Dublin and South Eastern Railway


click for 5k DSER coa in .jpg format Coat of Arms

History: Summary

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.

Coat of Arms

click for 4K .jpg image of DWWR monogram

click for 4K .jpg image of DSER monogram

Source: © G.Hartley

click for 14.3K .jpg image of DSER monogram DSER coach monogram. Source: SRA309 (full image 44K)

Rolling Stock railwayana

Locomotive nameplates:

Works & tenderplates:
click for 4K .jpg image of DWWR makers plateDWWR 1895 makers plate

IRRS

Carriage, wagon plates:
click for 5K .jpg image of DSER wagon plateDSER wagon plate
click for 5K .jpg image of DSER wagon plateDSER wagon plate
click for 7K .jpg image of DSER wagon plateDSER wagon plate (Click thumbnail for full image)
click for 7K .jpg image of DSER wagon plateDSER load plate. Source: D.Cronin
click for 4K .jpg image of DSER axleboxclick for 3K .jpg image of DSER axleboxDSER axlebox covers

click for 2.8K .jpg image of DSER awxlebox cover
Axlebox cover. Source: RAG30 (Click thumbnail for full image)

Lineside and station railwayana

Footbridge:

Bridge Restriction, etc.:
click for 12K .jpg image of DWWR viaduct plateDWWR cast iron viaduct plate

Bridge Numbers:

Trespass:
click for 18K .jpg image of DWWR TrespassDWWR trespass (full image 43K)
click for 7K .jpg image of DWWR trespass DWWR trespass. Source: SRA902
click for 6K image of DWWR trespass in .jpg format Source: RAG18 (full image 33K)

Station:
click for 5K .jpg image of DWWR Waiting RoomDWWR waiting room. Source: SRA399
click for 2.8K .jpg image of Wicklow enamelWicklow station enamel. Source: GCR0114 full image 48K

Mileposts:

Railchair:

Signalling:

Cutlery, china, ashtrays etc.:

Miscellaneous:
click for 3K .jpg image of DWWR button DWWR button. Source: TRA905 (full image 11K)
click for 3K .jpg image of DWWR button DWWR button. Source: TRA506 (full image 14K)
click for 8.1K .jpg image of DWWR button DWWR button. Source: TRA909 (full image 46K)
click for 4.4K .jpg image of DWWR button Dublin Wicklow & Wexford button. Source: TRA812. (full image 46K)
click for 6K .jpg image of DSER medalDSER medal. Source: ebay205 (full image 15K)(obverse 15K)
click for 11K .jpg image of DSER season tickets DSER season tickets. Source: GCR1013. (full image 48k)
click for 11K .jpg image of DSER free passDSER free pass. Source: SRA0114 full image 80K
click for 18K .jpg image of DSER free passDSER garden brochure. Source: TRA0904 full image 40K


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Page content posted 27/7/1997. Revised 24/1/15

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