The first railways

 

Before the year 1700, trucks ran on wooden rails in the Cornish tin mines. On Tyneside, truck-loads of coal ran on wooden or stone tracks. By the late eighteenth century, in some places, the rails were iron. All the trucks on these "waggonways", of course, were drawn by horses.

 

By 1800, fixed steam engines were working at many coal-mines, pumping and winding. The next step was to make a locomotive - a moving steam engine that would pull trucks of coal. Many men worked on the idea. The most successful was a Tyneside mine engineer, George Stephenson. An engine which he built in 1814 pulled coal trucks to and from the docks.

 

The first railway which carried passengers as well as coal was opened in 1825. It linked Stockton and Darlington and its engineer was Stephenson. He used locomotives, but not for the whole route. For part of the way, fixed engines pulled the trucks with cables.

 

More important was the Liverpool to Manchester railway. George Stephenson was its engineer. At an engine trial in 1829, he had proved that steam locomotives worked, and that his were the best. And when the railway opened in 1830, the people were thrilled by its speed and comfort. In its first year, 400,000 passengers used it.

 

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 - 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 29