The reason of the failure of the system on the
Dalkey extension, Mr. Waldron tells me (and he knows all about his
railway, as a Chairman should) was due to the impossibility of keeping
the metal disc airtight. The disc, shaped like a griddle, was edged with
leather which had to be heavily greased to enable it to be drawn through
the pipe from which the air was pumped out, in order to create a vacuum,
and the rats, like nature, abhorring a vacuum, gnawed the greasy leather,
letting in the air, and bringing the train to a standstill!
The Kingstown Railway was also interesting in another respect, as
illustrating the opposition which confronted railways in those early
days. There was a Mr. Thomas Michael Gresham, who was the owner of the
well-known Gresham Hotel in Dublin, and largely interested in house
property in Kingstown--Gresham Terrace there is called after him. He
organised a successful opposition to the Dublin and Kingstown Railway
being allowed--though authorised by Parliament--to go into Kingstown, and
its terminus was for some years Salthill Station (Monkstown) a mile away.
Mr. Gresham's action was so highly appreciated--incredible as it now
appears--that he was presented with a testimonial and a piece of plate
for his "_spirited and patriotic action_.
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