was built by the Earl of Carlisle about 1798. A through line to Brampton was constructed in 1798, reaching the staithes there, and the first wagon of coal was brought down from Tindale Fell colliery in April 1799. The waggonway, five and a half miles in length, was constructed in timber, and the wagons were hauled singly by horses. Thompson wrote (in 1900): "I doubt if anyone now living can say accurately when this tram road was made; it is marked on old maps as far back I believe as 1774, and was probably in existence long before that. The timber track was soon replaced by cast iron fish-bellied rails on stone block sleepers, and in 1808 the track was again relaid, about two-thirds of the extent with rolled wrought iron rails and the remainder with cast iron. The line was famous for its early introduction of the new material. "[Wrought iron in edge rails] was first used by itself, without a wooden rail below it, in a humble way at Tindale Fell near Brampton in 1808 and at Walbottle about the same time." The earliest wrought iron rails had been prone to lamination, but an exchange of newspaper correspondence on the subject produced a robust statement from John Birkinshaw, of the Bedlington Iron Works. Quoting a letter from James Thompson ("the Colliery Agent of the Earl of Carlisle") he says that "apprehensions of lamination and exfoliation are entirely groundless. Thompson's letter of 7 December 1824 is reproduced, saying: ... having under my care a Rail-way, whereon several Miles both of Cast and Wrought Iron Rails are used, I have sent you herewith a Piece of the latter, which has been laid sixteen Years, and certainly has no Appearance of Lamination... The whole of the Wrought Iron, which has been used from 12 to 16 years, appears to be very little worse. The Cast Iron is certainly much worse, and subject to considerable Breakage, although the Rails are about double the Weight of the Malleable Iron Rails. In 1808, James Thompson, then fourteen years of age, was employed assisting William Lawson, the agent of the Earl of Carlisle and in 1819 he succeeded Lawson as agent. He sank a new colliery at Blacksyke about 1820 and in 1824 another pit, at Midgeholme. The railway was extended east from Tindale Fell to the Midgeholme pithead, and a branch of three miles