Archaeologists have found the stays of Scotland’s earliest normal gauge railway in Cockenzie, East Lothian. Believed to have been in use as early as 1775, the 1435mm (4’8.5″) extensive wood railway might even predate the Willington Waggonway of Newcastle, beforehand believed to be the oldest normal gauge railway. That 1435mm monitor gauge would unfold from the gravity-and-horse-powered waggon railways to grow to be the usual for the steam-powered trains of the nineteenth century.
The excavation is a part of the Waggonway 1722 Challenge‘s group heritage initiative to analyze and protect the Tranent – Cockenzie Waggonway, the earliest recorded railway of any gauge in Scotland. It was in-built 1722 by the York Buildings Firm to hold coal from the pits at Tranent to the economic saltworks of Cockenzie the place salt was produced by evaporating seawater in giant vats generally known as salt pans. The loaded waggons went down the railway powered by gravity with brakemen overseeing. The empty wagons have been pulled again as much as the coal pits by horses.
An infinite amount of coal was essential to feed the pans — 2,000 tons a yr — which amounted to greater than a dozen full waggon deliveries per day, six days every week. To assist these frequent runs of nice weight, the waggonway had double peak rails to beat the issue of transferring heavy wood carts laden with tons of coal over soggy floor. It featured one units of rail “floated” on prime of one other, the decrease rails related and stabilized by tie beams. The timbers have been reduce sq. and joined with wood dowels known as trenails.
Archaeologists and volunteers have uncovered 65 ft of the railway to this point, together with preserved sections of rail and ties with their authentic trenails.
“The dig has been one other large success for the undertaking,” stated Ed Bethune, chair of the Waggonway Challenge.
“We’ve got but once more, with the mixed assist of execs and group volunteers, added vital info to the archaeological file and made new discoveries so as to add to the unimaginable historical past of this earliest of Scottish railways.
“To find that this gauge, which we think about ‘trendy’, was in use sooner than we might have imagined, isn’t solely thrilling however nationally vital.”
