Setting the Standard: research reports on the Willington Waggonway of 1785, the earliest standard gauge railway yet discovered

摘要

With the end of ship building at Wallsend in 2006, the redevelopment of the Neptune shipyard site was accompanied by an archaeological investigation looking for evidence of Roman remains. By chance part of the original Willington Waggonway, 33.3 metres long, including a wash pond, which had been buried by colliery waste was rediscovered in 2013. This publication is a compilation of five separate papers that deal with the discovery and excavation of the Willington Waggonway, the historical background, the conservation of the remains, the use of snips' timbers in the construction of this waggonway and finally a geological analysis of the horse track. It is a useful primary source as the publication of the excavation details and analysis of what was discovered and has actually added a new chapter to the history of the understanding of wooden railways as well as the origin of the standard gauge. There is a detailed explanation of the waggonway structure and the washpond used to soak the wooden wagon wheels in order to preserve them for regular use. This collection of papers follows the development of the waggonway between 1773 and 1810, discusses the haulage, track and wagons as well as the coastal shipping serving the staithes. There is a wealth of information, describing the people associated with the building of the waggonway and the general colliery operation at the mines which it served, detailed in the historical survey and throughout the text. The illustrations are comprehensive and include contemporary maps, examples of Thomas Harrison Hair's watercolours and modern interpretations and images. The observation of the re-use of ships' timbers in the construction and repair of the waggonway is an important insight into the understanding of the making and repair of early railways. The timeline for the route is traced back to the Grand Allies who built the Benton Way from East Longbenton colliery to a staithe on the Tyne at Willington. The links between this route and other waggonways, including Killingworth, lead to a suggestion in the book that the gauge of such lines was determined by the size of the horses used for haulage and it these animals that came to determine what today is known as the standard gauge.