There was a horse drawn tram which run between Cossack and Roebourne in the
Pilbara, Western Australia. But apart from surveying the Cossack tram halt
and unearthing tram rails used to anchor the roof of the house I excavated
no-one has studied it.

There was also a horse drawn tram which run between Old Onslow and its sea
jetty 5 miles away. The whole route of that tram line has been surveyed and
the tram end stop before the jetty excavated. There are a lot of tram rail
related artefacts from that collection. Not much in the way of horse
leather.

There are photo's of horses and trams from both tram operations, if that
helps.

I also excavated a piece of Shire horse harness from the Swan River in
Perth. It was from Brewery cart horses though.

Regards

Gaye Nayton

Dr Gaye Nayton
Heritage Archaeologist
Perth, Western Australia

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Miles
Shugar
Sent: Wednesday, 13 February 2013 12:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Horse Railroad Contexts

Greetings all,

I am a MA candidate at UMass Boston interested in urban transportation,
growth, and labor.  After scouring multiple online journal databases and
article collections, albeit in a limited capacity due to the constraints of
any library, I haven't been able to find any archaeology of 19th century
horse railroads, save the project that I'm studying for my in progress
thesis.  My collection comes from a support complex of the Metropolitan
Railroad Company of Boston, Massachusetts, which operated from the 1850s
until the 1880s, when it was swallowed up by a conglomerate of street
railway companies that would become the later electrified lines.  The
complex, which consisted of stables, carhouses, various workshops, and a
blacksmith, was dug in the late 1970s by the archaeology staff of what was
then called the Museum of Afro American History, and the report was
completed in 1986 by Beth Anne Bowers.   The artifacts are largely
architectural and industrial, that is, relating to the ha
 rnessing of the Company's many horses, the maintenance and construction of
its streetcars, and various materials coming from the 20th century
demolitions and construction onsite. 

I am particularly interested in the leather harness collection that was
recovered during Phase II and III, of which there are portions
representative of every piece of 19th century industrial draught horse
power.  Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I can't seem to find any
analogous reports or literature against which I might compare my collection.
This seems odd considering that in the latter half of the 19th century, most
metropolitan areas of the US from Los Angeles to Philadelphia had adopted
horse rails for commuter transportation, and further, that some urban
archaeological excavations probably have encountered the vestiges of these
systems.   

So I'm turning to you to see if any of your collective experience remembers
anything of the sort.   Thanks so much in advance for any information you
might be able to supply as I seek to learn more about these interesting
urban contexts.