In the early 19th century a very wide range of rails, with different sections, was used on the prototype steam railways and wagonways together with tram plate, strap rail and other types of running member. All were used with equally diverse methods of support. In the 1820's relatively long sections of fishbelly-form rail were first rolled by Birkinshaw at Bedington ironworks, leading to a general use of rolled edge rail for locomotive operated systems after 1825. The con-tributions to the introduction and development of rolled rail and modern track structure, madeby George Stephenson, who demonstrated the superiority of wrought metal over cast on the Bedington Wagonway (1824) and the Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825), are reviewed. His investigation into the properties of a range of rolled sections, in service on the Liverpool and Manchester line contributed greatly to the evolution of a track structure from which the present-day universal term has been derived. -- AATA