54-640: The Portreath Tramroad , or alternatively the Portreath Tramway, was opened in 1815, providing a wagonway route from mines near Scorrier in Cornwall , England, to a port at Portreath . From there, it could be transported to market by coastal shipping . It was later extended to serve the Poldice mine near St Day and became known as the Poldice Tramroad , or Poldice Tramway . It
108-471: A non-mountain tramroad; Otter (page 9) gives 4 ft , as does Fairclough (page 7); Symons, Barton, and Thomas are silent on the matter; Baxter (page 208) says " 3 ft 0 in gauge (possibly)". This was the first railway in Cornwall, but as it was a plateway, some claim that the later Redruth and Chasewater Railway was the first true railway in the county. The Company (or its proprietors) also owned
162-645: A problem. In the immediately following years, alternative technologies were being developed. Richard Trevithick had demonstrated his steam road carriage, the Puffing Devil, at Camborne in 1801. The following year, he constructed a practical steam hammer at the Penydarren Ironworks and converted it into a self-propelled locomotive. In a demonstration, it successfully hauled a load of ten tons over 10 miles (16 km). These developments encouraged Basset and Williams to collaborate in projecting
216-592: A railway, ran a high-pressure steam locomotive with smooth wheels on an 'L' section plateway near Merthyr Tydfil , but it was more expensive than horses. He made three trips from the iron mines at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal and each time broke the rails that were designed for horse wagon loads. There was general doubt at the time that smooth wheels could obtain traction on smooth rails. This resulted in proposals using rack or other drive mechanisms. Mr Blenkinsop of Middleton Colliery patented
270-619: A result, in 1767, they began to make cast iron rails. These were probably 6 ft (1.829 m) long, with four projecting ears or lugs 3 in (75 mm) by 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 in (95 mm) to enable them to be fixed to the sleepers . The rails were 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 in (95 mm) wide and 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 in (30 mm) thick. Later, descriptions also refer to rails 3 ft (914 mm) long and only 2 in (50 mm) wide. A later system involved L-shaped iron rails or plates , each 3 ft (914 mm) long and 4 in (102 mm) wide, having on
324-401: A tramroad, and The Portreath Tram Road Company was created by them and their partners, with a capital of £20,000. The first "rail" was laid by Bassett on 25 October 1809. The line was a wagonway, in which cast iron plates of L-shaped cross-section were laid on stone blocks. Wagons with plain wheels ran on the flat of the L and were guided by the upstand; horses pulled the wagons, walking between
378-452: A wagonway to a fully steam-powered railway was gradual. Railways up to the 1830s that were steam-powered often made runs with horses when the steam locomotives were unavailable. Even in the steam age, it was convenient to use horses in station yards to shunt wagons from one place to another. Horses do not need lengthy times to raise steam in the boiler, and can take shortcuts from one siding to another. At Hamley Bridge tenders were called for
432-725: A wagonway was proposed to connect the mines at West Durham , Darlington and the River Tees at Stockton , George Stephenson successfully argued that horse-drawn wagonways were obsolete and a steam-powered railway could carry 50 times as much coal. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in England's northeast, which became the world's first public steam railway in 1825, via both horse power and steam power on different runs. Stationary steam engines for mining were generally available around
486-510: A wretched road." The tramroad was entirely dependent on the activity of the mines it served. In the 1860s, large, easily worked deposits of the minerals started to be extracted in Spain and elsewhere, and the Cornish mines became uneconomic to operate. The tramroad was little used by 1865 and was closed completely soon after, the tramplates being taken up and sold for scrap around 1882. Much of
540-409: Is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall , England, United Kingdom. It is situated two miles (3 km) east of Redruth in a former mining area. The parish is of a rural/residential character, albeit with an industrial (mostly mining) past and relics of the past abound, primarily in the form of abandoned and broken down engine house buildings. The parish is comparatively small in area, and
594-418: Is a corruption of the Cornish ker/cayr Ardhek meaning Arthroc's fort. Eric Rabjohns, a locally based local-historian, while acknowledging this possibility, also advances another two contenders. The first is that the name refers to a dwelling of religious purpose, a meeting place for travellers, originating from Carharrack's proximity to the pilgrimage trail between Canterbury and St Michael's Mount , which
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#1732784017431648-435: Is bounded to the north and northwest by St Day parish, to the east and southeast by Gwennap parish, and to the southwest and west by Lanner parish. Until 1985, Carharrack was part of the parish of Gwennap but it became a civil parish in its own right with the first meeting of Carharrack Parish Council on 28 May 1985. The derivation of the modern form of the name Carharrack is uncertain. Craig Wetherhill suggests it
702-443: Is known to have passed through the nearby villages of St Day to the north and Lanner to the south. The final option, again based on a corruption of the Cornish, this time of Car (or Caer ) Harrack meaning a camp, enclosure, or settlement near the rock or Carn, presumably referring to the mass of Carn Marth whose granite bulk overshadows the village. Each derivative has a degree of evidence to support it. Earliest references to
756-471: Is the type locality for the copper-arsenate mineral Olivenite , a crystalline lustrous rock which often has a green or olive hue. Local electronic musician Aphex Twin made a remix of his own track "Ventolin" titled "Ventolin (Carharrack Mix)". The remix was first released on Ventolin Remixes in 1995 and was later included on the 1996 compilation 51/13 Aphex Singles Collection . The village also has
810-605: The Aire & Calder Navigation , running from Wakefield to Outwood , a distance of approximately 3 miles (4.8 km). Edge-rails (with a side rack) were used on the nearby Middleton-Leeds rack railway (a length of this rail is on display in Leeds City Museum ). The wheels of an edgeway have flanges, like modern railways and tramways. Causewaying is also done on modern level crossings and tramways. These two systems of constructing iron railways continued to exist until
864-445: The lumberjacks moved on to other stands of timber as each area was cleared. At least one such pole road system reportedly extended some 20 miles (32 km). Typically the pole rails were logs of 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm) diameter, laid parallel directly on the ground without cross-ties , and joined end-to-end with lap joints and wooden pegs . Rolling stock typically had wheels either with concave rims that hugged
918-539: The 1st century AD. Paved trackways were later built in Roman Egypt . Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola (image left) in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
972-540: The Portreath tram-road, but all the others would ship almost entirely from Devoran ." Rival mine owners were placed at a huge disadvantage, and this led to the development of Devoran Harbour on the south coast of Cornwall and the promotion of the Redruth and Chasewater Railway to reach it; that railway opened in 1825. In time the mining areas served by the tramroad and the railway were closely associated, but Devoran had
1026-831: The Severn River. It has been suggested that these are somewhat older than that at Wollaton. The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which was built in 1758 as a wagonway, later became the world's first operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in America was built in Lewiston, New York as a wagonway. Wagonways improved coal transport by allowing one horse to deliver between 10 and 13 long tons (10.2 and 13.2 t ; 11.2 and 14.6 short tons ) of coal per run— an approximate fourfold increase. Wagonways were usually designed to carry
1080-479: The amalgamation of Carharrack Mine and several other local tin and copper mines, is immediately east of the village. The mines were served by the Redruth and Chasewater Railway (an early narrow gauge line) which connected them to quays at Devoran on Cornwall's south coast. The railway closed in 1915 and its course is now a long-distance footpath and cycleway, one of Cornwall's Mineral Tramway Trails . Carharrack
1134-484: The area appear around 1290, but references to dwellings on the current site only date from the 1700s. Boom years for the village were in the first half of the nineteenth century, with the expansion of the local mines which at peak employed several thousand people: Carharrack was the closest settlement and provided plenty of space for building. By the 1860s the copper industry in Cornwall was in decline and many residents emigrated in search of work. A Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
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#17327840174311188-505: The branch to Treskerby, the line cost about £20,000. There was no provision for passengers. The proprietors of Portreath Harbour, and the tramroad, permitted only their mines to use those facilities, and for some years, this gave them an enormous competitive advantage. The mines were at their most productive, and the facility of conveying minerals cheaply to the harbour was extremely valuable. Mines "such as Poldice, Wheal Unity, Wheal Gorland, Carharrack and Wheal Maid probably sent ores over
1242-617: The disadvantage of being on the English Channel side of Cornwall, so the crossing to Swansea involved a longer and sometimes hazardous passage around Land's End . The Hayle Railway opened a standard gauge railway to Portreath in 1837, and in 1855 the Redruth and Chasewater Railway introduced steam locomotives. A local correspondent to the Mining Journal in 1855 described the Portreath Tramroad as "altogether
1296-622: The early 19th century. In most parts of England the plate-rail was preferred. Plate-rails were used on the Surrey Iron Railway (SIR), from Wandsworth to West Croydon . The SIR was sanctioned by Parliament in 1801 and finished in 1803. Like the Lake Lock Rail Road , the SIR was available to the public on payment of tolls; previous lines had all been private and reserved exclusively for the use of their owners. Since it
1350-562: The fully loaded wagons downhill to a canal or boat dock and then return the empty wagons back to the mine. Until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , rails were made of wood, were a few inches wide and were fastened end to end, on logs of wood or "sleepers", placed crosswise at intervals of two or three feet. In time, it became common to cover them with a thin flat sheathing or "plating" of iron, in order to add to their life and reduce friction. This caused more wear on
1404-414: The harbour was further improved. The heavy materials were conveyed the few miles between the mines and the port by pack horse or mule, an expensive and time-consuming means of transport. Seeking an improved means of transport, in 1798 ( Francis Basset ), "Paid Mr. John Williams subscription towards planning a canal from Portreath £10. 10s. 0d". The canal was not proceeded with: water supply may have been
1458-428: The harbour, and the use of the tramroad and the harbour was exclusive to them. Initially, it was laid as far as North Downs, near Scorrier, and a storage yard was built there. There was a branch to Treskerby , serving the mine there and Wheal Chance. This first portion of the line was in use by 1812. Between 1815 and 1819, it was extended to Crofthandy , serving Poldice, Wheal Unity, and Wheal Gorland mines. Including
1512-548: The inner side an upright ledge or flange, 3 in (76 mm) high at the centre and tapering to 2 in (51 mm) at the ends, for the purpose of keeping the flat wheels on the track. Subsequently, to increase strength, a similar flange might be added below the rail. Wooden sleepers continued to be used—the rails were secured by spikes passing through the extremities—but, circa 1793, stone blocks began to be used, an innovation associated with Benjamin Outram , although he
1566-487: The level of the top of the flanges. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge-rails. Another example of the edge rail application was the Lake Lock Rail Road in the West Riding of Yorkshire (now West Yorkshire ) used primarily for coal transport. The railway charged a toll and opened for traffic in 1798, making it the world's oldest public railway. The route started at Lake Lock, Stanley , on
1620-541: The middle of the 18th century. Wagonways and steam-powered railways had steep uphill sections and would employ a cable powered by a stationary steam engine to work the inclined sections. British troops in Lewiston, New York used a cable wagonway to move supplies to bases before the American Revolutionary War . The Stockton and Darlington had two inclined sections powered by cable. The transition from
1674-973: The noise they made on the tracks. Around 1568, German miners working in the Mines Royal near Keswick used such a system. Archaeological work at the Mines Royal site at Caldbeck in the English Lake District confirmed the use of " hunds ". In 1604, Huntingdon Beaumont completed the Wollaton Wagonway , built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton Lane End, just west of Nottingham , England . Wagonways have been discovered between Broseley and Jackfield in Shropshire from 1605, used by James Clifford to transport coal from his mines in Broseley to
Portreath Tramroad - Misplaced Pages Continue
1728-596: The patent for an improved method of rolling rails was granted in 1820 to John Birkinshaw , of the Bedlington Ironworks . His rails were wedge-shaped in section, much wider at the top than at the bottom, with the intermediate portion or web thinner still. He recommended that they be made 18 ft (5.49 m) long, suggesting that several might be welded together end to end to form considerable lengths. They were supported on sleepers by chairs at intervals of 3 ft (914 mm), and were fish-bellied between
1782-415: The plates. R. Hansford Worth quotes Mr Francis Mitchell, C.E., of Redruth, in saying (in 1888) that "The line has been taken up, and that it consisted of two angle irons, placed face to face, and not back to back as was usual [on later lines]... These irons were fastened to stone blocks, and the gauge was about 3 ft ." Mitchell may have mistaken the track gauge : three feet is remarkably narrow for
1836-417: The practice was to transport the ore to a location where there was a ready coal supply and carry out the smelting there. In the 18th century the Cornish ore was mainly taken to Swansea , earning it the nickname Copperopolis . A small harbour was built at Portreath sometime between 1713 and 1753. The ore was exported, and coal and timber were brought in to serve the mining activity and the lime kilns . In 1824,
1890-545: The route is now a bridleway, forming part of the Cornish Mineral Tramway Trails route for walkers, cyclists, and horse-riders. Symons described the line in retrospect, writing in 1884: The first tramway laid down in Cornwall, is that connecting Portreath with Poldice mine , near St Day . Its construction was started about the year 1809, when most of the Gwennap mines were in full operation; as
1944-542: The same power. The earliest evidence is of the 6 to 8.5 km (3.7 to 5.3 mi) long Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone , which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least
1998-435: The sleepers by two iron spikes, half-round wooden cross sleepers employed on embankments and stone blocks 20 in (508 mm) square by 10 in (254 mm) deep in cuttings. The fish-bellied rails were found to break near the chairs and starting in 1834, they were gradually replaced with parallel rails weighing 50 lb/yd (24.8 kg/m). In 1804, Richard Trevithick , in the first recorded use of steam power on
2052-412: The supply of horses, in part because normal railway staff lacked horse handling skills. Wooden rails continued to be used for temporary railroads into the twentieth century. Some timber harvesting companies in the southeastern United States created pole roads using unmarketable logs, which were effectively free, to create tracks at a cost of between $ 100 and $ 500 per mile. Permanence was not an issue, as
2106-505: The support points. As used by George Stephenson on the Stockton & Darlington , and Canterbury & Whitstable lines, they weighed 28 lb/yd (13.9 kg/m). On the Liverpool and Manchester Railway they were usually 12 or 15 ft (3.66 or 4.57 m) long and weighed 35 lb/yd (17.4 kg/m) and were fastened by iron wedges to chairs weighing 15 or 17 lb (6.8 or 7.7 kg) each. The chairs were in turn fixed to
2160-499: The term "railway". As of 2024 , very few horse or cable freight railways are operating, notable examples being the cable-hauled St Michael's Mount Tramway and the Reisszug , which has been in continuous operation since around 1900. A few passenger lines continue to operate, including the horse-hauled Douglas Bay Horse Tramway and the cable-hauled San Francisco cable cars . Carharrack Carharrack ( Cornish : Karardhek )
2214-537: The top of the pole rails, or un-flanged wheels with separate guide wheels running against the side of each rail. Steam traction engines and some purpose-built locomotives were successfully used for hauling trains of logs. For example, Perdido was built by Adams & Price Locomotive and Machinery Works of Nashville, Tennessee in 1885 for the Wallace, Sanford and Company sawmill at Williams Station, Alabama , where it hauled up to seven cars of 3 or 4 logs each. This
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2268-399: The tramroad's directors. Wagonway Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways ), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways . The terms plateway , tramway , dramway , were used. The advantage of wagonways was that far bigger loads could be transported with
2322-566: The use of cogged wheels in 1811 and in 1812, the Middleton Railway (edgeway, rack rail) successfully used twin cylinder steam locomotives made by Matthew Murray of Holbeck , Leeds . George Stephenson made his first steam locomotive in 1813 (patented 1815) for the Killingworth colliery, and found smooth wheels on smooth rails provided adequate grip. Although he later recounted that they called this locomotive 'My Lord' as it
2376-570: The village suffered a progressive loss both of local employment and local facilities and although there have been various new housing developments around the village it now functions more as a dormitory village. Carharrack is within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape , a World Heritage Site ; it is in the Redruth Mining District of the designated area. The site of the Consolidated Mines , formed in 1782 by
2430-519: The wooden rollers of the wagons and towards the middle of the 18th century, led to the introduction of iron wheels. However, the iron sheathing was not strong enough to resist buckling under the passage of the loaded wagons, so rails made wholly of iron were invented. In 1760, the Coalbrookdale Iron Works began to reinforce their wooden-railed tramway with iron bars, which were found to facilitate passage and diminish expenses. As
2484-399: Was a geared engine (4.5 to 1 gear ratio ), driving four individually-rotating concave-rim wheels on stationary axles via chain drives; powerful but running less than 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h). Still later, modified semitrailer tractors have been used. As steam power gradually replaced horse power throughout the 19th century, the term "wagonway" became obsolete and was superseded by
2538-493: Was a horse-drawn plateway and was the first railway in the county of Cornwall, starting operation in 1809. As a technological pioneer, it soon became technically obsolescent but continued in use until about 1865. Much of the route can be discerned today, and parts can be walked or cycled. From the sixteenth century, minerals —chiefly copper —had been extracted southeast of Scorrier in Cornwall, England . The smelting of copper ore required about ten times its weight in coal, and
2592-408: Was also North Downs in Redruth . It was much in use till the stoppage of Poldice and the adjacent mines about 20 years ago. At present, [it] is not very much wanted, and [it] is in a very dilapidated state. In 1830 the writer rode in a car to a Portreath tea party, of which party he is the only survivor. A small wagon fitted with two bench seats has survived. It is believed to have been used to carry
2646-471: Was financed by Lord Ravensworth , it seems that it was known at the time as Blücher . In 1814 William Stewart was engaged by Parkend Coal Co in the Forest of Dean for the construction of a steam locomotive, which when trialled was reported to be successful. Stewart did not receive his expected reward and the two parties parted on bad terms. Stewart was 'obliged to abandon the engine to that Company'. In 1821,
2700-543: Was first used by William Jessop on a line that was opened as part of the Charnwood Forest Canal between Loughborough and Nanpantan in Leicestershire in 1789. This line was originally designed as a plateway on the Outram system, but objections were raised to laying rails with upstanding ledges or flanges on the turnpike . This difficulty was overcome by paving or "causewaying" the road up to
2754-444: Was generally established. Wheels tended to bind against the flange of the plate rail and mud and stones would build up. The manufacture of the rails themselves was gradually improved. By making them in longer lengths, the number of joints per mile was reduced. Joints were always the weakest part of the line. Another advance was the substitution of wrought iron for cast iron, though that material did not gain wide adoption until after
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#17327840174312808-399: Was not the originator. This type of rail was known as the plate-rail, tramway-plate or way-plate, names that are preserved in the modern term " platelayer " applied to the workers who lay and maintain the permanent way . The wheels of flangeway wagons were plain, but they could not operate on ordinary roads as the narrow rims would dig into the surface. Another form of rail, the edge rail ,
2862-420: Was opened in 1815. The grade II* listed building was altered in the late 19th and early 20th-century and is now a Methodist church. Carharrack church was opened on 20 February 1884 by Canon Phillpotts of Porthgwidden . It was built by Messrs Williams and Moyle for £600 and holds nearly 200 people. The eastern window is a memorial to Miss Rogers of Trevarthian . During the latter part of the twentieth century
2916-554: Was used by individual operators, vehicles would vary greatly in wheel spacing ( gauge ) and the plate rail coped better. In South Wales again, where in 1811 the railways were connected with canals, collieries, ironworks, and copper works, and had a total length of nearly 150 miles (241 km), the plateway was almost universal. But in the North of England and in Scotland the edge-rail was held in greater favor, and soon its superiority
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