The Stockton and Darlington Railway

Wagonways with horse-drawn carts on wooden or iron rails had long carried coal from mines to rivers. On 27 September 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in northeast England as the first public railway to use steam locomotives. Its engineer, George Stephenson, a self-taught mining mechanic, drove the locomotive Locomotion No. 1 on the opening day, hauling wagons of coal and passengers.

The line was built mainly to carry coal from collieries to the port at Stockton, and for years horses still pulled many of its passenger coaches. Stephenson chose a track width of 4 feet 8½ inches, taken from local wagonways, which later became the 'standard gauge' used across much of the world. The railway was a modest beginning, but it proved that steam locomotives on public lines could carry heavy freight profitably and attracted investors to bigger projects.