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Railways
Richard Trevithick
1804
Submitted by: Geoff Howard
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Mines and factories had existing tram roads along which wagons were pulled. These developed from cart tracks which had ruts filled with stones to raised rails on sleepers similar to a modern railroad. The 'standard gauge' of 4' 8½" dates from these early cart tracks. In 1804 Richard Trevithick built the first railway locomotive to run on the tram roads at Penydaren Ironworks. He was familiar with Boulton and Watt engines and from 1798 had worked for them designing high-pressure steam engines used as mine winding engines. Trevithick went on to build steam carriages and tested high pressure pumping engines at Coalbrookdale in 1802.