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Excavations along the disused Tranent–Cockenzie Waggonway have revealed a section of the historic rail route and uncovered new details about its use and construction that could potentially alter our understanding of railway innovations.
The Tranent–Cockenzie Waggonway was the first railway in Scotland, built in 1722 to carry coal from pits at Tranent to fuel salt pans on the coast in Cockenzie: a 2.5-mile (4km) journey that used horse-drawn wagons. In 1849, it was connected to the North British Railway (NBR) via a short branch, and its southern section remained in operation until the colliery closed in 1959.
In light of the Railway200 celebrations this year, which mark the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, a team of archaeologists from the Waggonway Heritage Group carried out a seven-day excavation this past September. They chose the location where the rails crossed the fields in which the Battle of Prestonpans, a significant engagement of the Jacobite rising, was fought in September 1745. The waggonway played a crucial role in that event, with the line being used in key troop movements by both sides before and after the battle.
While an earlier excavation in 2021 had already established that parts of the wagonway still survived as wet and mineralised wood, this excavation was able to uncover new details, including the fact that the rails and sleepers were joined and secured using wooden dowels called trenails. The team also discovered that the rail had been built to a standard gauge of 4ft 8in, give-or-take half an inch. This section is thought to have been built around 1775, making it the earliest standard gauge railway in Scotland, with the next contender, at Carron Ironworks, dating to 1810. Indeed, it could be the earliest-known standard gauge railway in all of Britain, as the current title-holder, the Willington Waggonway in Tyneside, was constructed between 1785 and 1786.
Commenting on this discovery, Anthony Dawson, an early railways historian and archaeologist, said: ‘Coming, as it does, during Railway200, the discovery of the earliest standard gauge railway in Scotland, on what is considered to be the first railway north of the border, is remarkable. It shows how railways originated before the Steam Age, and how standard gauge, which is so often associated with George Stephenson (1781-1848), goes back well before his time. It is a fantastic piece of archaeology which asks a lot of questions: for example, on which side of the border does standard gauge originate?’
Text: Kathryn Krakowka / Image: 1722 Waggonway Project
