Edge railway

Wagonways (or Waggonways) consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam-powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in some places, "dramway" are also found. The advantage of using wagonways was that far bigger loads could be transported with the same power.

The earliest evidence found so far is of the 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. The paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt.

Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola (image right) in his work De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from the noise they made on the tracks.

Around 1568, German miners working in the Mines Royal near Keswick used above such system, archaeological work at the Mines Royal site at Caldbeck in the English Lake District has now confirmed the use of "hunds", as track fragments have been found.

In 1604, Huntingdon Beaumont completed the Wollaton Wagonway, built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton Lane End, just west of Nottingham, England. Wagonways have been proven to exist between Broseley and Jackfield in Shropshire from 1605, used by James Clifford to transport coal from his mines in Broseley to the River Severn. It has recently been suggested that these are somewhat older than that at Wollaton.

...
Wikipedia