The Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), often referred to as the Slow and Easy, was an

Irish gauge Railways with a track gauge of fall within the category of broad gauge railways. , they were extant in Australia, Brazil and Ireland. History 600 BC :The Diolkos (Δίολκος) across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved pave ...

() railway in Ireland from 1846 to 1925. It carried 4,626,226 passengers in 1911. It was the fourth largest railway operation in Ireland operating a main line from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

to , with branch lines to

Shillelagh A shillelagh ( ; ga, sail éille or , "thonged willow") is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty blackthorn stick with a large knob at the top. It is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore. Other ...

and . The company previously traded under the names Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow & Dublin Railway (WWW&DR or 3WS) to 1848, Dublin and Wicklow Raillway (D&WR) to 1860 and Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) until 1906. The DSER joined with the Great Southern Railway on 1 January 1925, the resultant company being known as

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 ...

History

It was incorporated by

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

in 1846 as the "Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway Company". In 1860 it was renamed the "Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Company" and on 31 December 1906 it was renamed again as the DSER. Amongst the lines forming the DSER was the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, which was authorised in 1831 and opened in 1834 – the first public railway in Ireland. The Kingstown – Dalkey section was operated by atmospheric traction for a short while. The railway formed part of the

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

route between

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

''via'' Dún Laoghaire railway station at Kingstown (now

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built following the 1816 legislation that allowed the building of a major port to serve Dubli ...

). The DSER was much affected by 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 ...

including 31 major incidents. When added to shortages and inflationary costs arising from and after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

the DSER found itself, in common with other railway companies in Ireland, in difficult financial and operational conditions. A railway bill of 1924 attempted to amalgamate the

Great Southern and Western Railway The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the ...

(GS&WR),

Midland Great Western Railway The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) was the third largest Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railways in 1924. At its peak the MGWR had a network of , making it Irelan ...

(MGWR) and DSER into the Great Southern Railway whose networks were entirely within the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

. The DSER, being part

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

owned, stayed out of the merger which occurred on 12 November 1924, with a preference to merge with the

Great Northern Railway of Ireland The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (GNR(I) or GNRI) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland. It was formed in 1876 by a merger of the Irish North Western Railway (INW), Northern Railway of Ireland, and Ulster Railway. The governmen ...

(GNRI) which covered lines north from Dublin and throughout the North of Ireland. The DSER finally merged with the Great Southern Railway to form the

(GSR) on 1 January 1925.

Predecessors and extensions

Dublin and Kingstown Railway

The Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) was Ireland's first railway. It linked Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour in County Dublin. It was authorised in 1831, and the first part of the line running from Dublin to Kingstown Pier was opened on 17 December 1834, with an extension to Kingstown ( Dún Laoghaire station's current location) opened on 13 May 1837.

Dalkey Atmospheric Railway

The

Dalkey Atmospheric Railway The Dalkey Atmospheric Railway (unofficial opening 19 August 1843, official opening 29 March 1844 – 12 April 1854) was an extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) to Atmospheric Road in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, Ireland. It used par ...

was an extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway to Atmospheric Road in Dalkey in County Dublin. It was unofficially opened as far as Sandycove on 19 August 1843. The route from Sandycove to Dalkey (atmospheric station) was opened on 19 March 1844, in time for the official opening of the on 29 March 1844. It used part of the Dalkey Quarry industrial tramway, which was earlier used for the construction of Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) Harbour. It was the first railway of its type in the world.

Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company

The entity that became the DSER was incorporated by

in 1846 as the "Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway Company", with the name changing to Dublin and Wicklow Railway at the same time. They leased the Dublin and Kingstown railway in 1854, converted it from gauge to their gauge. The remainder of the line to Wexford was opened over the next 20 years in stages. The first section of D&W line from to was opened on 10 July 1854. A continuous route from Dublin to Wicklow was established the following year, when the section from the Dublin and Kingston terminus at Dalkey (atmospheric station) to D&W's Dalkey station was opened on 10 October 1855, and the extension from Bray to (Murrough) opened 3 weeks later on 30 October.

Coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwar ...

has been a problem on the route to Wicklow, forcing the opening of a deviation between Ballybrack and Bray on 1 October 1915, and numerous deviations between Bray and Wicklow. In 1860 it was renamed the "Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Company" in keeping with the southwards expansion of the railway.

Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Company

The line was extended onward to in the early 1860s, starting with the line from Wicklow Junction to (Kilcommon), which opened on 20 August 1861. At this time the line from Wicklow Junction to the Murrough station was bypassed. It remained in use as a freight station and saw occasional passenger services. This was followed by further extensions to Ovoca (Avoca) on 18 July 1863 and on 16 November 1863 and branch line to Shillelagh in 1865. In the early 1870s the route was finally completed to

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...

. The route from Enniscorthy to the original Wexford Station (Carcur) was opened on 17 August 1872. It was extended to Wexford North, the current station, in August 1874.

Branch To Waterford

A branch was opened to

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Ireland. It is located on the River Barrow, near the border with County Kilkenny, and is around northeast of Waterford. In 2016 it had a population of 8,040 people, making it t ...

in 1887. This left the main line at Macmine near Wexford. It was extended from New Ross to Waterford in 1904. This extension connected with the

, which in turn connected with trains for the south of Ireland.

City of Dublin Junction Railway

The City of Dublin Junction railway opened on 1 May 1891. This connected the DW&W at Westland Row station with Amiens Street station in the north of the city.

Network and Infrastructure

The DSER had two main stations in

on separate lines;

Westland Row Westland Row is a street on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland. Location The street runs along the east end of Trinity College Dublin. History Westland Row first appears on maps in 1776. It was originally known as Westlands after Willi ...

(renamed Pearse Station in 1966) and a terminus at . It also owned the Marine Station Hotel at Bray and the Grand Central Hotel at Rathdrum, south of Wicklow.

Grand Canal Street railway works

The locomotive workshop for the DSER was the ''Grand Canal Street railway works'', also known as ''The Factory'', a two-storey converted

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 hea ...

at Grand Canal Street,

. With no lifting crane and poor workshop layout the works was increasingly stretched by larger locomotives and the shortages from the

and damages due to the

Rolling Stock

According to the Railway Year Book 1912, the railway operated 60 locomotives, hauling 253 passenger coaches and 1,005 goods vehicles. The locomotives were painted black picked out with red bands and gold lines, while the passenger vehicles were crimson lake with gold lines. One DSER

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

is preserved: a

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

goods locomotive No. 15 (later

No. 461) owned by the

Railway Preservation Society of Ireland The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is an Irish railway preservation group operating throughout Ireland, founded in 1964. Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin and Belfast, but occasionally from other locatio ...

Whitehead, County Antrim Whitehead is a small seaside village on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, lying almost midway between the towns of Carrickfergus and Larne. It lies within the civil parish of Templecorran, the historic barony of Belfast Lower, ...

Accidents and incidents

*A derailment on 9 August 1867 at the Brandy Hole Viaduct resulted in the train and most of the coaches falling into the sea below. Two passengers were killed, and there were a further 25 injuries. *On 20 February 1900, a cattle train overran buffers at station,

References

External links

No. 461 at Whitehead
Defunct railway companies of Ireland Irish gauge railways Railway companies disestablished in 1925