Plateway

A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later.

Plateways consisted of L-shaped rails, where the flange on the rail guides the wheels, in contrast to edgeways, where flanges on the wheels guide them along the track.

Plateways were originally horsedrawn but, later on, cable haulage and small locomotives were sometimes used.

The plates of the plateway were made of cast iron, often fabricated by the ironworks that were their users.^[1] On most lines, that system was replaced by rolled wrought iron (and later steel) "edge rails" which, along with realignment to increase the radius of curves, converted them into modern railways, better suited to locomotive operation.

Plateways were particularly favoured in South Wales and the Forest of Dean, in some cases replacing existing edge rails. Other notable plateways included the Hay Railway, the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway,^[2] the Surrey Iron Railway, the Derby Canal Railway, the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway, the Portreath Tramroad in Cornwall, and lines at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire.