Dublin and Kingstown Railway. S^ 



estates, through which the railway passes, rendered this, line 

 very expensive ; the cost being about L. 40,000 per mile, or uj)- 

 wards of L. 6000 per mile more than the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester Railway. The several works on the line are executed 

 with great taste, and the whole is lighted with gas from end to 

 end, and is provided with a very efficient police establishment. 



The lines of draught or gradients (a term for which, it is be- 

 lieved, the profession is indebted to Mr Vignoles) are very easy, 

 the greatest rise being at the rate of one in 400. This rise on 

 the line was judiciously introduced for about one mile and a 

 half at the Dublin end, in order, as before noticed, to raise the rail- 

 way over several of the approaches to the city. Its greatest curve 

 or turn, which occurs near Kingstown, has a radius of half a mile. 



Perhaps the most peculiar feature in this railway, is the cir- 

 cumstance of its being devoted exclusively to the conveyance of 

 passengers and their luggage. The trains of carriages start 

 every half-hour, and the fares vary from 6d. to 8d., and Is., ac- 

 cording to the class or description of vehicle travelled in. It is 

 truly astonishing, that, for passengers alone, the receipts on this 

 railway, of only 5\ miles in length, for the year 1835, were no 

 less than L. 31,066 : 8: 6, and no fewer than one million sixty- 

 eight thousand and eighteen passengers were conveyed upon it* 

 The time occupied in making the journey is generally about 17 

 minutes, or at the rate of 1 9| miles per hour, including stoppages. 



This railway, like the Liverpool and Manchester, and most 

 other roads on which there is much traffic, consists of two dis- 

 tinct ways or roads, but the space between them, instead of be- 

 ing 4 feet 85 inches, as is generally the case, is 8 feet, which, 

 however, renders the middle of the road unavailable for running 

 waggons during the progress of the work, or in the event of any 

 accident happening to the outer rails. 



The joinings of the rails occur at every fifteen feet, and are 

 made to rest on what are called throngh-going blocks of gra- 

 nite, or, in other words, instead of each rail resting on an in- 

 sulated stone of the usual dimensions of two feet square, one large 

 block of six feet in length, two feet in breadth, and one foot 

 in thickness, is made to support both of the rails, and in that 

 way to form a connection between them, as shewn in Plate IV. 



