Surrey Iron Railway

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The Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was the world's first publicly accessible railway line . It led from Wandsworth via Mitcham to Croydon in the county of Surrey (now all districts in south London ). It was opened on July 26, 1803 and was used exclusively for freight traffic . The engineer in charge was William Jessop , the gauge was 4 feet and 2 inches (1270 mm).

In the 19th century, numerous horse-drawn railway lines had been built in Great Britain . However, these were always part of a canal project or were used to transport mined mineral resources to loading points on shipping lanes. The original 1799 plan also included a canal between Wandsworth and Croydon . But the withdrawal of water from the nearby streams and the Wandle river would have resulted in the closure of numerous water-powered mills and factories.

The Surrey Iron Railway was not a railway in the modern sense, as it worked like a toll road : there was no fixed timetable and everyone could use the train with their own horses and wagons after paying a toll. The 14.5 km route started at a dock on the Thames and followed the River Wandle to Croydon; a short branch stretched from Mitcham to Hackbridge. As the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway , the line was extended in 1805 from Croydon via Purley and Coulsdon to the quarries in Merstham (this section was in operation until 1838).

The increasing use of faster and more powerful steam locomotives meant the end of the horse-drawn tram; In 1846 the SIR was shut down. The Wimbledon and Croydon Railway reopened part of the line in 1855, which was integrated into the network of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway eleven years later . Today the Tramlink tram operates on a significant part of the former SIR route .

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