On the Pennine moors near the town of Rochdale, Lancashire, England,
there is a section of paved road thought to be Roman running straight down
slope from the top of the hill, near a rock outcrop known as Blackstone Edge.
The road is about ten feet wide, and there is a single groove running down it,
in the centre. The theory is that this was to take the broom trailed behind the
waggon as it sdecended the steep section of road, the broom acting as a
brake.
Roman roads tended to be paved with stone, as this road is, and, I believe,
the Appenine Way near Rome, consequently there are no grooves worn by
the cart wheels.
I understand that Stephenson's gauge of four feet eight-and-a-half inches
was indeed that of the surface track at the colliery where he was working on
his locomotive designs, and that had been chosen so that two horses could
be used to haul the trucks, but that gauge dates from the late 1700s.
Tony Brewis
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