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The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway was the first railway in Scotland, opened in 1722. It was 2½ miles long and connected two towns in East Lothian, transporting coal from the pit heads at Tranent to Cockenzie harbour via Meadowmill. Horse-drawn wagons were used which held 2 tons of coal. On the return journey the horses would pull 5 empty wagons back to Tranent making around 3 round trips per day. == History == Following George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton's support of the Jacobite Rising of 1715, his estates were forfeited to the Crown and subsequently sold to the York Buildings Company of London in 1719. This Company had great difficulties in managing the estate from London and so encouraged local tenants to improve the lands. Cockenzie's primitive harbour was reconstructed, and, to carry the Tranent coal in greater quantities to Cockenzie, a primitive horse-operated railway, or waggonway with wooden rails, was built around 1722. In 1745 the railway was disturbed by the Battle of Prestonpans, during the second Jacobite Rising between the opposing forces of Sir John Cope, lined along the waggonway, and the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie approaching from the east. Although the York Buildings Company opened it in 1722 and continued to operate it for the following 60 years, they leased various policies to the Cadell family. These included the mansion policies of Cockenzie House, some of the salt pans and a number of the Tranent pits. The York Buildings Company was sequestered in 1777 and the Cadells took over the company's Scottish estates which included the Waggonway. The line was built to give a steady downhill incline to the sea, even though this required the construction of a substantial embankment, so that loaded trains could be sent down by gravity under the control of a brakeman, and then horses would only be required for returning the empty wagons. In 1815, after the wooden waggonway had been carrying coal to Cockenzie for nearly a century, it was rebuilt by John Cadell as an iron railway with a gauge of about in. Cadell's loaded wagons on this more substantial waggonway weighed two tons each. In 1833 Cockenzie Harbour was substantially reconstructed by the distinguished engineer Robert Stevenson, and thus it has remained to the present day. In time the waggonway was extended to the south of Tranent to the coal pits at Windygoul. The North British Railway opened its main line from Edinburgh to Berwick in 1846, passing under the old waggonway at Meadowmill by an iron bridge which stood for many years after. In the same year the Railway secured an Act of Parliament authorizing a branch from Bankton to Tranent. This ran through Tranent as far as Windygoul, and was opened in 1849. Cadell took advantage of the arrival of the main line railway, and soon built transshipment sidings where the North British Railway and his waggonway met at both Meadowmill and at Windygoul. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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