Two short lengths of fish belly rail

Two short lengths of fish belly rail, 25lbs per yard, 1825. Stockton and Darlington railway pattern, with 3 chairs and 2 stone sleepers.

This early wrought-iron rail is similar to those used on part of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, and this example may be from that line.

In 1820 John Birkinshaw, the manager of the Bedlington Iron Works, patented an improved construction of rolled prismatic rail in which the metal formed a wide head and a narrow web, thus obtaining increased bearing and strength with the same amount of material.