In a recent Did You Know article, it was stated that the first public railway using steam engines was the Stockton and Darlington railway built in 1825 (The Argus, March 31).

This is incorrect. Passengers were transported on the same track but using horse-drawn carriages, with the steam locomotives hauling goods only.

The first passengers to be conveyed by steam locomotives occurred in 1830 on the Liverpool to Manchester line, not on the Stockton to Darlington line.

The first steam driven fare-paying passenger train ran on the Mumbles to Swansea line in 1807. It carried about 70 passengers and the steam locomotive was designed by Robert Trivithick.

There are a number of examples of railways operating prior to the Stockton to Darlington railway, most of which used horses to pull wagons and carriages along railway tracks. The first public railway using horses to pull trains, the Surrey Iron Railway, opened in 1803. There followed the Kilmarnock and Troon railway in Scotland in 1808 and the Middleton Railway in Leeds which started in 1812.

Both these railways used steam locomotives, but the Mumbles to Swansea line was the first steam-driven railway that carried passengers.

Brian Fane
Lavender Street, Brighton