The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad was authorised under an Act of Parliament of 3 June 1802, the first granted for a public railway in Wales, to acquire the existing Carmarthenshire Dock at Llanelli and its feeder tramroad built by Alexander Raby before 1799. The first 1½ miles from the sea on the Llanelli Flats, north to Cwmddyche ironworks was open in May 1803, the first stretch of public railway in use in Britain, and construction ceased in 1805 when the line had reached Gorslas (approx 15 miles). The engineer was James Barnes, and it was an edge-railway of approximately 4 ft gauge.
The Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal and Tramroad was founded in 1812, utilising the former Kymer’s Canal of 1766, to carry anthracite coal from pits at Pwll-y-Llygod, where a tramway crossed the Gwendraeth Fawr, to a dock near Kidwelly. In 1832 engineer James Green advised on extending the system with three inclined planes to reach Cwmmawr, further up the Gwendraeth Valley. He underestimated the cost and could not complete the work, so was sacked in 1836, but the canal company finished the new route the following year. In 1837 a tramroad link was made from Burry Port to Llanelly. In 1869 the canal was replaced by the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway. The line ceased to operate in or before 1844 and portions of its course were utilised by the Llanelly and Mynydd Mawr Railway, opened in 1881.
The Carway branch of the K & L Canal Co. ran from the canal arm at Bryn Forest, the termination point of Kymer's Canal, east to pits near Carway (1½m). It opened circa 1812, and was an edge rail tramroad.
The Coygan Quarry Tramway was constructed in 1800 - 1810 by George Watkins of Broadway. It ran east from Coygan Quarry to a small quay built at the eastern end of Railsgate Pill, south of Laugharne. One of its primary purposes may have been to transport stone to the sea wall then under constuction on the Taf estuary. The 1¼ mile-long tramway lies on a specially built causeway, approximately 3 - 4m wide. At the west end the causeway is virtually non-existent, but it increases in height to over 2m at the east end where it runs along the south side of Railsgate Pill. Here it also may have served as a sea defence. The owner of Causeway farm (near the quarry) reports that rails are visible at certain locations, but none were seen during a 1999 archaeological survey.