Although Magnus Volk is best remembered today for his electric railway, it was only one of his many achievements. Born in Brighton in 1851, Magnus Volk was a true pioneer of electrical engineering. His house was the first in Brighton to have electric lighting, and in his workshop he made telegraph sets, telephone exchanges, an electric motor-car, and much more.
On August 4th, 1883, there opened in Brighton the first electric railway to provide a regular service in Britain, and one of the first electric lines in the world.
Magnus Volk had a yearning to extend his railway from Brighton to Rottingdean. Not wanting to take the line along the base of unstable chalk cliffs, it occurred to him that he might go along the seashore. To maintain this service at high tide, the cars would have to be capable of moving through the sea. Volk first proposed battery traction, but later decided in favour of an overhead trolley wire.
From a point about 100 yards out from Madeira Drive at Banjo Groyne, a double track of 2 ft 81/2 inches (83 cm) was laid, the tracks being set 18 feet (51/2 metres) apart. The railway remained 60-100 yards from the shore all the way to Rottingdean 41/2 kilometres to the east, where a light steel pier 100 yards long was built out to meet it. The rails were set in concrete blocks mortised into the chalk bedrock and spaced at intervals of about 1 metre. The line was constructed by British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd.
Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co produced a delightful vehicle to run on the seashore railway. It was surely the strangest thing they had ever produced. It was a mix between an open-top tramcar, a pleasure yacht and a seaside pier. It weighed 40 tons, and consisted of an elliptical platform or deck, supported by four braced legs over 7 metres long. Each leg ended in a small truck with four 98 cm wheels, encased in steel plates. These trucks had scrapers to push aside seaweed and shingle from the track. The legs and bracing looked like a broken-off piece of seaside pier. The vehicle came to be known as "Pioneer" or "Daddy-Long-Legs". Some 150 passengers could be carried. Electricity was produced from a plant under Rottingdean Pier.
The opening took place at noon on Saturday, November 28th, 1896, at low water, in sunshine and a bitterly cold east wind. The journey from Brighton to Rottingdean took about 35 minutes. The fare was a mere 2 1/2 pence each way.
There were to be only a few days of running before disaster intervened. On the night of December 4th/5th, and again on the following night, Brighton was lashed by storms of great severity and the Old Chain Pier, which was in a rather shaky state, was finally dashed to pieces. Both Volk's lines were very badly damaged. The extension of the line to Rottingdean was so badly damaged that it could not be re-opened until 20th July 1897. The great novelty of "Daddy Long Legs" was that it provided a sea voyage without sea-sickness.
[ adapted from a booklet by the Light Transport League ]