List of horse-drawn railways


This is a selective worldwide list of horse-drawn railways, an early form of rail transport that utilised horses, mules and other similar animals to pull rail cars. Horses and mules were also used for shunting.

Examples

Before 1800

Horses were used to pull railways in funiculars and coal mines as early as the early 16th century. The earliest recorded example is the Reisszug, an inclined railway in Austria dating to 1515. Almost all of the mines built in the 16th and 17th centuries used horse-drawn railways as their only mode of transport.

1800–1849

NameYears of operationGaugeLocationImageNotes
Ticknall Tramway1802–1913Ticknall, England
Swansea & Mumbles Railway1804–1877Swansea, WalesThe world's first passenger railway service. Later electrified
Leiper Railroad1810–1828Delaware County, PennsylvaniaThe first permanent tramway in America
Bryn Oer Tramway1814–1861Talybont-on-Usk, Wales
Hill's Tramroadc. 1815 – c. 1926Llanfoist, Wales
Hay Railway1816–1860/
Eardisley, England to Brecon, WalesConverted from gauge plateway to gauge edgeway
BlaafarveværketOpened c. 1820sNorway
Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway1823–1888, 1860)
Princetown, England
Stockton and Darlington Railway1825–1833Darlington, EnglandOperated with both horses and engines between 1825 and 1833
Granite Railroad1826–1871Quincy, Massachusetts
Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway1827–France
České Budějovice–Linz Railway1828–The first public railway in continental Europe
Bavarian Ludwig Railway1835–1863Fürth, Germany
Whitby and Pickering RailwayOpened 1836Whitby, England
Port Arthur, Tasmania Tramway1836–Human powered
Ffestiniog Railway1836–1863Porthmadog, WalesHorses hauled empty trains uphill, and rode down in dandy waggons under gravity power. Later replaced by steam locomotives.
Patent G. Peppercorne
Bratislava to Svätý Jur to Trnava Váh horse railway1840 – 10 October 1872Now in Slovakia
Bazias to Anina via Oravița1846–1863Present-day RomaniaUsed for coal transport to a port on the river Danube
Leith and Musselburgh Tramway1841–Scotland

After 1880

NameYears of operationGaugeLocationImageNotes
Horse Tramways in Fiji1884–
FijiSome assisted by manpower. Cane tramways.
Spiekeroog tramways1885-1949East Frisian Islands, GermanyThe last horse-drawn railway in Germany. Horses were replaced by diesel locomotives on 31 May 1949
McKenzie Creek Tramway1887–1925Horsham, VictoriaShire-operated, long
Nasik Tramway1889–1930sIndia
Bärschwil gypsum railway1894–1952Switzerland
Welshpool Jetty railway1905–1941Port Welshpool, Victoria, Australia
Finton TramwayClosed 1957Ireland
Gawler1879–1931Gawler, South Australia
MoontaYorke Peninsula, South Australia