Railway or Tramway?
The original name of the company of proprietors of the railway was the Oystermouth Railway or Tramroad Company, but here the word tramroad is being used in its pre-railway context. The original right of way was unique and it was only after the construction of the turnpike road in the 1820s that the line assumed its roadside character. The introduction of steam locomotion in the 1870s was facilitated by a clause in the original Act which authorised the "haling or drawing" of waggons by "men, horses, or otherwise" and owed nothing to the Tramways Act of 1870. However, the passenger rolling stock used in steam days bore little resemblance to conventional railway carriages, employing open-top, "toast-rack" and "knifeboard" seating, and being built by companies associated with the construction of urban tramcars (Milnes, Starbuck & Falcon, etc.). After electrification the resemblance to an urban tramway became more marked with the introduction of the huge Brush-built electric cars and because of the operation style (the signalling was used only to regulate entry to the passing loops and not to control the actual running of cars). However, the track was always laid with conventional railway-type rail and not grooved tram-rail and the railway also handled conventional goods wagons (exchanged with the London Midland & Scottish Railway at Mumbles Road station and with the Great Western Railway at the Swansea terminus). In the last analysis, the railway may be said to have been "claimed" by both Railway (e.g. "the first passenger railway") and Tramway enthusiasts (e.g. the British book listed in the sources below, which states that the Swansea and Mumbles Railway was usually considered to be a tramway). It should also be noted that definitions may change over time. In the early nineteenth century a tramway was a line for mineral wagons (trams), the term railway being used when edge rails replaced plates. After the passing of the Tramways Act of 1870 the term tramway became almost exclusively associated with urban transport systems.
Read more about this topic: Swansea And Mumbles Railway
Famous quotes containing the word railway:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)