This is a worldwide list of horse-drawn railways, an early form of rail transport that utilised horses and other similar animals to pull rail cars. Horses were also used for shunting.
Horses were used to pull railways in funiculars and coal mines as early as early 16th century. The earliest recorded example is the Reisszug, a. inclined railway dating to 1515. Almost all of the mines built in 16th and 17th century used horse-drawn railways as their only mode of transport.
| Notes | ||||||
| Ticknall Tramway | 1802–1913 | Ticknall, England | ||||
| Swansea & Mumbles Railway | 1804–1877 | Swansea, Wales | The world's first passenger railway service. Later electrified[1] [2] | |||
| Leiper Railroad | 1810–1828 | Delaware County, Pennsylvania | The first permanent tramway in America | |||
| Bryn Oer Tramway | 1814–1861 | Talybont-on-Usk, Wales | ||||
| Hill's Tramroad | c. 1815 – c. 1926 | Llanfoist, Wales | ||||
| Hay Railway | 1816–1860 | / | Eardisley, England to Brecon, Wales | Converted from gauge plateway to gauge edgeway | ||
| Blaafarveværket | Opened c. 1820s | Norway | ||||
| Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway | 1823–1888, 1860) | Princetown, England | ||||
| Stockton and Darlington Railway | 1825–1833 | Darlington, England | Operated with both horses and engines between 1825 and 1833 | |||
| Granite Railroad | 1826–1871 | Quincy, Massachusetts | ||||
| Saint-Étienne–Andrézieux railway | 1827– | France | ||||
| České Budějovice–Linz Railway | 1828– | The first public railway in continental Europe | ||||
| Bavarian Ludwig Railway | 1835–1863 | Fürth, Germany | ||||
| Whitby and Pickering Railway | Opened 1836 | Whitby, England | ||||
| Port Arthur, Tasmania Tramway | 1836– | Human powered | ||||
| Festiniog Railway | 1836–1863[3] | Porthmadog, Wales | Horses hauled empty trains uphill, and rode down in Dandy waggons under gravity power. Later replaced by steam locomotives. | |||
| Patent (1838–1844) G. Peppercorne[4] | ||||||
| Bratislava to Svätý Jur to Trnava Váh horse railway | 1840 – 10 October 1872 | [5] [6] | ||||
| Bazias to Anina via Oravița | 1846–1863 | Present-day Romania | Used for coal transport to a port on the river Danube | |||
| Leith and Musselburgh Tramway | 1841– [7] |
| Notes | ||||||
| Fintona Railway | 1853–1957 | [8] | Ireland | |||
| Goolwa Port Elliot Railway | 1854–1884 | Extended to Victor Harbor and Strathalbyn by 1869. Used up to 16 horses,[9] 29 to Strathalbyn[10] | ||||
| Treffry Tramways | 1835– | Clay mining | ||||
| 1861-?[11] | Nelson, New Zealand | |||||
| Dun Mountain Railway | 1861–1901 | |||||
| Wallaroo (smelter and port) to Moonta (mines) – tramway | 1862–1890s[12] [13] | South Australia | ||||
| Port Macdonnell to Mount Gambier – proposal | South Australia | Proposed, but never built[14] | ||||
| Omaha Horse Railway | 1867–1889 | Omaha, Nebraska | ||||
| Port Wakefield Railway | 1870–1876 | South Australia | Converted to locomotive haulage | |||
| Kingston-Naracoorte railway line | 1871 | South Australia | Operated with horses for first six months after construction before locomotives were available | |||
| Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia | 1873–1876 | Chile | Mule-drawn | |||
| Douglas Bay Horse Tramway | 1876–present | Douglas, Isle of Man | Shires and Clydesdales are used to pull a fleet of original tramcars along the seafront. | |||
| Port Broughton | 1876–1926 | South Australia | 150px | Always isolated; locomotives proposed in 1906[15] | ||
| Namaqualand Railway | opened 1869–1876 | Steam followed gradually | ||||
| Kailan – Lutai Canal | 1878–1881 | Mule-drawn for coal[16] |
| Notes | ||||||
| Horse Tramways in Fiji | 1884– | Fiji | Some assisted by manpower. Cane tramways. | |||
| Spiekeroog tramways | 1885-1949 | East Frisian Islands, Germany | The last horse-drawn railway in Germany. Horses were replaced by diesel locomotives on 31 May 1949 | |||
| McKenzie Creek Tramway | 1887–1925 | Horsham, Victoria | Shire-operated, 8km (05miles) long | |||
| Nasik Tramway | 1889–1930s | India | ||||
| Bärschwil gypsum railway | 1894–1952 | Switzerland | ||||
| Welshpool Jetty railway | 1905–1941 | Port Welshpool, Victoria, Australia | ||||
| Finton Tramway | Closed 1957 | [17] | Ireland | |||
| Gawler[18] | 1879–1931 | Gawler, South Australia | ||||
| Moonta | Yorke Peninsula, South Australia |