Grand Canal Street railway works, also known as ''The Factory'', served the

Dublin and Kingstown Railway The Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), which opened in 1834, was Ireland’s first passenger railway. It linked Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour (Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin. The D&KR was also notable for a number of other ...

(D&KR), its successors the

Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway The Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), often referred to as the Slow and Easy, was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland from 1846 to 1925. It carried 4,626,226 passengers in 1911. It was the fourth largest railway operation in Ireland ope ...

(DW&WR) and the

Dublin and South Eastern Railway The Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), often referred to as the Slow and Easy, was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland from 1846 to 1925. It carried 4,626,226 passengers in 1911. It was the fourth largest railway operation in Ireland oper ...

(DSER). It was preceded by a small "engine hospital" maintenance depot at Serpentine Avenue.

History

The D&KR had initially set up an "Engine Hospital" for the servicing of locomotives at Serpentine Avenue, about south west of past the

River Dodder The River Dodder ( ga, An Dothra) is one of the three main rivers in Dublin, Ireland, the others being the Liffey, of which the Dodder is the largest tributary, and the Tolka. Course and system The Dodder rises on the northern slopes of Ki ...

where railway cottages were subsequently built. The Serpentine depot had two sections, one for the three engines from Robert Sharps, initially supported by their engineer Francis Wrigley, and the three from Forresters supported by their man Alexander Allan. The works was bought in 1840, engine and carriage repair having previously been carried out since 1834 at Serpentine Avenue. The workshop was the former two-story Dock

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

located on the south side of the railway between the now narrowed Grand Canal Dock, Barrow Street, and Upper Grand Canal Street. There was a locomotive shed on the opposite side of the railway to the works. The station which opened in 2001 lies a little towards the side of the former works. On 4 April 1841 it achieved a world first by being the first railway company owned workshop to build a locomotive, the 2-2-2T ''Princess''. It produced its last locomotive in 1911. With no lifting crane and poor workshop layout, the works was increasingly stretched by larger locomotives, shortages from the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and damages due to the

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

. It was closed in 1925 following the amalgamation of the railways of Ireland to form the

Great Southern Railways The Great Southern Railways Company (often Great Southern Railways, or GSR) was an Irish company that from 1925 until 1945 owned and operated all railways that lay wholly within the Irish Free State (the present-day Republic of Ireland). The p ...

(GSR).

Locomotive superintendents

Grand Canal Street and its predecessor Serpentine Road had the following locomotive superintendents who may have been under related titles and had additional responsibilities: * T. F. Bergin * John Melling (June 1835—January 1840) * Richard Pim (January 1840—August 1843) * James Rawlins (1843—July 1849) * Samuel Wilfred Haugton (1849—1864) * W Meilke (1864—1865) * John Wakefield (1865—1882) * W Wakefield (1882—1894) * Thomas Grierson (1894—1897) * Richard Cronin (1897—1917) * George H. Wild (1917—1924)

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * {{cite book, title=The Dublin & South Eastern Railway, last=Shepherd, first=Ernie, isbn=0715363611, publisher=David and Charles, date=1974, edition=1974 Railway workshops in the Republic of Ireland Locomotive manufacturers of Ireland