | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)/ 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Eardisley, England to Brecon, Wales | ![]() |
Converted from 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge plateway to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge edgeway |
Blaafarveværket | Opened c. 1820s | Norway | |||
Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway | 1823–1888, 1860) [clarification needed] |
4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm) | Princetown, England | ||
Stockton and Darlington Railway | 1825–1833 | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | Darlington, England | ![]() |
Operated with both horses and engines between 1825 and 1833 |
Granite Railroad | 1826–1871 | 1,524 mm (5 ft) | Quincy, Massachusetts | ![]() |
|
Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway | 1827– | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | France | ![]() |
|
České Budějovice–Linz Railway | 1828– | 1,106 mm (3 ft 7+1⁄2 in) | ![]() |
The first public railway in continental Europe | |
Bavarian Ludwig Railway | 1835–1863 | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | Fürth, Germany | ||
Whitby and Pickering Railway | Opened 1836 | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) | Whitby, England | ![]() |
|
Port Arthur, Tasmania Tramway | 1836– | Human powered | |||
Festiniog Railway | 1836–1863[3] | 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) | Porthmadog, Wales | ![]() |
Horses hauled empty trains uphill, and rode down in Dandy waggons under gravity power. Later replaced by steam locomotives. |
Patent (1838–1844) G. Peppercorne[4] | [What railway is this?] | ||||
Bratislava to Svätý Jur to Trnava Váh horse railway | 1840 – 10 October 1872 | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)[5][6] | |||
Bazias to Anina via Oravița | 1846–1863 | Present-day Romania | Used for coal transport to a port on the river Danube | ||
Leith and Musselburgh Tramway | 1841– [7] |
1850–1879
[edit]Name | Years of operation | Gauge | Location | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fintona Railway | 1853–1957 | 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)[8] | Ireland | ![]() |
|
Goolwa Port Elliot Railway | 1854–1884 | 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) | Extended to Victor Harbor and Strathalbyn by 1869. Used up to 16 horses,[9] 29 to Strathalbyn[10] | ||
Treffry Tramways | 1835– | Clay mining | |||
1861-?[11] | Nelson, New Zealand | ||||
Dun Mountain Railway | 1861–1901 | 914 mm (3 ft) | ![]() |
||
Wallaroo (smelter and port) to Moonta (mines) – tramway | 1862–1890s[12][13] | South Australia | |||
Port Macdonnell to Mount Gambier – proposal | South Australia | Proposed, but never built[14] | |||
Omaha Horse Railway | 1867–1889 | Omaha, Nebraska | |||
Port Wakefield Railway | 1870–1876 | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | South Australia | Converted to locomotive haulage | |
Kingston-Naracoorte railway line | 1871 | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | South Australia | Operated with horses for first six months after construction before locomotives were available | |
Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia | 1873–1876 | 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) | Chile | Mule-drawn | |
Douglas Bay Horse Tramway | 1876–present | 3 ft (914 mm) | Douglas, Isle of Man | Shires and Clydesdales are used to pull a fleet of original tramcars along the seafront. | |
Port Broughton | 1876–1926 | 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) | South Australia | ![]() |
Always isolated; locomotives proposed in 1906[15] |
Namaqualand Railway | opened 1869–1876 | 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) | Steam followed gradually | ||
Kailan – Lutai Canal | 1878–1881 | Mule-drawn for coal[16] |
After 1880
[edit]Name | Years of operation | Gauge | Location | Image | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Horse Tramways in Fiji | 1884– | 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) 610 mm (2 ft) |
Fiji | Some assisted by manpower. Cane tramways. | |
Spiekeroog tramways | 1885-1949 | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) | East Frisian Islands, Germany | The last horse-drawn railway in Germany. Horses were replaced by diesel locomotives on 31 May 1949 | |
McKenzie Creek Tramway | 1887–1925 | Horsham, Victoria | Shire-operated, 8 kilometres (5 mi) long | ||
Nasik Tramway | 1889–1930s | India | |||
Bärschwil gypsum railway | 1894–1952 | 2 ft (610 mm) | Switzerland | ||
Welshpool Jetty railway | 1905–1941 | 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) | Port Welshpool, Victoria, Australia | ![]() |
|
Finton Tramway | Closed 1957 | 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) [17] | Ireland | ||
Gawler[18] | 1879–1931 | 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) | Gawler, South Australia | ![]() |
|
Moonta[18] | Yorke Peninsula, South Australia |
Bibliography
[edit]- Discovering Britain's First Railways - A guide to Horse-drawn Tramroads and Waggonways, by Mark Jones. The History Press 2012. (144 pp). Map shows locations of 40 waggonways with a bibliography of 40 books.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Horse-Drawn Train". The Examiner. Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 12 December 1908. p. 3 Edition: DAILY. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ "The Oldest Railway". The Horsham Times (Vic. : 1882–1954). Vic.: National Library of Australia. 24 January 1928. p. 10. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
- ^ "The Festiniog Railway". The South Australian Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 27 May 1872. p. 2. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ "Correspondence". Illustrated Sydney News. NSW: National Library of Australia. 25 March 1854. p. 3. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
- ^ "There is still interest in the building of the first horse railway". Zeleznicne.info. Zeleznice.info. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ "The history of public transport in Bratislava before 1895". imhd.sk. imhd.sk. 1 January 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ "To the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 17 November 1856. p. 3. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
- ^ Ireland lost lines, Ian Allan, 2006, p71
- ^ "Adelaide Philosophical Society". South Australian Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 17 August 1867. p. 3. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ "Along the Line - Goolwa to Pt Elliot". SteamRanger. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ "Cheap Railways". Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser. NSW: National Library of Australia. 28 November 1861. p. 2. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
- ^ "House of Assembly". South Australian Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 31 July 1889. p. 6. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ "Meeting at Moonta". Kadina and Wallaroo Times. SA: National Library of Australia. 12 July 1890. p. 2. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ^ "Horse-Drawn Railway Was Once Proposed For Port MacDonnell". The Border Watch. Mount Gambier, SA: National Library of Australia. 23 June 1953. p. 13. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
- ^ "THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 25 July 1906. p. 3. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ^ "China's Moral Debt to Great Britain". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 10 December 1918. p. 5. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- ^ Steaming through Briton p28
- ^ a b "Railway Management". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 22 November 1918. p. 6. Retrieved 24 November 2011.