Jun 30, 2007
The 2nd part of my audio tour of Volk's Electric Railway
with Ian Gledhill, Chairman of (VERA) Volks Electric Railway
Association.
In
1892 with the Electric Railway comfortably installed as far as
Paston Place Magnus cast his eyes towards Rottingdean. To extend
the existing railway the three miles would entail either a steep
climb to take it along the cliff top or a man-made viaduct along
the unstable undercliff. Understandably he was not keen on either
alternative so he turned his mind to building a completely new
railway that would 'travel through the sea'. A similar system was
already in operation across St. Malo harbour in Brittany but this
was pulled along the rails by chain rather than being
self-propelled, and ran through sheltered water not the English
Channel.
Finance
for the new railway was found locally. One of the biggest investors
was Edward Bleackley who became the first Chairman of the new
company. R. StGeorge Moore, later to be engaged as the designer and
engineer of the new Palace Pier, was taken on as the project
engineer, and under his guidance a Bill was submitted to Parliament
applying for an Act to incorporate a Company and then empower that
Company to construct an electric railway on the foreshore between
Paston Place and Rottingdean, together with the associated works
and piers that would be needed.