When did the first railways start in the UK?
The first railways in the UK were horse-drawn tracks with cast-iron rails called tramways, dramways or plateways (depending on which part of the country you lived in). They appeared around the end of the 18th century when the industrial revolution was starting and typically, would cover the distance between a mine or quarry and the nearest jetty where the stone, coal or whatever could be loaded onto a boat for transport along the canals or the coast. The first use of steam power on the railway was in 1804 when Richard Trevithick built and ran his locomotive at Pen-y-Darren near Merthyr in South Wales. Trevithick also operated a locomotive called ‘Catch-me-who-Can’ on a circular track in Hyde Park, London in 1808. The first commercial railway in the world was the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the north-east of England, built and operated by George Stephenson, opened in 1825. Stephenson went on to build the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830) which saw the introduction of his mo
