Waggonway Research Circle

Waggonway / wagonway - brief outline and resources list

(Page content last updated 14 Jun 2010)

The waggonway (or wagonway depending which part of the UK you come from) was the earliest form of railway. No one is yet sure whether it evolved or was invented but what we do know is that between the Autumn of 1603 and the 1st October 1604 one had been built near Nottingham in the English East Midlands. It ran for approximately two miles from Strelley to Wollaton to assist the haulage of coal. Earlier examples may have been built but the Wollaton Waggonway is currently the earliest recorded surface level waggonway anywhere in the world and is therefore believed, currently, to have been the first. It was built by Huntingdon Beaumont who was the partner of the local land-owner Sir Percival Willoughby.

A waggonway / wagonway used wooden bodied vehicles, hauled by horses. It had flanged wheels running on an edge rail. These wheels and rails were also made from wood until much later in the development of the systems when iron began to be introduced. Although waggonway development is first recorded in the English midlands the first waggonway in the North East was an early one built by Huntingdon Beaumont in 1608.  The Beamish Museum have constructed a replica of a typical C18 wooden railled waggonway and horse gin (Colliery winding gear). Although not operational on when viSited in 2009 by the WRC webmster the replica waggonway and pit head is worth visiting.  Development was extensive with the heyday of the horse operated, wooden railled waggonway occuring during the eighteenth century.  In addition to the photo's below additional Beamish photos are here.

Some images from the Beamish replica Pockerley waggonway - click thumbnial to opne larger image
	Chaldron waggon (coal transport) and dandy cart.
	Horse gins were used to raise and lower men and materials down the pit shafts and to raise the coal in filled corves for onward transport
	Corve and sled used to shift coal short distances and underground. All three photos taken 1 Sep 2009 by & copyright John New

In a period in the late 1700s and early 1800s some waggonways were also built using an L shaped iron rail system and plain flanged, normal, cart wheels. However despite some merits to the system when routes were operating on small scale with horse haulage as the railway era with steam locomotives expanded the L rail system was seen as a "blind alley" and it faded from the scene.  However it was on such an L rail waggonway in South Wales that Richard Trevithick made a significant step into the steam era in 1804 with his "travelling engine" on the Pen-y-Darren tramway in South Wales.