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The Hay Railway was a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway in the district surrounding Hay-on-Wye in Brecknockshire, Wales. The railway connected 
Eardisley
Eardisley () is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire about south of the centre of Kington. Eardisley is in the Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with Wales.
The village is part of the "Black and white villa ...
in Herefordshire, England, with Brecon in Wales. The Brecon terminus was Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.
Parliamentary authorisation, construction and opening
The railway received parliamentary authorisation on 25 May 1811. Construction of its winding 24-mile long route took nearly five years and the line was opened on 7 May 1816. The tramway was built to a gauge of . The railway adopted the use of cast iron 'L'-shaped tramroad plates in its construction. The vertical portions of the two plates were positioned inside the wheels of the tramway wagons and the plates were spiked to stone blocks for stability. The size of the stones, and their spacing, was such that the horses could operate unimpeded.Operation of the railway
From 1 May 1820, the Hay Railway was joined at its Eardisley terminus, in an end on junction, by theKington Tramway
The Kington Tramway was an early narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway that linked limestone quarries at Burlinjobb near New Radnor in Radnorshire, Wales, to Eardisley in Herefordshire, England.
Parliamentary authorisation, construction and opening
...
. Together, the two lines totalled 36 miles in length, comprising the longest continuous plateway to be completed in the United Kingdom.
The Hay railway operated through rural areas on the borders of England and Wales and was built to transport goods and freight. Passengers were not carried on any official basis.
The Hay Railway was absorbed into the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in 1860 and the line was converted to standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
Baughan 1980, p. 205 for operation by steam locomotives.
See also
*Hay-on-Wye railway station
Hay was a railway station serving the town of Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, although the station was located just across the English border in Herefordshire. Hay had one of the earliest railway stations in the country, being part of a horse-drawn ...
* Wagonway
References
;Notes ;Bibliography * * * Early Welsh railway companies 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Wales Railway companies established in 1811 Railway lines opened in 1816 Railway companies disestablished in 1860 Rail transport in Herefordshire Horse-drawn railways 1811 establishments in Wales British companies established in 1811 {{UK-rail-transport-stub