a) Roads of rails called Wagonways were being used in Germany as early as 1550.
b) These primitive railed roads consisted of wooden rails over which horse-drawn wagons or carts moved with greater ease than over dirt roads. Wagonways were the beginnings of modern railroads.
c) By 1776, iron had replaced the wood in the rails and wheels on the carts.
d) In 1789, Englishman William Jessup designed the first wagons with flanged wheels.
e) The flange was a groove that allowed the wheels to better grip the rail, this was an important design that carried over to later locomotives.
