Abstract
Wagon ways (or ’tramways’) are thought to have developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, utilising primitive wooden rails (Figure 4). Such an operation was illustrated in 1556 by Georgius Agricola. These used the “hund” system with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks, to keep it going the right way. Such a transport system was used by German Miners at Caldbeck, Cumbria, perhaps from the 1560s.
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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Tzanakakis, K. (2013). Early Wagonways. In: The Railway Track and Its Long Term Behaviour. Springer Tracts on Transportation and Traffic, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36051-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36051-0_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36050-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36051-0
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