RAILWAYS AND THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
The British railway system came into being trough the efforts of the first generation of engineers to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding mining and textile industries. A modern railway has been defined as a publicly controlled means of transport possessing the four distinctive future of a specialised track, mechanical traction, the accomodation of public traffic and the conveyance of passengers. The need for a more efficient method of carrying coal from the pithead to the waterside staith led to the development of specialised track of railway; the need for a more efficient means of pumping water from tin and coal mines gave raise to James Watt's improvement in the steam engine in 1769; and the need of both cotton and coal industries for a more economical and rapid means of locomotion than the horse led to the adaption of the steam engine to machanical traction. Once the steam engine and the railway had been brought together the two other salient characteristics of a modern railway; the accomodation of public traffic and the conveyance of passengers, quickly followed.
(from: Philip S. Bagwell, The transport revolution)