Volk's Electric Railway challenged the steam orthodoxy and left a legacy that lives to this day. The seaside town of Brighton has many attractions but unique among them is Volk's Electric Railway, which is billed as 'the oldest electric railway in the world still operating'. Volk's Electric Railway currently runs for a mile between Aquarium Station and Black Rock Station near to the marina but in 1883 the distance travelled on the 24" gauge line was a modest quarter of a mile. The distance travelled may seem unremarkable, but between August 1883 and January 4,1884, the electric railway had been used by nearly 300,000 paying passengers, and this fact alone prompted The Engineer to take a closer look at why Magnus Volk's light railway - and broader electrification of light rail - was commercially viable.
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