Timeline of railway history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a timeline of rail transport history.

See also: Timeline of steam power.
  • ca. 600 BC[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] - A basic form of the railway, the rutway,[6] existed in ancient Greek and Roman times, the most important being the ship trackway Diolkos across the Isthmus of Corinth. Measuring between 6 and 8.5 km,[7] [8] [9] remaining in regular and frequent service for at least 650 years,[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and being open to all on payment, it constituted even a public railway, a concept which according to Lewis did not recur until around 1800.[10] The Diolkos was reportedly used until at least the middle of the 1st century AD, after which no more written references appear.[5]

Contents

[edit] 16-17th century

  • 1550 - Hand propelled tubs known as "hunds" undoubtedly existed in the provinces surrounding/forming modern day Germany by the mid 16th century having been in proven use since the mid-1400s and possibly earlier. This technology was brought to the UK by German miners working in the Mines Royal at various sites in the English Lake District near Keswick (Now in Cumbria).[11]
  • 1603/4 - Between October 1603 and the end of September 1604 Huntingdon Beaumont, partner of the landowner Sir Percival Willoughby, built the first recorded above ground early railway/wagonway. It was approximately two miles in length running from mines at Strelley to Wollaton in Nottinghamshire, England. It is known as the Wollaton Wagonway. Beaumont built three further waggonways shortly after near Blyth in Northumberland related to the coal and salt trade. Shortly after the Wollaton Wagonway was built other wagonways are recorded at Broseley near Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. Further waggonways emerged in the English North East.

[edit] 18th century

[edit] 19th century

[edit] 20th century

[edit] 21st century

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Verdelis, Nikolaos: "Le diolkos de L'Isthme", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 81 (1957), pp. 526-529 (526)
  2. ^ a b Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152-155 (152)
  3. ^ a b Drijvers, J.W.: "Strabo VIII 2,1 (C335): Porthmeia and the Diolkos", Mnemosyne, Vol. 45 (1992), pp. 75-76 (75)
  4. ^ a b Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261 (256)
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8-19 (11)
  6. ^ Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8-19 (8 & 15)
  7. ^ Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261 (246)
  8. ^ Werner, Walter: "The largest ship trackway in ancient times: the Diolkos of the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece, and early attempts to build a canal", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1997), pp. 98–119 (109)
  9. ^ Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8-19 (10)
  10. ^ Lewis, M. J. T. (2001), p. 15
  11. ^ An excellent and definitive, but currently out of print, book by Michael Lewis Early Wooden Railways should be consulted about pre-17th century railways, etc.
  12. ^ Surrey Iron Railway 200th - 26th July 2003. Early Railways. Stephenson Locomotive Society. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.

[edit] External links