Technical Information

Railways come in many different shapes and sizes and those in Shropshire are of various types.

The long distance main line railways, the industrial railways and some of the small horsedrawn systems run on what is known as an edge rail with a flange on the inner side of the wheel which runs on the narrower edge of the rail.

There are also small horsedrawn systems that use a different type where the wheel is plain and the flange is on the inner edge of the rail, an "L" section. This is usually known as a plateway.

These small horsedrawn lines are also known as tramways, plateways, wagonways and waggonways.

The term gauge has at least two different uses. Keeping it simple, track gauge is the distance between the inside edges of edge rails and the loading gauge is the maximum height and width of vehicles that can run over a particular section of railway.

Standard Gauge is where the distance between the rails is 4ft 8 1/2 inches and is that used on the main line railways that run between major towns and cities and branches to smaller places. Most industrial railways which are receiving and despatching materials and goods by rail are built to the same gauge to allow wagons to get directly to warehouses and other locations.

In the UK any gauge less than 4ft 8 1/2 inches is known as Narrow Gauge. There have been a number of different gauges in use and details will be found in the individual railway's details.