Chapter II
Early Railroads
MANY persons, otherwise well-informed upon general topics,
believe that railroads were constructed especially for locomotives,
as the best-adapted road for the accommodation of that peculiar
machine and its train of cars.
They never call to mind that a locomotive is a modern invention,
and, for want of access to works such as we have referred to,
they are not informed that a railroad is an ancient institution
(if we may apply such a term to such a subject). They never have
dreamed nor ever imagined that this peculiar kind of road was
invented and in use several centuries ago, but, like the great
auxiliary, the locomotive, was very defective and simple in its
primitive state, and since that time, like the latter, has been
subject to vast and continued improvements.
Before, however, we enter upon the subject for which these
pages were designed"the history of the first locomotives
in America"it will not, we trust, be deemed inappropriate
here to devote a small space in our work in describing the peculiar
kind of road upon which the locomotive travels, now known universally
as the railroad; and to such information as we have gathered of
its origin and early progress.
Various devices have been employed, from the period when wheel-carriages
were first used, for facilitating the movement over the ground
in transportation. These devices, however, were mostly limited
to the smoothing, leveling, and hardening the surface of the way.
The early Egyptians, in transporting the immense stones they used
in the erection of the vast pyramids from the quarries, learned
the advantage of hard, smooth, and solid track-ways, and the remains
of such, formed of large blocks of stone, are said to have been
found on the line of the great road they constructed for this
purpose.
The ancient Romans made also some approach to the invention
of railroads, in the celebrated Appian Way. This was constructed
of blocks of stone fitted closely together, the surface presenting
a smooth and hard track for the wheels. In modern times such tracks
or roadways were constructed in several European citiesLondon,
Pisa, Milan, and many others. The first instance on record of
rails being used on highways was as early as the year 1630, over
two and a quarter centuries ago. They were invented by a person
named Beaumont, and built and used for the transportation of coal
from the mines near Newcastle, in England.
Old Roger North alludes to railways as being in use in the
neighborhood of the river Tyne in the year 1676, and he thus describes
them: The rails of timber were placed end to end and exactly straight,
and in two lines parallel to each other. On these bulky carts
were made to run on four rollers fitting these rails, whereby
the carriage was made so easy that one horse would draw four or
five caldrons of coal at a load. We read of railways existing
in Scotland in 1745, at the time of the Scotch rebellion. These
railways were laid down between the Tranent coal-mines and the
harbor of Cockenzie, in East Lothian. Improvements were made on
these roads and continued until 1765, when they began to assume
the forms of our present roads, even to the use of flanges upon
the wheels; but up to this period no iron surface was ever heard
of The mode of constructing a railroad at that period was as follows:
After the surface was brought to as perfect a level as possibleor
incline, as the case might besquare blocks of wood, called
sleepers, about six feet long, were laid two or three feet apart
across the track; upon these two long strips of wood, six or seven
inches wide and about five inches deep, were fastened by pins
to the sleepers, and parallel to each other, but about four feet
apart. Upon this wooden rail was spiked a projecting round moulding
of wood, and the wheels were hollowed out like a pulley to fit
upon the round surface of the wooden molding upon the rails.
The first iron rails that we find any written account of were
used at Whitehaven. They were cast-iron moldings, similar in shape
to the wooden molding just described, and, like them, they were
spiked down upon the wooden rail to receive the weight and pressure
of the hollowed-out wheel, which, pressing entirely upon the molding
of wood, soon rendered it unfit for use. This iron substitute
was a wonderful saving in this respect.
Thirty years after, in 1767, five or six tons of the same description
of rails were cast at the Coalbrook Dale Ironworks, at Shropshire.
St. Froud, a French traveler, describes these roads as being far
superior to all other kinds of roads; that one horse, with perfect
ease, could draw a wagon loaded with five or six hundred bushels
of coal.
In 1776, the first iron rails we have any written account of
were cast with a perpendicular ledge upon the outer side, in order
to keep the wheels from running off the track, and after a while
the ledge was changed to the inner side of the rail.
A railway of this kind was laid down at the Duke of Norfolk's
colliery, near Sheffield. The road was torn up and destroyed by
the laboring men of the colliery in a riot, and Mr. Curr, its
builder and projector, had to save his life by concealing himself
in a wood three days and nights to escape the fury of the excited
rioters.
Objections were soon discovered in rails with flanges either
on the outside or inside, from their liability to obstruction
by stones or dirt, which would impede the progress and endanger
the safety of the carriages. A great step in advance was made
in 1789, by William Jessop, in the construction of a railway in
Lough borough, in Leicestershire, with the first cast-iron edge
rail, with flanges cast upon the wheels, instead of upon the rail,
as had been done a short time before. In 1800, Mr. Benjamin Outram,
of Little Eaton, in Derbyshire, introduced stone props, instead
of timber, for supporting the ends or joinings of the rails. Taking
the name from the projector, this kind of road was distinguished
as the Outram road, and since that time, for brevity, all roads
of this kind are called Tram roads; as this plan was afterward
applied to wooden roads, where long stringers were used, with
the iron molding as before described, and in our time the flat
iron bar nailed upon the stringers, these roads are all a familiarly
known as Tram-roads. Edge rails, as made by Jessop, were laid
down in 1801, at the slate-quarry of Lord Penrhyn. The tire of
the wheel was hollowed out to fit the projecting curve of the
edged rail, but as the fit became soon too tight by wear, it was
afterwards changed to a flat surface and rim of the wheel, and
a flange around each a edge of it. So great was this last improvement,
that it was found that ten horses would do the work that had employed
four hundred to do upon common roads. Edge rails were soon after
introduced at the collieries in England. They were made thin at
the base and spread in thickness at the top. These rails, introduced
in 1808, continued in use until 1820, when the machinery was invented
for rolling iron into suitable shapes for rails. This was a great
improvement, for, as cast-iron rails could only be made three
or four feet-long, requiring frequent joints, the material was
more liable and subject to break, especially with heavy weights
passing over it.
Up to this time the motive power was the horse. Many projects
and schemes were talked of and proposed for propelling the wagons.
Sails were suggested, and various other means were experimented
upon, and speedily abandoned, but steam was the most favored,
yet how to apply it was to be found out.
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