Which mostly OLDEST of railroads in WORLDS!

[knifeswitch1]

One of the earliest I know of was the Long Island, right in my hometown. The railroad was established in 1834, and I believe the first rail was also laid that year.

 

[Tokkyu40]

One of the oldest steam locos to run on track was Locomotion.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotion_No_1
As for smallest try N gauge locos.:hehe: (only joking)

Z-gauge. N gauge is too big and clunky.

Claude

 

[BLACKWATCH]

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the earliest known are :-

Wagons running on wooden rails were used for mining as early as 1550 at Leberthal, Alsace, and in Britain for conveying coal from Strelley to Woolaton near Nottingham from 1604 - 15

 

[Greg_Hargreaves]

Z-gauge. N gauge is too big and clunky.

Claude

If N guage is too big and clunky, then I shudder to think what that makes makes HO, O, or even G-guages... And what of Virtual Railroading, that's infinatly small (the size of electrons :hehe: ).

Wasn't there a Maine Two-footer that was seven miles longs, and had only 9 turnouts? (I think John Armstrong references it in one of his track planning books)

Its not the oldest, but it would be (was) among the smallest operating railroads I imagine.

 

[magickmaker]

I don't know about smallest, but one of the strangest I've ever seen was the Guiness Brewery railroad. The locos were of this profile that allowed them to snake in and out of the brewery. Curiously, they had this special "carriage" that the locos (steam) could be driven up onto and after fastening some things around, they could actually shunt full size cars with it
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[Padster]

CatchMeWhoCan was the first steam engine to pull fare-paying passengers, so technically, barn is correct.

Best wishes,
Padster

 

[trainmetal]

How about a 5 and 7¼ inch gauges railway as the smallest? See http://www.bentleyrailway.co.uk/

And they also have the greenest (environmentally friendly) loco in the world - http://www.bentleyrailway.co.uk/locopics.php?loco=34 :hehe:

 

[Lacker]

I don't know about smallest, but one of the strangest I've ever seen was the Guiness Brewery railroad. The locos were of this profile that allowed them to snake in and out of the brewery. Curiously, they had this special "carriage" that the locos (steam) could be driven up onto and after fastening some things around, they could actually shunt full size cars with it

This was the only Loco I saw at the Guinness factory last year:- http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa66/karjammar/GuinnessLoco.jpg

 

[amigacooke]

But the first "passenger" train was in England
The very first passenger train ran from Swansea to Mumbles on March 25th. 1807.

Swansea in England?

Wear a disguise when you go to Wales is my advice.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Swansea in England?

Wear a disguise when you go to Wales is my advice.

You'll have to excuse me on that one, I was only quoting (c&p) from a web page.

 

[barn700]

Hey guys, watch the language LOL

I had posts deleted as I mentioned north of the border meaning Scotland !!!

 

[magickmaker]

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/22/Guinness.htm

That's a link that shows the original NG locos.
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[Red_Rattler]

The Stockton & Darlington was the first passenger line to use a steam locomotive. Previous lines were horse drawn.

Um does "human powered", I mean convict-powered count? (See "B")

Strangly enough, according to a book, it seemed to have a large number of "accidents" (or should that be "deliberates")

For Australia's first rail/tramway take your pick from these (well depending on your view! - from various sources):

A. 10 December 1831: Australian Agricultural Company officially opened Australia's first railway in Newcastle. Their is now evidence that suggests after a rail line was unearthed on a work site recently that Newcastle's railways may have started as early as 1826.

But most of the general public (in NSW at least) seem to think that Sydney - Parramatta was the first Australian railway, but Victorians take it to be Victoria as shown below.

B. 18 December 1836: Australia's first passenger carrying "rail" way (wooden tracks) was Tasmania's Port Arthur convict railway. (This date is shown in William Booth's diary as a reference to the railway was already carrying goods.)

C. 04 August 1854: Australia's first horse-drawn railway from Goolwa to Port Elliot, SA (originally to be steam-hauled, but horses were cheaper).

D. 12 September 1854: Australia's first steam railway ran from Melbourne to Sandridge (now Pt. Melbourne, and now a tramway).

Scroll down on this Victorian DOI page to the Commemorative history book paragraph. It claims Melbourne had Australia's first railway.