British narrow gauge railways
There were more than a thousandBritish narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.
The earliest narrow-gauge railways were crude wooden trackways used in coal mines to guide wooden tubs. Because of the restricted loading gauge of the tunnels and the need for the tubs to be small enough to be pushed by one man, these railways were almost all narrow gauge. These underground lines often had short above-ground sections as well.
After the start of the Industrial Revolution it became possible to create railways with iron tracks and wheels, which reduced the friction involved in moving wagons and made longer horse-hauled trains possible. These could move more material over longer distances, allowing the construction of railways from mines and quarries to transshipment points on rivers, canals and the coast. The earliest narrow-gauge railways that were more than internal mine or quarry systems were all horse-drawn industrial railways. Prominent examples include: the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge; the Little Eaton Gangway of 1793; the 3 ft 4 3⁄4 in (1,035 mm) gauge Lake Lock Rail Road of 1796; the 2 ft (610 mm) gauge Llandegai Tramway of 1798; and the 4 ft 2 in (1,270 mm) gauge Surrey Iron Railway of 1803 - the world's first public railway.
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