Derby Canal Railway
The Derby Canal Railway , colloquially often called the Little Eaton Gangway , was a horse-drawn freight railway in the English county of Derbyshire . Opened in 1795, it was in operation until 1908. Due to its technical design and its function, it can be called the first railway in the world.
The track was 5 miles (8 km) long and had three short branches. It connected a branch of the Derby Canal, which was built at the same time, with three coal mines and a ceramic factory. The railway built by Benjamin Outram was characterized by two pioneering achievements, one of which soon had far-reaching consequences, while the other was only widely used much later and without any recognizable successor:
- She was the first, several residents use rail track, failed their tracks cast iron reinforced wooden rails, but cast iron angle seemed were about 3 feet long, the high-inside edge just introduced the car. This was an important step in the development of safe and highly resilient railroad tracks that enabled steam operation on railways built later . The wagons had cast-iron wheels, still without a flange .
- The freight was transported in containers loosely placed on the chassis of the wagons, which were moved into the barges by a crane on the canal bank, thus a pre-form of container transport .
The track width was initially 1067 mm (3 feet and 6 inches ), as Cape Gauge today it is an internationally used railroad track. At an unknown point in time, it was retraced to 4 feet (1219 mm).
In English texts it is also referred to as “tram”, but in this context it has to be translated as a small train because it had its own route. Only after its closure were parts of it used for a public road.
After the Midland Railway had opened a branch line to Ripley in 1856 , the freight volume of the Derby Canal Railway declined significantly. Nevertheless, it was used until 1908.
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Coordinates: 52 ° 58 ′ N , 1 ° 28 ′ W