GEORGE STEPHENSON. 77 



diminish friction as to prevent abrasion. This soon led to the 

 substitution of rails of solid iron, which was attended with rapid 

 success, and adopted in various parts of the country. There 

 was, for instance, a railway five miles long, from the collieries 

 in the vicinity of Derby into that town; there was another 

 called the Park Forest Railway, about six miles long ; and 

 another, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire, which had 

 four miles of double and eight miles of single rails. Towards 

 the beginning of the present century, railways had made their 

 way into all coal and mining districts, and their progress was so 

 rapid that in 181 1 there were in South Wales not less than 150 

 miles of railways, of which the Merthyr-Tydvil Company 

 possessed thirty miles. 



Amongst personal reminiscences of these primitive railways 

 by persons living at the time, it may be interesting to quote 

 those of Mr. Robert Reid, who was born in 1772. In his 

 interesting memoirs of " Old Glasgow," he says : " I remember 

 the coal quay, which stood at the present ferry, west end ol 

 Windmill Croft. It was built by the Dumbarton Glass Work 

 Company to convey coals from the lands of Little Govan to 

 their works at Dumbarton. The river was then deeper at the 

 coal quay than at the Broomielaw There was a timber tram- 

 way from the Little Govan works to the said quay, which ran 

 through the lands of Kingston, and by the road on the east side 

 of Springfield. I have walked iipon this tramroad^ ivhich I believe 

 was the first oj our Glasgow railways. The Dumbarton Glas? 

 Work Company also possessed a tramroad on the north side of 

 the Clyde, from the coal works in the neighbourhood of Gart- 

 navel." 



But while in regard to the transit and shipment of coals this 

 considerable advance was made, the other branches of trafiSc, 



