ABSTRACT
The British railway system came into being through the efforts of the first generation of engineers to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding mining and textile industries. A modern railway has been defined as a publicly controlled means of transport possessing the four distinctive features of a specialised track, mechanical traction, the accommodation of public traffic and the conveyance of passengers.1 The need for a more efficient method of carrying coal from the pithead to the waterside staith led to the development of a specialised track or railway; the need for a more efficient means of pumping water from tin and coal mines gave rise to James Watt’s improvement in the steam engine in 1769; and the need of both cotton and coal industries for a more economical and rapid means of locomotion than the horse led to the adaptation of the steam engine to mechanical traction. Once the steam engine and the railway had been brought together the two other salient characteristics of a modern railway-the accommodation of public traffic and the conveyance of passengers-quickly followed.
