The Middleton Railway

The Middleton Railway, in Leeds, northern England,  is  a historic railway line that claims a large number of historic firsts,  both technological and operational. One of the most important is that it is the world's oldest continuously working public railway.

In 1812 the Middleton Railway achieved an important first when it became the first commercial railway to use steam locomotives  successfully. However  the management had decided that an engine light enough not to break the cast iron track would not have sufficient friction to allow it to pull a heavy load of coal wagons along  the steep track gradient. They therefore re-laid the track on one side with a toothed rail (patented in 1811) and thus also created  the world’s first rack railway, The  locomotive was built with a pinion  which would mesh with the track’s rack. This 1812 locomotive, called Salamanca, was the first steam locomotive  to use two cylinders.  

Being the first railway line to use steam locomotives regularly on freight trains it was also, inevitably,  the first line to employ a locomotive engineer or train driver.

Salamanca's boiler exploded on 28 February 1818 killing the engineer. This was said to have been  the result of him tampering with the safety valves.  Another boiler explosion occurred on 12 February 1834 and the following year horse haulage returned and steam was abandoned apart from about a 1-mile section which was worked by a stationary steam engine.

Steam was reintroduced in 1866  but this time the rack system was abandoned in favor of steel rails and adhesion drive locomotives. In 1881 the railway was converted  to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge allowing it to connect with the main line railway which had subsequently been built.

In 1899 sidings serving sources of freight other than the coal mines were constructed including a large  scrapyard and a major engineering works, The Middleton Estate & Colliery Company became part of the nationalised National Coal Board  in 1947. Some rationalisation took place with this change of ownership.. Preservationists were allowed to move into an abandoned part of the line, between Moor Road and when the main line  connection the main colliery  closed in 1968 the preservationists, by then called the Middleton Railway Trust, were able to reinstate the connection and operate to the colliery site, which maintained  the continuous operation of the line.

In June 1960, the Middleton Railway became the first standard-gauge railway to be taken over and operated by unpaid volunteers. Passenger services were initially operated for only one week (amazingly by towing a double deck tram with a small diesel locomotive). However, the volunteers of the Middleton Railway subsequently operated a freight service from September 1960 until 1983 moving many thousands of tons of both fabricated and scrap metal under a contract with a local engineering firm. Regular operation of passenger services began in 1969.

The railway operates passenger services at weekends and on public holidays over approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) of track between its headquarters at Moor Road in Hunslet, a city suburb  , and  Park Halt on the outskirts of  Middleton Park. The  Moor Road station is the main station on the railway. It is situated on Moor Road. The station was constructed at a new position in 2006 as a replacement for an earlier station built nearby. The station adjoins the headquarters of the railway which contains an Engine House, Museum, shop, toilets, workshop and conference room.