Middleton Railway Leeds, 2013

27 photos of this most historic railway, now well into its third century. It began as a wooden waggonway built to carry coal from pits at Middleton north to the industrialising city of Leeds, a distance of about 2.5 miles. The waggonway's route was authorised by a 1758 Act of Parliament, the first time this had been done for rail transport. It used horsepower until 1812, when John Blenkinsop and Matthew Murray designed and built two cogwheel steam locos, and rack rails for them to run on, for the Middleton. These were the first commercially successful locos ever built, and entered service two years before Hedley's Puffing Billy. In 1960 part of the Middleton became the first standard gauge preserved railway in Britain, narrowly beating the Bluebell. The Middleton's route has changed over the years but some part of it has always been in operation since 1758, so it is the oldest continuously operating railway in the world.