History of Inland Transport 



weight, down an incline ; though even then the danger of 

 accident was, as Buddie's observations suggest, sufficiently 

 grave. On this same point it is said by T. S. Polyhistor, in 

 a " Description of a Coal Waggon," given in the " London 

 Magazine " for March, 1764 : 



" They commonly unloose the horse when they come to the 

 runs, and then put him too again when down ; the reason 

 of their taking him off at such places is because, were the 

 convoy to break, it would be impossible to save the horse 

 from being killed, or if the waggon-way rails be wet some- 

 times a man cannot stop the waggon with the convoy and 

 where the convoy presses upon the wheel it will fire and 

 flame surprisingly ; many are the accidents that have hap- 

 pened as aforesaid ; many hundred poor people and horses 

 have lost their lives ; for was there ever so many waggons 

 before the waggon that breaks its convoy and has not got 

 quite clear of the run, they are all in great danger, both men 

 and horses, of being killed." 



Polyhistor also states that the quantity of coal one of 

 these waggons would draw on the rails was 19 " bolls," or 

 " bowls," as he calls them. This gave a load of about 42 

 cwt. of coal, as compared with the load of 17 cwt., or less, 

 to which the waggons on the ordinary roads at the collieries 

 had been reduced. The advantage from the point of view 

 of transport was obvious ; but no less certain, also, was the 

 risk to life and limb when a waggon with over two tons of 

 coal was allowed to run down an incline checked only by a 

 primitive wooden brake, with a man seated on one end of it 

 to press it against a wheel. In wet weather boys or old men 

 were employed to sprinkle ashes on the rails ; but there 

 were times when the rail-ways having a steep descent could 

 not be used at all. 



Introduced on the Tyne, the rail-way was adopted in 1693 

 by collieries on the Wear, and it also came into vogue in 

 Shropshire and other districts. In 1698 a rail- way was set 

 up on Sir Humphry Mackworth's colliery at Neath, Glamorgan- 

 shire ; but after it had been in use about eight years it was 

 condemned by a grand jury at Cardiff as a " nuisance," and 

 the portion crossing the highway between Cardiff and Neath 

 was torn up. In a statement presented, rebutting the allega- 

 tion of the grand jury, it was said : " These waggon ways are 



