The 1856 railway route from Bray to Greystones was designed by world famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel and to this day the line is known as
Brunel's Folly on account of the high cost of maintenance.
The original route crossed
Brandy Hole on a wooden trestle bridge but there was a
bad accident there so the line had to be moved further inland to its present course, necessitating additional tunnels.
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| The 1867 accident at Brandy Hole |
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| Google Earth view of Brandy Hole |
You can see the original coarse in this aerial view, and also from the train
q.v.
We walked from Bray up to the cross then down to the cliff walk to Greystones, then rode back by train. From the cliff above a tunnel opening we took the following pictures.
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| I suppose the extra rails are to strengthen |
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Not sure why they have signals on a single line,
but this one turned red a little before the train emerged |
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| Here cometh said train |
At top middle you can see the now unused tunnel for the original track alignment.
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| We waived to the driver and he tooted back |
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| Ventilation shaft to the longest of the tunnels |
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| This I think is where the original trestle bridge sprung from |
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| Bray station, the third line for through trains seems an overkill |
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| Bray station: train arriving from Dublin |
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| The sea, the sea, at Bray |
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| Detail of the beginning of the strengthening, Bray end |
I think I can see then old route on the Google Earth pic, but then in the ground level photos the terrain doesn't look flat enough. Unless those are piles of rubble from digging the tunnel? Or was the track originally at a higher elevation?
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