Tanfield Railway

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Modified 31-Mar-24

Created 28-Mar-11

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History of the Tanfield Railway, the world’s oldest railway
No one can say with any confidence when the world’s first railway was laid, simple rails have been used to guide vehicles for centuries, definitely as far back as the middle ages and possibly even in ancient Greece.

What is certain is that in the first years of the 1600s a Nottinghamshire businessman called Huntingdon Beaumont came to Northumberland and laid rails from collieries near Blyth to a shipping point on the coast.
His waggonway using wooden rails and wooden wheels on wooden waggons hauled by horses was not a financial success. It did however provide the spark which was to see the progression from primitive wooden rails over short distances to a railway network which would change Britain and the world for ever.
‘Tyneside roads’

From the mid 1600 onwards waggonways and the Tyneside coal industry became linked so closely that they were known throughout the rest of Britain as ‘Tyneside Roads’. A network of lines linked collieries on both sides of the Tyne to the river.
It is no coincidence that the North East was the area where waggonways took greatest hold, canal building was impossible due to deep valleys and steep hills. What set the rail systems of Tyneside apart from all others was its use of the flanged wheel – a key element of the modern railway as we know it.
A revelation

When the Tanfield Railway – or waggonway as it was known at the time – was built in 1725 it was a revelation. It’s massive engineering was unlike anything else in its era, or even since the Roman Empire. It was a triumph of engineering over nature, a clear signal that a new industrial age was upon the world and that railways would play a massive part.
First laid down more than a quarter of a century before the first railway* officially sanctioned by government, over 75 years before the first steam locomotive and a whole 100 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Tanfield Railway is the world’s oldest railway.

J72 69023 drops off a carriage before moving back onto the west platform

Port of Par Alfred and Judy visiting Tanfield Railway 2009 Gala

Port of Par Alferd visiting Tanfield Railway 2009 Gala

Alfred and Judy storm past bobgins with Test run with the full coal train.

No.49 with Alfred and Judy, Marley Hill Shed.

Alfred sits in front of the 5 road shed.

Alfred and Judy sit in front of the 5 road shed.

Judy and Renishaw pass bobgins with passenger train

Renishaw slows to stop with coal train, Terrace Junction

Twizell, No.38 and Renishaw, Marley Hill Shed.

Categories & Keywords

Category:Transportation

Subcategory:Railway

Subcategory Detail:

Keywords:Andrews, Arch, Bowes, Causey, Hill, House, Jarrow, John, Locomotive, Marley, Pontop, Railway, Steam, Tanfield, and, coal, durham, east, gateshead, industrial, mine, mining, north, pit, traction, train