Mansell wheel

While some of that might be attributed to the extra attention paid to what were specifically passenger carriage wheels, the potential for casting faults was also reduced.

However, the wooden centres acted as electrical insulators, so Mansell wheels would not operate the track circuits used in railway signalling.

The blocks were common for outdoor use at railway stations, particularly around milk loading docks and on platforms that handled postal traffic.

Those platforms were regularly in use overnight and the wooden blocks provided a quieter surface, which made for less disturbance for the station's neighbours than cobblestones, even with iron-tyred carts running over them.

An example of a wood block pavement made from wheel segments survives at Liverpool's Edge Hill.