Atmospheric Railway

Following a patent in 1839 Samuel Clegg and the Samuda brothers set up a demonstration of an atmospheric railway at Wormwood Scrubs in England. The directors of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway were impressed by the system and determined it would be a suitable means to extend their existing line from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) to Dalkey. James Pim (Junior), the treasurer of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, became an enthusiastic supporter of the atmospheric system and began preparations to extend the service to Dalkey using it.

In 1841 he sent a letter to Viscount Morpeth indicating the expected cost of the work to be £15,000, with William Dargan as contractor and Charles Vignoles as engineer. The Harbour Commissioners granted land for the project which adjoined the line known as The Metals. It got its name from the haulage of granite from the Dalkey quarries down the steep hill for the building of the Dun Laoghaire piers. The line was opened in July 1844, with trains leaving every thirty minutes from 8am to 6pm.

Atmospheric traction was only used for the climb to Dalkey where there were no buffer stops, and trains sometimes ran right through the station and off the rails! Gravity, however, took charge of the downhill journey, and when the train slowed before the station the unfortunate third-class passengers had to push while the others walked.

In August 1844 the line was visited by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and other representatives of the Great Western Railway. They subsequently constructed the 20 mile (32 km) South Devon Railway which operated with atmospheric propulsion.

However, maintaining proper atmospheric conditions was no easy task. The leather flaps, which were an integral part of keeping the system air-tight and operating at its best, were covered in grease and this became a problem. The smell attracted rats that gnawed at them, rendering them not only expensive to repair but hindering performance. The last Atmospheric Train ran on Wednesday 12^th April 1854.

Dun Laoghaire’s Piers – Walk This Way!

East Pier

Generations of people have been taking a ‘walk on the pier’ and it is something that I have always enjoyed. Whether the day is warm and a gentle breeze blowing or you are wrapped up against a bracing wind, ‘taking the air’ is a real pleasure. The sharp, salty air never fails to clear a stuffy head, and the long walk is a favourite for thousands.

West Pier & Poolbeg’s Twin Towers

The waters in Dublin Bay often silted up making it difficult for ships to land and they would have to stay moored off-shore for days. A small pier was opened in 1767 (Coal Harbour Pier) but it soon became useless. After two disasters in November 1807 when the HMS Prince of Wales and The Rochdale sank with the loss of 400 people there was an outcry for ‘something to be done.’ In 1815 an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of ‘a harbour for ships to the eastward of Dunleary’, and the foundation stone (East Pier) was laid in May 1817 by Earl Whitworth, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The granite was quarried in Dalkey and transported by a funicular railway that later became the Atmospheric Railway. By 1820 the original plan was amended by engineer John Rennie to add a second pier, and the West Pier was completed in 1827.

Early evening

The East Pier (red for port) is 2.6 K (out & back) while the West Pier (green for starboard) is slightly longer at 3.01 K. They enclose a 250 acre harbour and the gap between them is 232 metres. The East Pier is the more popular with walkers and has a bandstand (built 1890s) where, weather permitting, music concerts take place. There is also a memorial to Captain Boyd and his crew who drowned in 1861 during a rescue. And you can see a plaque in honour of Samuel Beckett who also liked to ‘walk the pier’ – Happy Days!

A picturesque Dun Laoghaire Harbour