Overhaul necessary for future of route
IARNROD ÉIREANN HAS A MAJOR DEVELOPMENT: TO SPEND UPWARDS OF €100M BY 2035 ON ANTICOASTAL EROSION MEASURES, JAMES SCANNELL, OF BRAY CUALANN HISTORICAL SOCIETY REPORTS
RECENTLY this newspaper reported on the fact that Iarnrod Éireann will have to spend upwards of €100M by 2035 on anti-coastal erosion measures, including work around Bray Head, to maintain the Dublin- Rosslare Europort line, a legacy issue from over 200 years ago when the Ireland’s first railway, the Dublin & Kingstown (renamed Dún Laoghaire in 1920) Railway was conceived, planned and commenced operation.
In 1832 when the promoters of the D&KR were planning their line, they took the unusual step of surveying a route to Bray in anticipation of extending the line from Kingstown sometime in the future. On December 17, 1834 the D&KR commenced operation from Westland Row (Dublin Pearse) station, Dublin, to a terminus at Monkstown and Salthill station which remained in use until 1837 when the line was able to cross part of the west pier, previously denied to it by the Admiralty, and reach the current terminus, now platform 3 in Malin station - Dún Laoghaire, served by a terminus building designed by John Skipton Mulvaney, built from Ballyknockan, County Wicklow, granite. Lying beside the station was the old tram road used to bring blocks of granite from the Dalkey quarries for use in the construction of Kingstown Harbour.
In 1844 the D&KR became involved in the operation of Kingstown-Dalkey Atmospheric and during a visit by a party of directors from the British Great Western Railway to see it in operation, in the course of conversation their engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel revealed that they were planning the South Wales Railway to a new port at Fishguard, Wales, with steamer services from there to Rosslare, County Wexford, and a railway line connection from there to Dublin.
The support of the D&KR board was sought and after protracted and detailed negotiations it was agreed that the D&KR would seek a parliamentary act to extend their line to Bray and that the GWR would back a company for the construction of a line from Bray to Wexford and Waterford, the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow & Dublin Railway, with parliamentary powers to lease the D&KR lines and to purchase its authority for the Kingstown-Bray extension. This company also undertook to construction an inland route from Dublin to Bray by a subsidiary company, the Dublin, Dundrum & Rathfarnham Railway.
By 1847 all the formality had been completed with the site of Bray station located in the vicinity of the Bray Bridge from where it was hoped that the line would follow the course of the Bray-Enniskerry Road and thence to Wicklow crossing the lands of Lord Meath who appears was not disposed to such a move. While the Meath Archive holds no correspondence rejecting such a proposal, it’s likely that behind the scenes inquiries revealed that his lordship was not disposed to the idea but he did offer the promoters a route around the side of Bray Head by way of compromise which was accepted by them and was duly surveyed and laid out by them.
As engineer to the WWW&DR, Brunel’s solution to overcoming the natural obstacles on the route around the side of Bray Head was the construction of three tunnels and three timber viaducts, similar to the type used by the GWR. The route from Dalkey to Bray involved excavating the cutting south the Dalkey station, the construction of Dalkey tunnel and building the line along the side of Killiney Hill above Killiney Beach, to Killiney station and then along the coast to Bray - part of the original embankment south of Killiney station is now used as a pedestrian walkway.
On August 25, 1847 the Earl of Courtown, chairman of the WWW&DR turned the first sod near the Brady Hole with work commencing immediately using a combination of blasting powder and picks and shovels. Work at Sorrento on the Dalkey-Bray line commenced a month later on September 30 with good headway being made into 1848 when work stopped at both locations due to a combination of the Famine and a financial recession with nothing further happening until 1851 when the recession was over and it was possible to restart this project.
Again there was another around of inter-company negotiations and agreements supported by parliamentary acts in which the WWW&DR changed its name to the Dublin & Wicklow Railway while the DD&RR changed its name to Dublin & Bray Railway, dropped plans for a branch line to Rathfarnham and was given the power to take over the D&WR if it had not completed the Dundrum - Bray Line by a given date. However there was a catch -22 in that if the D&BR failed to construct the line from Dublin-Dundrum line by this date, then the D&WR could take it over. The D&WR, with William Dargan as contractor, completed their section first and in due course the D&WR exercised its option to acquire the D&BR which took two years to complete.
On July 10, 1854, trains began running between Bray and Harcourt Road in Dublin until Harcourt Street station was opened in 1859 and between Bray and Dalkey from where passengers had to travel by omnibus to Kingstown until 1856 until though running to Westland Row station was possible.
In the meantime work on the line heading south continued hugging the coast until it swung inland near the outskirts of Wicklow Town with the service to and from Wicklow, including Greystones, commencing on October 30, 1855 after being passed fir for purpose by the Board of Trade examiner several days earlier. Trains leaving Bray heading south as they made their way around the side of Bray Head first encountered Brabazon Tunnel and then crossed over a massive timber viaduct at the Ram’s Scalp, entered the Brandy Hole Tunnel and on exiting passed over two more timber bridges before entering Cable Road tunnel and one more timber bridge before reaching completing the Bray head route. With remarkable foresight these three tunnels were constructed wide enough to take double tracks but only single track was laid.
Within weeks of the line being open there were a number of
rock falls due to the rock strata being disturbed during the construction process and it was found necessary to have two men patrol the track during the day and three at night. In March 1857 there was a large rock fall which required the track to be moved 10 feet at the incident site and following another large fall in October, the D&WR took preventative measures by removing part of a cliff but recouped their costs selling the broken rock to road making contractors and public bodies who sought this material for a variety of purposes.
On April 23rd 1865 as a train from Dublin emerged from the Brabazon Tunnel, the wheel tyre on a 1st class carriage shattered and derailed and when the locomotive driver saw this happening, he did not stop the train until the damaged carriage was clear of the viaduct. The Board of Trade investigating officer recommended the installation of guard rails between the tracks around Bray Head but this was never done by the D&WR. On August 9th 1867 a Dublin bound train was derailed at the viaduct with the locomotive and two carriages plunging over the bridge with the remainder of the train remaining upright on the bridge. One passenger was killed, a second died from her injuries, but their inquests returned verdicts of ‘accidental death’ before the Board of Trade investigating officer revealed that the accident had been due to mixing different track types which were badly laid on rotten sleepers and the work not being checked by the supervisor and ganger who then attempted to cover up their negligence before the investigation took place.
In the 1870s two short tunnels which by-passed the Brabazon Tunnel were subsequently built and entered use in 1876. In 1879 the line was moved again with the two short bridges south of the Brandy Hole Tunnel replaced with a single stone arch and two arches across the tracks to support the cliff above the tracks. There are also two support arches between Killiney station and Dalkey Tunnel performing the same role.
In 1889 near Greystones the line was moved slightly inland again via the Rathdown Deviation. Every year the line came under sustained attacks from severe storms south of Killiney, around Bray Head, south of Greystones and in the Kilcoole area. Time and time again near Kilcoole, severe storms washed away the track foundations necessitating the re-laying the track and the construction of sea defences which had to be repaired and renewed constantly.
In 1911 a number of Greystones residents petitioned the Dublin & South Eastern Railway, the name which the D&WR had adopted in 1907 when it reached Rosslare, to operate motor vehicles between Greystones and Bray as they claimed that the line around Bray Head was dangerous. The company marked the petition ‘noted’ and took no action but severe storms that October and November caused severe damage around Bray Head forcing it to take action.
In 1912 the company received parliamentary permission to construct two deviation lines - one from Killiney to Bray, the route of the current DART line, known as the Shanganagh Deviation, work on which commenced in 1913 and was completed by October 1915, and the Long Tunnel at the Greystones end of Bray Head end, built between 1913 and 1917, replacing the 1889 Rathdown Deviation. Large rocks from the excavation work were used for coastal defence work south of Greystones.
Rock falls onto the tracks were always a danger of the Bray Head route with the line having to be patrolled all the time. In February 1915 the line was closed for a week due to a massive storm while the track in the Kilcoole area was damaged and had to be re-laid. In 1921 there were a number of rock falls but on April 24, 1923 a rock fall detailed a morning train from Wexford which remained upright on the tracks - no-one was injured.
But more recently on June 9, 2012 the 11.10 p.m. Greystones to Dublin Connolly DART train was unseated from the tracks but remained upright, after it struck a rock on the line in front of Tunnel No 1, ironically not far away from the disused Brabazon Tunnel, which officials suspected had been rolled down on to the tracks by vandals. None of the 33 passengers were injured and the line was re-opened for traffic within 12 hours.
Replacing the ballast and relaying a track south of Greystones after major storms became a regular maintenance talk in addition to the provision of coastal defence works to protect the tracks from sea storms and several gales. Additional coastal defences were placed in-situ around Bray Head with additional remedial work being carried out during the extension of the DART from Bray to Greystones and netting being installed to minimise falls of rock and other debris on to the track.
A landslide in the 1990s on a the stretch of track from Killiney station to Dalkey Tunnel led to the suspension of train services for two/three weeks until remedial and stabilisation work was carried and the line re-opened.
In recent years smoke from burning undergrowth around Bray Head has at times interrupted services but the key vulnerability of the line is its closeness to the sea from Dalkey
Tunnel to Killiney station, Bray to Greystones, and from Greystones to outside from Wicklow. Many of the maintenance problems that Iarnrod Éireann face with this line for the future are also being faced by Network Rail in Britain especially on the Holyhead to Chester route in North Wales and in Cornwall where railways hug the coast and are in many places within wave reach of very angry wind driven seas at times of severe storms.
Sometimes called ‘Brunel’s Folly’ the train journey around Bray Head offers some very spectacular views and one can still see traces of the locations of the original viaducts - every day this line is patrolled and checked for rock falls with guard rails being a feature of the line to avoid a repetition of the 1865 and 1867 accidents.
In the meantime Iarnrod Éireann continues to carry out short terms repairs as required but knows that within the next 20 years that substantial work will be required to ensure that the coastal route from Dublin to Rosslare Europort remains operational.