History of Dun laoghaire railway station

The Original Dun Laoghaire ( Kingstown ) station opened on December 17th 1834 location was near the footbridge at the west pier the line was extended in 1837 to its current location With the substantial construction of most of the pier at Kingstown complete by 1836, the D&KR made an unsuccessful attempt in 1838 to apply to use one track of the Kingstown to Dalkey Quarry stone tramway for horse-drawn trams to Dalkey. In 1842 James Pim observed the Samudas and Clegg demonstration atmospheric railway at Wormwood Scrubs. With both parties agreeing the mutual advantages of a commercial trial of an atmospheric system between Kingstown and Dalkey and funding assisted by the Board of Public Works, transportation trials began on 18 August 1843 with the full public opening on 29 March 1844. The atmospheric operated for about 10 years, and while having some advantages there were ultimately cost and other disadvantages and the operation of the service by the small Princess locomotive[e] during a bad breakdown between 23 December 1848 and 5 February 1849 demonstrated the potential of working the line by conventional locomotives. The final atmospheric train ran on 12 April 1854 when the D&KR handed the line to the D&WR as part of an 1846 agreement for the D&KR to lease their line. The D&WR, who began running services from Bray to Dalkey and Dublin Harcourt Street on 10 July 1854 then rebuilt the Dalkey Kingstown section to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm), removing the height restriction, and re-opening in October 1855. The connection to Carlisle pier opened in 1859 and due to the DART construction works closed in 1980 . The station underwent extensive reconstruction during DART works in the early 1980's the 1926 signal cabin were demolished and both platforms demolished the road side platform was only built in 1957 ! the trackbed were lowered for the overhead cables and slabtrack was used between the station and Sandycove / Glasthule station the former St Michael's wharf was blocked up after been used for a access point for the works the remaining stub of the Irish lights siding was removed and a replacement wall was identical to the rest of the wall , the west pier level crossing was closed in 1983 and bricked up and replaced by a footbridge . In recent years platforms were extended and former sidings were removed .