Steam on
the rails.

Aveling & Porter’s steam tractors could be adapted with flanged wheels to run on rails, combining a road locomotive with a tramway engine.

The Dockyard’s first recorded tramway locomotive, Works No. 129, was supplied to the Admiralty in February 1865. Five more followed over the next nine years, as the expanding Dockyard needed dependable power to move materials and support its building works.