78 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
EAELY WESTEEN RAILEOADS. 
BY R. HANSFORD WORTH. 
(Read 8th March, 1888.) 
My excuse for bringing this subject forward is to be found 
in the rapidity with which events are forgotten. Facts, unless 
put on record, are soon lost in oblivion which is almost pre- 
historic in its utter blankness. I have had personal experience 
of this when on the track of various branches of my subject, 
having frequently found myself just a year or so too late to 
recover information which is now irretrievably lost ; while in a 
year or so more, much that I have succeeded in obtaining 
would have vanished also. This is the more surprising, as my 
subject is essentially modern ; since the first locomotive which 
ever carried passengers ran its trial trip up the Beacon Hill at 
Camborne no longer ago than Christmas-eve of the year 1801, 
and its inventor, Eichard Trevithick, died just fifty-five years 
ago ; while the first tramway which I have to mention was not 
commenced until 1803, being thus in point of date two years 
later than Trevithick's locomotive. 
I propose to confine myself, in the main, to the rail- or tram- 
road or way, and shall only refer to the locomotive in connection 
with those lines on which it has been used. The history of the 
invention of the high -pressure steam engine, and the first con- 
struction of the non-condensing locomotive engine, I shall regard 
as outside my subject, although the temptation to refer at length 
to our great West-country engineer is well-nigh irresistible. 
It may perhaps be useful, before referring to our own locality, 
to give a very short sketch of the first growth of tramways 
in other parts of England. In or about the year 1676, rails of 
timber were laid in certain parts of the colliery districts, and 
carts with four wide rollers, in place of the ordinary wheels, 
were emj)loyed to run on them. Later on these rails, instead 
