Coat of
Arms
Coat of
Arms
Dublin and Kingstown Railway [1834]
The first Irish railway to be opened in 1834 to 4ft 8 1/2
inch gauge. The Great Western in the UK wanted rapid
expansion to the south so that it could develop its Irish
business. In 1846 the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and
Dublin Railway project was launched, the first engineer
being I.K. Brunel. The name was changed in 1848 to the
Dublin and Wicklow Railway (sanctioned in 1851). Lines of
the DKR were leased to the Dublin and Wicklow Railway. A
rival concern to the Dublin and Wicklow was the Dublin,
Dundrum and Rathfarnham Railway [1846] which changed its
name to the Dublin and Bray Railway in 1851 and was
absorbed by the Dublin and Wicklow in 1854, after
completing the line (Harcourt Rd-Bray was opened on
10/7/1854). The Dublin and Kingstown was regauged in 1855,
and the Kingstown-Dalkey section atmospheric section was
converted to steam, after being handed over to the Dublin
and Wicklow in 1854.
Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway [1860]
Wicklow was reached in 1855, Rathdrum (1861), Enniscorthy
(1863), but Wexford only in 1872. Operations of the DKR
were merged with Dublin and Wicklow Railway in 1856 which
later became the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway. The
Shillelagh branch was opened in 1865. The branch from
Macmine Jct (1873) reached New Ross (1887) and Waterford
(1906). The link line between Westland Row-Amiens St
Jct-Newcomen Jct. opened in 1891.
Dublin and South Eastern Railway
In 1907 the DWWR became the Dublin and South Eastern
Railway. It had two termini in the capital, Westland Row
and Harcourt Street. The DSER owned a hotel at Rathdrum
station, [ESGB p.135: opening as the Royal Fitzwilliam on
26/10/1863, subsequently becoming The Railway Hotel and by
1915 the Grand Central Hotel, it was rented over the period
to a number of operators. It was finally closed in 1931.
The company also acquired the Royal Marine Hotel, Bray in
1899 which became the Marine Station Hotel in 1901. A
serious fire occurred in 1916 and, although advertised for
sale, it passed into GSR ownership in 1925. There were
refreshment rooms at Bray, Westland Row, Harcourt St.,
Woodenbridge, Rathdrum, and Macmine and Wicklow for short
periods. Catering in mail trains began in 1905]. Later the
DSER was a constituent of Great Southern Railways in 1925.
The Shillelagh-Woodenbridge branch was closed in 1944
although goods trains still went to Aughrim. The Harcourt
St-Shanganagh Jct. line was closed on 31/12/1958 while the
Westland Row to Rosslare main line remains open.
Rolling stock: Initial locos were 3 from Sharp
Bros. (their first contract) and 3 from George Forrester.
In 1835 two tank engines were ordered from Forrester, the
first ever to work on any public railway. 61 locos at
grouping, but only 42 (54?) taken into GSR stock [ESGB:
Gives full details of loco builders, dates, delivery etc..
Builders were Fairbairn, Sharp, Vulcan, Sharp Stewart,
Neilson, Grand Canal St. Works, Beyer Peacock, Kitson and
LNWR. Fleet at end 54, 44 tranferred to GSR but they
decided to withdraw 12] [ESGB: Rolling stock builders:
Ashbury, Birmingham Carriage, Brown Marshall, Chas.
Roberts, Craven Bros., J.S.Dawson, Thomas Firth, Grand
Canal St. Works, Hurst Nelson, Lancaster Carriage,
Metropolitan Carriage, Midland Carriage, Manning Wardle,
T&C Martin] .
Works: Grand Canal Street workshops (purchased by
the DKR in 1837 and by 1839 reequipped for railway
purposes) produced the first loco (Princess, a 2-2-2T)
built in a railway company's workshops in 1841. The works
could cope with about half the loco requirements of the
DSER. It was closed in 1925.
Livery: DKR coaching stock - underframes
vermillion, wheels and axles black, bodies of first 'rich
purple lake' and third 'Prussian blue'. Closed seconds were
'pale patent yellow' and open seconds were green. DWWR and
DSER: locos originally green but in Grierson's time red
(believed to be brick red). Cronin changed over to black
with bands of red and five lines of gold (replaced by
orange during WWI). [ESGB p.80: Earliest loco liveries
unknown but by early 1870s a shade of green, different to
other Irish railways was being applied. Colour was of light
fresh ivy leaves and may have been applied as early as 1864
on the Sharp Stewart locos delivered that year. Lagging
bands were black with yellow pencil lines on the edges and
lining on side tanks, cab sheets and tenders were the same,
the overall width of the black band with yellow pencil
lines on each edge being 2 inches. As delivered the Neilson
tanks were painted plain dark green with claret frames and
bright red buffer beams,, but in their later days they were
painted brick red instead of the standard green. In 1907
the loco livery was changed from the standard green to
black. The lining was changed to 1 inch red bands with
yellow 1/8th inch pencil lines spaced approximately 3/8ths
inch away from the side of the red band. It was with the
introduction of this change in livery that the names, which
had been applied by Cronin to new and rebuilt engines from
1898 onwards, began to be removed. By the time of
amalgamation only the four Beyer Peacock locos of 1905,
together with Glenageary, Kilcoole and Glendalough, still
carried names]. This livery lasted to grouping. Other
aspects were copper tops to chimneys, brass domes and brass
covers to Ramsbottom valves. In early days numbers were
painted on but Cronin introduced oblong number plates with
square ends. The DWWR did not put numbers on the smokebox
but one photo shows a 2-4-0 Fairbairn with a number on
chimney. Coaching stock livery of the DSER was a pale shade
of brown (crimson lake?) with yellow (gold?) lining, the
numbers being painted on the waistband in plain yellow. No
length or weight marking were shown. [ESGB: graining was
used on 1st class carriages from May 1875. One of the first
used in 1876 was finished in a blue, buff and gold colour
scheme. Early photos show a two-tone colour scheme. For
many years up to about 1910 or 1911 carriage stock was
chocolate lined yellow but thereafter, up to the end of the
DSER, was Midland red with yellow lining]. [ESGB: Lighting
of carriages was originally by oil but, after 1884, by
'Imperial Roof Lamps' and post-1890 by 'Pintsch's Gas
Company' system]. Wagon stock was painted grey [ESGB:
gradually post-1869] with the letters DSER on the sides in
white, together with the wagon number and weight
marking.
Staff: Loco superintendents: C.B. Vignobles, John
Melling 1835-1840, Richard Pimm 1840-1843, James Rawlins
1843-1849, S.W. Haughton 1849-1864 (DWR from 1856
succeeding [ESGB: Frederick] F?/W?. Pemberton 1854-1856),
William Meikle 1864-1865, John Wakefield 1865-1882, William
Wakefield 1882-1894, T.B.Grierson 1894-1897, Richard Cronin
1897-1917, George H. Wild 1917-1925. Secretaries (DWR on):
Richard M.Muggeridge 1845-1856, Arthur Moore 1856-1862,
E.W.Maunsell 1862-1894, E.M.Cowan 1895-1898, M.F.Keogh
1899-1912, A.G.Reid 1913-1915, R.D.Griffith 1916-1924.
General Managers: A.G.Reid 1900-16, J.Coghlan 1918-20
(murdered in his office on 30/7/1920), M.J.Maguire
1920-24.
Signalling: For block posts see Shepherd Appendix
I. [DWWR decided to work all Bray to Wexford, Palace East
and Shillelagh branches by ETS. Completed in 1893. Source:
Railway & Telecommunications, Tom Wall IRRS601][JOM:
ETS in 1891. Up to 1964, the Wicklow main line contained 4
sets of ETS: long section with Greystones and Rathdrum, and
short section with Newcastle and Glenealy. Wicklow Jct.
opened in 1861 became a block post between Wicklow to the
south and Newcastle to the north. When the line was doubled
the sections were worked by Harpers instruments between
1871 and 1927. In 1968 the block section became
Greystones-Wicklow. On 4/5/1964 the large staffs between
Woodenbridge and Arklow were changed to miniature types.
Woodenbridge ceased to be a block post on 21/4/1969, the
new section being Arklow-Rathdrum with miniature staffs. In
1915 Sykes lock and block applied to Shanganagh Jct. with
connections to cabins of Killiney, Shankill and Bray Nth.]
[ESGB p.127-129: Fishtails on distant signals were
originally introduced in early 1874 by Smith on the DWWR
before those by Saxby on the LBSCR, generally attributed as
the first such use. In November 1890, 28 Harpers Block
instruments were ordered for the 17 signal cabins on double
line sections, one each for six cabins at the ends of
double line sections and two for each of the 11
intermediate cabins. These replaced Tyers equipment in use
between Westland Row and Kingstown. With their
introduction, absolute block working was introduced. In
November 1891 contracts with the Railway Signalling Company
were entered into for the supply of W&T for Bray
South-Greystones-Main line to Wexford and the Shillelagh
branch (32 instruments) for 18 signal cabins. Not until
1894 was the Bray-Killiney section equipped with W&T
ETS and in 1895 that the four instruments required for the
New Ross line were obtained].
Tickets: After 1859 the clear pattern was 1st
class singles white (some with yellow horizontal stripe),
returns were yellow and white with central horizontal
stripe, 2nd singles were blue (some with horizontal red
stripe), returns were pink and blue (some with horizontal
red stripe), 3rd singles were straw (some with red stripe)
but blue was also in use from stations outside Dublin,
returns were straw and green (some with central red
stripe), cheap Sunday 3rd returns were white with brown
horizontal stripes, special tickets were white, orange and
green or white red and yellow, bicycle tickets were white
or orange, dog tickets were yellow and red. With the title
change to DSER in 1907, colours changed to be more in line
with other companies. 1st class singles and returns were
white, 2nd class singles blue and returns were red and
blue, 3rd singles and returns were buff or straw. Bicycle
and dog tickets were unchanged. Cross-channel tickets now
appeared to be white for all classes. Platform tickets were
introduced for the first time in 1916 (generally horizontal
green and white stripes, but some white with thin red band
or stripe). Some tramway type tickets were introduced from
1922 and there were also thin card cascade folding tickets
(1st white, 2nd blue, 3rd salmon). Express tickets from
Kingstown Pier were of thin paper.(Source:ESGB,
p.157)
Other: Early uniforms were green. After 1856,
police, guards and ticket collectors wore blue [Source:
EPGB p.132]. In 1893 TPO vans introduced. First lavatory
equipped vehicles came in 1898. First bogie vehicles were
introduced in 1895. On board catering and interconnecting
gangways between coaches came in 1904. Second class was
abolished in early 1922. The Kingstown fleet was not
assimilatd into the D &WR until 1866 (worked from
1856). There was only one carriage, No. 12, with a
celestory roof. The first horse box was ordered on
10/10/1856 from Brown Marshall.
Further reading: W.Ernest Shepherd The Dublin and South Eastern Railway, K.A. Murray Ireland's First Railway, J.O'Meara "Shelton to Bray" JIRRS 686 and 1086, Ernie Shepherd and Gerry Beesley Dublin and South Eastern Railway.
Source: © G.Hartley
DSER coach
monogram. Source: SRA309 (full
image 44K)
Locomotive nameplates:
Works & tenderplates:
DWWR 1895
makers plate
IRRS
Carriage, wagon plates:
DSER wagon
plate
DSER wagon
plate
DSER wagon
plate (Click thumbnail for full image)
DSER load
plate. Source: D.Cronin
DSER axlebox
covers
Axlebox cover. Source: RAG30 (Click thumbnail for full
image)
Footbridge:
Bridge Restriction, etc.:
DWWR cast
iron viaduct plate
Bridge Numbers:
Trespass:
DWWR trespass
(full image 43K)
DWWR
trespass. Source: SRA902
Source: RAG18 (full image
33K)
Station:
DWWR
waiting room. Source: SRA399
Wicklow
station enamel. Source: GCR0114 full image 48K
Mileposts:
Railchair:
Signalling:
Cutlery, china, ashtrays etc.:
Miscellaneous:
DWWR button.
Source: TRA905 (full image
11K)
DWWR
button. Source: TRA506 (full image
14K)
DWWR button.
Source: TRA909 (full image
46K)
Dublin
Wicklow & Wexford button. Source: TRA812. (full image 46K)
DSER medal.
Source: ebay205 (full
image 15K)(obverse
15K)
DSER season tickets. Source: GCR1013. (full image 48k)
DSER
free pass. Source: SRA0114 full
image 80K
DSER
garden brochure. Source: TRA0904 full image 40K
Return to index page, or go to Southern
page 9, Waterford and Tramore
Railway.
Return to auction
price data on original pages
For genealogy, go to my Lennan
genealogy pages
Page content posted 27/7/1997. Revised
24/1/15
