A 'Short-lived', Horse-powered 'railway' in Hungary

[rogerfarnworth]

The first Hungarian ‘railway line’ was completed nearly 20 years before the first steam-powered railway in Hungary (which was opened in 1846) on 15th August 1827, and ran from Pest to Kőbánya.

It was one of the early horse-drawn ‘railways’ but was definitely atypical in form!!

That railway “ran on a wooden structure running at an average height of one and a half to two metres above the ground, where the wooden beams were held by densely placed wooden posts. The wheels ran on very closely spaced rails on top of the beams, and the carriages hung down on either side of the entire structure, therefore floating, i.e. the design was very similar to a monorail.”

A First, Short-lived, Horse-powered ‘Railway’ in Hungary.

The first Hungarian ‘railway line’ was completed nearly 20 years before the first steam-powered railway in Hungary (which was opened in 1846) on 15th August 1827, and ran from Pest to K…

rogerfarnworth.com

“The strange, complicated structure was not a Hungarian invention, it was patented by an Englishman, namely Henry Palmer.” ... “Palmer made a patent application in 1821 for an elevated single rail supported on a series of pillars in an ordinary distance of ten feet, inserted into conical apertures in the ground, with carriages suspended on both sides, hanging on two wheels the one placed before the other. A horse is connected to the carriage with a towing rope, proceeding on one side of the rail on a towing path.”