Before Trains

Down the mines

Most people think of the railways as being a new invention. But they started over 500 years ago, when very early versions of the railways were built in European mines.

Wagons - called 'dogs' by the miners because of the noise they made - had a metal pin on the bottom, which fitted between two wooden planks. This meant the wagons could be guided through the mines along these planks. There were no engines, or even horses to push or pull the wagons along, the miners had to push them around themselves.

The first railway

In 1604, the first railway in Britain was built, but it was called a wagonway then. It was made of wood, was only two miles long, and cost £166.

Wooden railways spread throughout the country, but during the 1700s and 1800s, people began making them out of iron. Iron railways could carry heavier loads - and the wagons were now pulled by horses instead of people.