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34-663: The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad was a horse-worked plateway built in South Wales in 1803. The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad was authorised under an act of Parliament , the Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad Company Act 1802 ( 42 Geo. 3 . c. lxxx), of 3 June 1802 – the first granted for a public railway in Wales – to acquire the existing Carmarthenshire Dock at Llanelly and its feeder tramroad built by Alexander Raby by 1799, thus incidentally becoming

68-533: A line using similarly flanged plates in 1788. A leading advocate of plate rails was Benjamin Outram , whose first line was from quarries at Crich to Bullbridge Wharf on the Cromford Canal . The early plates were prone to break, so different cross sections were employed, such as one with a second flange underneath. Some lines later introduced chairs to support the plates on the blocks, and wrought iron plates, increasing

102-474: A successful engineer in his own right. Jessop was in the unusual position of bridging the gap between the canal engineers and the railway engineers who came later. His name did not gain the lasting fame that it deserved because of his modesty. Indeed some of his works have been wrongly attributed to engineers who acted as his assistants. Unlike some engineers, such as George Stephenson , Jessop did not stoop to undignified wrangles with fellow professionals. He

136-624: A sufficiently direct route between the Midlands and London. As a result, a new canal was proposed to run from the Oxford Canal at Braunston , near Rugby , and to end at the Thames at Brentford , a length of ninety miles. Jessop was appointed Chief Engineer to the Canal Company in 1793. The canal was especially difficult to plan because, whereas other canals tended to follow river valleys and only crossed

170-477: A toll basis, with any rolling stock owner able to operate their wagons on the tracks. Sometimes, the plateway company was forbidden to operate its own wagons, so as to prevent a monopoly situation arising. Some plateways, such as the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, were single-track, with passing loops at frequent intervals. The single-track sections were arranged so that wagon drivers could see from one loop to

204-448: A watershed when unavoidable, the new canal had to cross the rivers Ouse, Nene and others. An aqueduct was built at Wolverton to carry the canal across the Ouse valley. Whilst the three-arch stone aqueduct was being built, a set of nine temporary locks were used to carry the canal down one side of the valley and up the other. The aqueduct failed in 1808, and was replaced by an iron one in 1811,

238-515: Is known to have carried out was the Grand Canal of Ireland . This had begun as a Government project in 1753, and it had taken seventeen years to build fourteen miles (21 km) of canal from the Dublin end. In 1772 a private company was formed to complete the canal, and consulted John Smeaton. Smeaton sent Jessop to take control of the project as principal engineer. Jessop re-surveyed the proposed line of

272-608: The Butterley Iron Works in Derbyshire to manufacture (amongst other things) cast-iron edge rails – a design Jessop had used successfully on a horse-drawn railway scheme for coal wagons between Nanpantan and Loughborough , Leicestershire (1789). Outram was concerned with the production of ironwork and equipment for Jessop's engineering projects. The Oxford Canal had been built by James Brindley and carried coal to large parts of southern England. However it did not provide

306-796: The Hay Railway , the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway , the Surrey Iron Railway , the Derby Canal Railway , the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway , the Portreath Tramroad in Cornwall, and lines at Coalbrookdale , Shropshire . The plates of a plateway generally rested on stone blocks or sleepers , which served to spread the load over the ground, and to maintain the gauge (the distance between

340-537: The Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway , opened in 1881. This United Kingdom rail transport related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Plateway Plateways consisted of L-shaped rails, where the flange on the rail guides the wheels, in contrast to edgeways , where flanges on the wheels guide them along the track. Plateways were originally horsedrawn but, later on, cable haulage and small locomotives were sometimes used. The plates of

374-546: The Surrey Iron Railway and the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway as plateways, though between these (in 1803) he designed the Ruabon Brook Tramway as using edge-rail. An alternative design, with the flange on the outside designed to be additionally used with flanged wheels, was unsuccessfully trialled on the Monmouthshire Canal Company's line shortly before its reconstruction as a modern railway. That idea

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408-468: The axles, the wheels could usually be adjusted slightly with washers. Level crossings could be made truly level, the carts being re-engaged with the flanges once across the roadway. Even older than plateways were wagonways , which used wooden rails. Despite its ancient appearance, the Haytor Granite Tramway , the track with ledges cut in stone blocks to produce a similar effect as tram plates,

442-617: The canal and carried the canal over the River Liffey , via the Leinster Aqueduct. He also drove the canal across the great Bog of Allen , a feat comparable with George Stephenson 's crossing of the Chat Moss bog with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway . The canal was carried over the bog on a high embankment. Jessop also identified sources of water and built reservoirs , so that the canal

476-576: The canal over the ridge. Jessop's temporary solution was a railway line laid over the ridge to carry traffic until the tunnel was completed. The Grand Junction Canal was enormously important in encouraging trade between London and the Midlands. The West India Docks , built on the Isle of Dogs , was the first large wet docks built in the Port of London . Between 1800 and 1802 a wet dock area of 295 acres (1.19 km )

510-546: The company appointed the relatively unknown Thomas Telford as resident engineer. Telford had no previous experience as a designer of canals, but with Jessop's advice and guidance, Telford made a success of the project. He supported Telford, even when the Company thought that the latter's designs for aqueducts were too ambitious. In 1789 Jessop was appointed chief engineer to the Cromford Canal Company. The proposed canal

544-623: The completion of the lighthouse, William Jessop was taken on as a pupil by Smeaton (who also acted as Jessop's guardian), working on various canal schemes in Yorkshire . Jessop worked as Smeaton's assistant for a number of years before beginning to work as an engineer in his own right. He assisted Smeaton with the Calder and Hebble and the Aire and Calder navigations in Yorkshire. The first major work that Jessop

578-537: The front walls strong enough. He had the viaduct repaired and strengthened at his own expense. The Butterley Tunnel was 2,966 yards (2712m) long, 9 ft (2.7 m) wide and 8 ft (2.4 m) high and required thirty-three shafts to be sunk from the surface to build it. Jessop built the Butterley Reservoir above the tunnel, extending for 50 acres (20 ha). In 1790 Jessop founded, jointly with partners Benjamin Outram , Francis Beresford and John Wright,

612-475: The gauge of the line with some estimates stating 4 ft 2 in (1.27 m) and others stating 4 ft 8½ in. In 1803, the next phase was authorized for a line from Croydon via Merstham to Godstone in Surrey. Jessop was again appointed Chief Engineer, with his son Josias as his assistant. The line reached Merstham but was never continued to Godstone. The total distance of the tramway from Wandsworth

646-621: The iron trough design sharing a similar structure to Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct built by Thomas Telford . It is known as the Cosgrove aqueduct and was designed and built by Benjamin Bevan . Two tunnels also had to be built, at Braunston and Blisworth . The Blisworth Tunnel caused great problems, and was unfinished when the rest of the canal was ready. In fact Jessop considered abandoning it and using locks to carry

680-486: The length to 6 feet (1.8 m) and, later, 9 feet (2.7 m), spanning several sleeper blocks In 1789, on a line between Nanpantan and Loughborough , Leicestershire , William Jessop used edge rails cast in 3-foot (0.9 m) lengths, with "fish-bellying" to give greater strength along the length of the rail. However, after he became a partner in Benjamin Outram and Company (Butterley Iron Works) he designed

714-575: The next, and wait for oncoming traffic if necessary. However, others, such as the Surrey Iron Railway , the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway , the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company tramroads, and the Severn and Wye Railway , were wholly or partly double-track. Because they had un-flanged wheels, wagons that ran on plateways could also run on ordinary roads. Plateways tended to get obstructed by loose stones and grit, leading to wear. Edgeways avoid

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748-544: The plateway were made of cast iron , often fabricated by the ironworks that were their users. On most lines, that system was replaced by rolled wrought iron (and later steel ) "edge rails" which, along with realignment to increase the radius of curves, converted them into modern railways, better suited to locomotive operation. Plateways were particularly favoured in South Wales and the Forest of Dean , in some cases replacing existing edge rails. Other notable plateways included

782-437: The rails or plates). The plates were usually made from cast iron and had differing cross sections , depending on the manufacturer. They were often very short, typically about 3 feet (0.9 m) long, able to stretch only from one block to the next. The L-section plateway was introduced for underground use in about 1787, by John Curr of Sheffield Park Colliery. Joseph Butler , of Wingerworth near Chesterfield , constructed

816-401: The stone obstruction problem. Stone blocks had an advantage over timber sleepers because they left the middle of the track unhindered for the hooves of horses , but timber sleepers had an advantage over stone blocks because they prevented the track from spreading. The gauges of some tramroads increased by a couple of inches after decades of horses passing up the middle but, being loose on

850-578: The world's first dock-owning public railway company. The first 1.5 mi (2.4 km) from Cwmddyche ironworks down to the sea was open in May 1803 – the first stretch of public railway in use in Britain – and construction ceased in 1805 when the line had reached Gorslas . The engineer was named James Barnes and the gauge was approximately 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). The line ceased to operate in or before 1844 and portions of its course were utilised by

884-521: Was 18 miles (29 km). The tramway was eventually overtaken by the advent of steam locomotives. From 1784 to 1805 Jessop lived in Newark in Nottinghamshire, where he twice served as town mayor. In his later life, Jessop became increasingly inflicted by a form of paralysis, and 1805 marked the end of his active career. He died at his home, Butterley Hall , on 18 November 1814. His son Josias became

918-566: Was asked for his opinion on the two opposing schemes. He declared that the tramway was a better scheme, as a canal would require too much water and would unduly reduce the supply in the River Wandle . It was agreed to build a tramway from Wandsworth to Croydon, as well a building a basin at Wandsworth. Jessop was appointed Chief Engineer of the project in 1801. In 1802 the Wandsworth Basin and the line were completed. There seems to be doubt as to

952-511: Was contemporary with plateways, being built in 1820. William Jessop William Jessop (23 January 1745 – 18 November 1814) was an English civil engineer , best known for his work on canals , harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon , the son of Josias Jessop, a foreman shipwright in the Naval Dockyard. Josias Jessop

986-484: Was created with a depth of 24 ft (7.3 m), and accommodating 600 ships. Jessop was the Chief Engineer for the docks, with Ralph Walker as his assistant. In 1799 separate proposals were put forward for a canal from London to Portsmouth and for a tramway carrying horse-drawn carriages over the same route. The first part of the proposed Surrey Iron Railway was to be from Wandsworth to Croydon , and Jessop

1020-461: Was in no danger of running dry. Having seen to all of the important details Jessop returned to England, leaving a deputy in charge to complete the canal. This was finally done in 1805. It seems that Jessop was closely involved with the canal in Ireland until about 1787, after which time, other work flowed in. Jessop was a very modest man, who did not seek self-aggrandizement . Unlike other engineers, he

1054-712: Was intended to carry limestone, coal and iron ore from the Derwent and upper Erewash valleys and join the nearby Erewash Canal. The important features of this canal are the Derwent Viaduct, which was a single span viaduct carrying the canal over the River Derwent , and the Butterley Tunnel (formerly the Ripley Tunnel). In 1793, the Derwent Viaduct partially collapsed, and Jessop shouldered the blame, saying that he had not made

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1088-534: Was not jealous of rising young engineers, but rather encouraged them. He would also recommend another engineer if he was too busy to be able to undertake a commission himself. He recommended John Rennie for the post of engineer to the Lancaster Canal Company, an appointment that helped to establish Rennie's reputation. When Jessop was consulting engineer to the Ellesmere Canal Company, in 1793,

1122-488: Was responsible for the repair and maintenance of Rudyerd's Tower, a wooden lighthouse on the Eddystone Rock . He carried out this task for twenty years until 1755, when the lighthouse burnt down. John Smeaton , a leading civil engineer , drew up plans for a new stone lighthouse and Josias became responsible for the overseeing the building work. The two men became close friends, and when Josias died in 1761, two years after

1156-509: Was taken up in 1861 by the Toronto streetcar system . Horsecars ran on the upper, outer part as edgerail, with the wheel flanges on the inside. The edge rail formed an outside flange for a broad foot which allowed wagons to pass through the unmade streets. That combination necessitated a unique, broader gauge of 4 ft  10 + 7 ⁄ 8  in ( 1,495 mm ) known as the Toronto gauge . The early plateways were usually operated on

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