Wagonway

The earliest [citation needed] evidence is of the 6 to 8.5 km (3.7 to 5.3 mi) long Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC.

[1][2][3][4][5] Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route.

Archaeological work at the Mines Royal site at Caldbeck in the English Lake District confirmed the use of "hunds".

In time, it became common to cover them with a thin flat sheathing or "plating" of iron, in order to add to their life[13] and reduce friction.

This caused more wear on the wooden rollers of the wagons and towards the middle of the 18th century, led to the introduction of iron wheels.

[13] Wooden sleepers continued to be used—the rails were secured by spikes passing through the extremities—but, circa 1793, stone blocks began to be used, an innovation associated with Benjamin Outram, although he was not the originator.

This type of rail was known as the plate-rail, tramway-plate or way-plate, names that are preserved in the modern term "platelayer" applied to the workers who lay and maintain the permanent way.

[13] The wheels of flangeway wagons were plain, but they could not operate on ordinary roads as the narrow rims would dig into the surface.

[13] This line was originally designed as a plateway on the Outram system, but objections were raised to laying rails with upstanding ledges or flanges on the turnpike.

The route started at Lake Lock, Stanley, on the Aire & Calder Navigation, running from Wakefield to Outwood, a distance of approximately 3 miles (4.8 km).

[13] Like the Lake Lock Rail Road, the SIR was available to the public on payment of tolls; previous lines had all been private and reserved exclusively for the use of their owners.

[13] Since it was used by individual operators, vehicles would vary greatly in wheel spacing (gauge) and the plate rail coped better.

In South Wales again, where in 1811 the railways were connected with canals, collieries, ironworks, and copper works, and had a total length of nearly 150 miles (241 km),[14] the plateway was almost universal.

[13] He made three trips from the iron mines at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal and each time broke the rails that were designed for horse wagon loads.

In 1814 William Stewart was engaged by Parkend Coal Co in the Forest of Dean for the construction of a steam locomotive, which when trialled was reported to be successful.

British troops in Lewiston, New York used a cable wagonway to move supplies to bases before the American Revolutionary War.

[18] Typically the pole rails were logs of 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm) diameter, laid parallel directly on the ground without cross-ties, and joined end-to-end with lap joints and wooden pegs.

For example, Perdido was built by Adams & Price Locomotive and Machinery Works of Nashville, Tennessee in 1885 for the Wallace, Sanford and Company sawmill at Williams Station, Alabama, where it hauled up to seven cars of 3 or 4 logs each.

A few passenger lines continue to operate, including the horse-hauled Douglas Bay Horse Tramway and the cable-hauled San Francisco cable cars.