Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway
The Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway was a unique coastline
Background and construction
Magnus Volk, its owner, designer and engineer, had already been successful with the more conventional Volk's Electric Railway, which had then not been extended east of Paston Place. With unfavourable geography in that area, Volk decided to construct a line through the surf from a pier at Paston Place to one at Rottingdean. This was also home to Volk's Seaplane Station which was used by his son George Herbert Volk.
The railway itself consisted of two parallel 2 ft 8+1⁄2 in (825 mm) gauge tracks, billed as 18 ft (5,486 mm) gauge, the measurement between the outermost
Construction took two years from 1894 to 1896. The railway officially opened on 28 November 1896, but was nearly destroyed by a storm the night of 4 December. Volk immediately began rebuilding the railway, including the Pioneer, which had been knocked on its side. Pioneer was salvaged and brought ashore, and rebuilt with the legs two feet higher than the previous design. After repairs to Pioneer and the railway were complete, service resumed on 20 July 1897.[5] By the end of that year, 44,282 passengers had travelled on Volk's "Sea Voyage on Wheels".[5]
In use
The railway was popular, but encountered difficulties. The car was slowed considerably at high tide, but Volk could never afford to improve the motors.[5] In 1900, groynes built near the railway were found to have led to underwater scouring under the sleepers and the railway was closed during portions of July and August of that year while this was repaired.[5] Immediately afterwards, the council decided to build a beach protection barrier, which required Volk to divert his line around the barrier. Without funds to do so, Volk closed the railway.
In 1901 the right-of-way was broken up for construction of the barrier. One further attempt was made to raise money for a conventional over-water viaduct along roughly the same route, but Volk was unable to gather enough funds and nothing came of this.[5]
Legacy
The track, car and other structures were sold for scrap but, as of 2021[update], some of the concrete sleepers can still be viewed at low tide.[7] Eventually Volk's Electric Railway was extended onshore, covering a portion of the same distance; it remains in operation.
A model of the railway car is on display (along with a poster for the railway) in the foyer of the Brighton Toy and Model Museum.
Similar forms of transport
On rails
- St. Malo, France, between 1873 and 1923 had a 110-yard (100 m) single-track railway across the harbour, running on submerged rails, bearing a strong resemblance to Volk's Pioneer. The vehicle was cable-hauled rather than self-propelled, however.[8]
- Some Amsterdam-Rhine Canal in The Netherlands.[8]
- Several theme-park attractions, including the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland, feature vehicles guided by submerged rails or guideways.
Other
- BARV, a tracked military vehicle designed to wade through seawater up to 3 metres (9 ft 10 in) deep.
- Sea tractor, a motor vehicle that can travel through shallow water, with driver and passengers on a raised platform.
References
- ^ Coast. BBC2 programme. Transmitted 6 May 2013
- ^ "Volk's Electric Sea Railway, Daddy Long Legs, The Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric railway, Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK". www.urban75.org.
- ^ "Brighton and Rottingdean Tramway". The Electrical Engineer. Vol. 16. London. 8 November 1895. pp. 536–541.
- ISBN 9781445689357.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Daddy Long Legs | VERA | Volk's Electric Railway Association, Brighton". volkselectricrailway.co.uk. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ "Daddy long-legs—a weird and wonderful railway". National Railway Museum blog. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
- ^ "Google Maps". Retrieved 25 November 2021.
- ^ ISBN 1 871980 18 6.
External links
- Pioneer Illustration Highly detailed illustration of the Pioneer tramcar, by Conor Gorman
- The Volks Electric Railway Association, with some information about 'Daddy Long Legs'
- Daddy Longlegs Illustrated feature on Volk's Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric railway with 3D animation
- Daddy Longlegs by John Roles, Brighton Museum
- Daddy Longlegs Photo by Dmitry Karpenko
- Winchester, Clarence, ed. (1936), "Brighton's electric railway"", Railway Wonders of the World, pp. 604–608 illustrated description of the railway
- Location of the line in OpenStreetMap