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and track for the wheel?, seems to have been constructefl near Newcas- 

 tle, upon the river Tyne, in England. In Roger Nortb'.s Life of Lord 

 Keeper North, ho says that at this place,('n KiTfi,) (.he coals were con- 

 veyed from the mines to the banks of the river by laying rails of lim- 

 ber exactly straight and parallel; and bulky carts were made with four 

 rollers fitting those rails, whereby the carriage was made so easy that 

 one horse would draw four or five chaldrons of coal. In 1776, Mr. 

 Carr constructed an iron railroad at the Shefiield colliery. The rails 

 ■were supported by wooden sleepci-s, to which they were nailed. Rail- 

 ways were afterward used in a number of other collierier", and in 1825 

 the first railway was successfully adopted on a public thoroughfare for 

 the transportation of merchandise and passengers on the Stockton and 

 Darlington Railroad, in England, 25 miles in length. From that time 

 a new era commenced in tie history of railroad transportation, and rail- 

 roads now extend like a net-work over the greater part of England. 

 The first locomotive engine used as the motive power on railroads, was 

 used on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830. In 1827 the 

 first railroad in the United States was constructed fiotn Quincy, near 

 Boston, to Neponset river, a distance of three miles. It v^'as construct- 

 ed solely for the transportation of granite from the quarries. In 1828 

 the Maunch Chunck Railroad, nine miles in length, was finished. This 

 was constructed solely for the transportation of coal. In 182(5 the Leg- 

 islature of the State of New York chartered the " Hudson and Mt)liawk 

 Railroad Company," which was the first railroad company chartered ia 

 the United States. On the 12th day of August, 1830, the first ground 

 was broken at Schenectady for a double track road to Albany, and the 

 road was in operation the following spring. The cars used were coach 

 bodies, of the ordinary form. The motive power first used was horse, 

 and on steep inclinations stationary steam power. A locomotive engine 

 called "John Bull," procured from England, was placed upon it during 

 that year. The Newcastle and Frenchtown Railroad was constructed 

 in 1829. This road extended from Newcastle, on the Delaware, to the 

 Elk river, near Frenchtown, 16^ miles, and was the first railroad con- 

 structed in the United States for the conveyance of passengers. The 

 first engine on a railroad weighed but six tons, while at the present day 

 engines of forty tons weight (including tenders) have been introduced 

 on some roads. 



