17 December

[DART8118]

 

Just couldn't let the day pass.

Today, 17 December 2018 is the 184th anniversary of the opening of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway for the 'Conveyance of Passengers'.  This was the first ‘commuter’ line in the world, running from Westland Row terminus in Dublin city centre to Kingstown.  There had been trail runs from July 1834, but the first  regular train service ran to Kingstown at 9:30am on Wednesday, 17 December, 1834.  There is (was) a DART at 9:31am and it's a pity that it can't be claimed that the service continues to run at 9:30am 184 years later.  What would Dargan say about that?  But alas, no acknowledgement that I can see of this significant event.  In any other country everyone from government minister, railway company, tourist authority, preservation groups, et al. would be celebration their great worldwide First.  What would Dargan say about that?

Maybe next year?

 

[murrayec]

Here are the first two locos, the Hibernia & the Vauxhall

[Glenderg]

It's not all bad, as days go. Jus' sayin'... 

R

[DART8118]

19 hours ago, Glenderg said:

It's not all bad, as days go. Jus' sayin'... 

R

 

For two years now I have tried to get Google to commemorate the first commuter train service in the world on the 17th December by dedicating their Homepage doodle in Ireland to the Dublin and Wicklow Railway.  Alas, there also, there is no joy.  So, you might imagine how delighted I was to see that today the 18th December 2018 their doodle celebrates the 139th birthday of Paul Klee.  I'm sure that Irish people will understand how important to it is to see Klee (whoever he was) being celebrated in preference to the Irish railway service that is the oldest in the world.  I wonder what Mr. Dargan would say about that.

 

Maybe next year? 

 

Meanwhile, model DART8118 has done a few laps of the layout in celebration.

[murrayec]

2 hours ago, DART8118 said:

Meanwhile, model DART8118 has done a few laps of the layout in celebration.

Nice one

[WRENNEIRE]

Paul Klee was a Swiss German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. 

His weathering was very good but his knowledge of the various shades of grey was pathetic!

[DART8118]

Thanks for posting the pictures of the first 2 locos.  The Hibernia and the Vauxhall have a certain magic to them and must have been super engines.  I dare say the designers took great pride in their locomotives and the company too must have been very proud of them.  Now that there are so many highly talented and dedicated people involved in producing wonderfully detailed models for the Irish scene, would this be the time for Ireland's first trains to be modelled in OO?  Perhaps in readiness for the 190th anniversary 6 years from now?  If someone is producing them they can put me down for the 2 engines and a rake of carriages for each in OO gauge.  I'd be very proud to have those.  Mr. Dargan would surely approve.

[murrayec]

There is a certain magic to them, but unfortunately on the Hibernia- 'super' was not the case! This loco was an 'Experiment' by Mr Roberts, he designed vertical cylinders with a bell-crank to turn the motion to horizontal and that was it's downfall, he ran a few of this type in England but very quickly they were removed from service- the loco bucked from side to side, pounded the track, and leaked steam from the cylinders which they could not stop. I reckon the spares from the 'Experiment' were sold off cheep to the D&KR- against the protests of the D&KR engineers, by Sharp Roberts after languishing in the corner of the shop, only too delighted to supply the locos with engineers for two years to be rid of the stuff.

The D&KR did run three of these locos for several years and they gave good services for the bargain price, all removed from service after one of them exploded in Kingstown when left unattended running with low water in the boiler.

What a pity one of them was not held on to.......

I'm building models of this loco- the Gauge O early development test work can be viewed on my workbench thread- work is progressing very slow but I'm at the brass cutting out stage now, other scales are been worked on with a Gauge N about the most advanced.....

  Eoin