This is a worldwide list of

horse-drawn railway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms plateway, tramway, dramway, ...

s, an early form of

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

that utilised horses and other similar animals to pull rail cars.

Examples

Before 1800

Horses were used to pull railways in

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...

s and

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s as early as early 16th century. The earliest recorded example is the

Reisszug The Reisszug (also spelt Reißzug or Reiszug) is a private cable railway providing goods access to the Hohensalzburg Castle at Salzburg in Austria. It is notable for its extreme age, as it is believed to date back to either 1495 or 1504. The Reis ...

, a.

inclined railway Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

dating to 1515. Almost all of the mines built in 16th and 17th century used horse-drawn railways as their only mode of transport.

1800-1849

1850-1879

After 1880

Shunting

Horses were widely used for shunting. * Burra * Dry Creek, ICI works The Recorder in 1974

Bibliography

* Discovering Britain's First Railways - A guide to Horse-drawn Tramroads and Waggonways, by Mark Jones.

The History Press The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...

2012. pp144. Map shows locations of 40 Waggonways with a bibliography of 40 books.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

The oldest surviving horse drawn tramway operating in Douglas on the Isle of Man

Horse Railway
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