3 ft gauge railways in the United Kingdom
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File:Southend Pier railway-100D2763.JPG running on the Southend Pier Railway in England.]]
File:3ft_gauge_locomotives_at_Crowle_Peatland_Railway.jpg
A list of {{RailGauge|3ft}} narrow-gauge railways in the United Kingdom.
The worldwide usage of locomotives on railways, including {{RailGauge|3ft}} gauge railways, has its origins in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. In fact, in 1802, a {{RailGauge|3ft|disp=1}} gauge plateway-type railway owned by the Coalbrookdale Company in England became the first railway in the world to have a locomotive designed and built for it. The locomotive's designer, Richard Trevithick, is credited with making the first recorded successful demonstration of a locomotive on rails (in 1804 on a different railway in Wales). {{RailGauge|3ft|disp=1}} gauge locomotive-powered railways, along with other narrow-gauge railways of varying widths, would later become one of the most common railway gauges chosen for short-distance lines in the British Isles, such as those found in mines and industrial sites (see table below).
Railways
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| England
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| Northern Ireland
| {{main|List of narrow-gauge railways in Ireland}} |
| Scotland
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| Wales
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See also
References
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