Thomas Fleming Bergin

Thomas Fleming Bergin was an Irish[lower-alpha 1] civil engineer and Company Secretary of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), the first passenger railway of Ireland. He was actively involved in the management and engineering support of the D&KR[3] and the later Dalkey Atmospheric Railway throughout their construction and for their operational life until 1856. A life member of the Royal Irish Academy he is also known for invention of a patented spring-loaded rail buffer.

Thomas Fleming Bergin
Bornc. 1796
Died1 December 1862
Dublin
Resting placeMount Jerome[1]
Spouse(s)Martha McAllister
Engineering career
DisciplineCivil engineer
InstitutionsRoyal Irish Academy
Employer(s)Dublin and Kingstown Railway
Projects
Significant designrail vehicle buffer

Biography

There appears to be little or no immediately available information on Bergin's formative years. Bergin was born in 1796 or possibly 1795.[lower-alpha 2] There are possibilities he learned his civil engineering on canals in Ireland or Railways in England, and may have been recommended to the D&KR by Vignoles or some other source, but this is speculation. A indicator which points to him regarding himself as a Dubliner is a reference to "...our river, the Liffey" is in an address to the Microscopical Society of Dublin in the early 1840s.[2]

Dublin and Kingstown Railway

Bergin was appointed D&KR company Clerk[lower-alpha 3] when James Pim Junior was appointed as D&KR treasurer[lower-alpha 4] in May 1832. Pim Junior and Bergin were to form an effective management team to the end of the D&KR's operational life and were noted as working well together.[4] Bergin also functioned as the company's chief engineer and appears to have worked well with the D&KR's chief consulting engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles.[5]

Although only mentioned as Chief clerk and not by name the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) facilitated a visit by Bergin in June 1833 to examine how that company kept its books.[6]

Bergin was briefly given additional responsibilities and entitled as the company's mechanical engineer in 1935 however it was realised this actually required an independent individual.[7] 1935 also saw Bergin involved with the purchase of the Dodds designed locomotive star. One might question if Bergin was swayed by Vignoles association with Dodds, and also why Swiftsure was not purchased from the L&MR. In the event star proved to be bad business back in Ireland with bad workmanship causing Bergin to threaten not to pay for it until remedied. (Murray 1981, p. 184) picks up of Bergin's exasperated demand for a pair of wheel's to be obtained from Forrester's "or some other Lancashire house" as notable due to the underlying rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire.[lower-alpha 5]

Bergin married Martha McAllister in 1835.[8]

Bergin was a proponent of the Atmospheric Railway System and technically supported Pim Junior as evidenced by a detailed technical rebuff in 1843 to a report by Smith and Barlow.[9][10]

Incentivised by the 1844 designs of the Great Western Railway (GWR) of England through their instrument of the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow & Dublin Railway (3WS) to extend the railway from Dublin southwards to Bray and beyond the D&KR directors backed an alternate scheme spearheaded by James Pim and Bergin to widen the Dalkey Atmospheric to a standard railway and to extend south to Bray with the formation of the Kingstown and Bray Railway Company (K&BR) to accomplish the task. Attempts to negotiate get an enabling bill through parliament for such a small scheme in a period when a vast number of railway schemes were being presented against the opposition of the GWR seriously affected the health of Pim. Bergin eventually took Pims place in negotiations with the GWR over the Bray extension and with Pim unwell undertook a trip to the GWR headquarters in Paddington and negotiated the agreement that would eventually lead to the D&KR eventually being forced to give up its operating rights in the 1850s, albeit for an appropriate compensation for equipment and suitable annual rental to the D&KR.[11]

Design bias

There are some indications Bergin may have had a preference for the outside horizontal-cylinder double framed locomotive supplied by Forrester's. Short wheelbase 2-2-0 locomotives were very susceptible to having a yawing motion increasing with speed with consequent stresses on track and locomotive with risk of derailment. The use of unbalanced wheels made matters worse, and more so by the use of outside cylinders at the front of the locomotive. Use of a trailing axle could somewhat alleviate the issue, as could balanced driving wheels. But it should be observed the vertical cylinders of the D&KR's Sharp locomotives gave a worse track hammer blow effect.

  • The D&KR's consultant Rastrick produced a specification somewhat based around the Sharp's Experiment locomotive. On seeing Experiment in operation on the L&MR, where it was not viewed favourably, Bergin voiced misgivings of aspects of the particulars of the design including vibrations and coke consumption.[12]
  • There are indications Vignoles, Bergins friend, was more won over by Dodds design with outside horizontal cylinders, and Bergin may have been too.
  • George Forrester at some point cautioned against the insider-cylinder design of Bury due to the difficulty of manufacturing reliable crank axles.
  • Forrester had not produced locomotives prior to the D&KR build, and with the relative ease of Liverpool Dublin communications there is likelihood the design was developed collaboratively between Forresters, Bergin and Vignoles.
  • When speed testing the Forrester engine Vauxhall which only achieved 36 mph due to 'bad coke'. Despite Vauxhall being relatively new there would have been a propensity to yaw severely at speed and it is possible excessive yawing was the true reason speed was not higher. The Sharp's engine Hibernia achieved 60 mph light engine.[13]
  • With days of the locomotive Star arriving at the D&KR in September 1835, Bergin was furious the at the dangerous state of repair of the small wheels and demanded replacements from Forrester "or some other Lancashire house".[14][lower-alpha 6]
  • Bergin withheld payments on the three Sharps locomotives for a year for excessive maintenance demands.[15]
  • The locomotives built by the D&KR's own Grand Canal Street works were a development of the Forrester design.[16]

Other interests

Bergin seems to have had other interests outside the railways, perhaps particularly as indicated by his membership of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) to which he was elected on 30 November 1836.[17] Bergin is noted having authored or contributed to the RIA's proceedings with papers: "On an Aurora", "On Talbotized Photogenic Paper", "On Preservation of Rusted Antiquities" and "On illuminatation of Objects in a microscope.[17]

He was President of the Microscopical Society of Dublin.[18]

Bergin also seemed interested in objects he came across in his travels, presenting some stones to the RIA that appear to have come from altars[19] and on 14 September 1846 whilst near Craigha Moira in Connemara alighted from his outside car and noted and picked some unusual heather known as Erica ciliaris normally only found in the British Isles in South West England.[20]

Nicholas Chain Bridge

Bergin had a minor interest in the Nicholas Chain Bridge, the 776 metres (2,546 ft) bridge over the Dnieper in Kiev being the largest in Europe at the time of its completion in 1855. Vignoles visited Bergin in November 1846 to check his calculations for the bridge were correct. Bergin checked the calculations and suggested Vignolas sent them to E. Whiteford, "a mathematician of hig repute" at Trinity College, Dublin, for verification. Vignolas, wishing to make absolutely sure there were no errors, spent a three day visit with Bergin meeting Thomas Romney Robinson at the Armagh Observatory.[5]

Retirement

Bergin retired when the operation of the D&KR was taken over by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway in 1856, having remained loyal to the D&KR despite offers from other railways.[7] He died in December 1862,[7] at his residence at 12 Pembroke Place, Dublin.[21] He had built up a significant library of work that was auctioned in 1863.

Surviving artifacts

Two significant personal possessions of Bergin's have survived into perhaps slightly unexpected collections. A microscope was purchased by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for £140 in 1863 and remains in their heritage collection, and a French aneroid barometer has found its way to the Western Australian Museum.[22][lower-alpha 7]

Inventions

Buffer invention
Illustration of the "Bergin Buffer" on D&KR carriage with a cutaway version showing the spring buffer at either end of the vehicle.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), which had successfully operated since 1830, facilitated the testing of locomotives and viewing of operations by other railways, sometimes taking on improvements from such demonstrations. themselves. For the D&KR it permitted the testing of their locomotives and even a trial of the track construction technique the D&KR was to use. The L&MR had a problem with the connections to its rail carriages experiencing severe jolting on starting and stopping, and also a tendency to snake when moving along. The L&MR's carriages originally did not have buffers in the first two years of operation. An initial early form of connecting buffers was introduced on the L&MR, which was on the two buffer arrangement. Bergin's central buffer appear to improve this greatly with great strength being achieved with its longitudinal central arrangement even being tested on the L&MR to withstand a locomotive to carriage collision at 15 mph without damage. The device also allowed to L&MR's carriages to be constructed with less weight, however at least some called the device over-complicated. The L&MR investigated the Bergin Buffer in 1835,[23] but the L&MR seem to have then improved their buffers with at least source indicating one improvement was derived from the Bergin device, and the L&MR twin buffer arrangement was the one that spread. (Snell 1921, pp. 40–41) Claims the utility of the spring buffer was first recognised on the D&KR, though Snell also claims Bergin's device was unreliable in practice due to its complexity. With the take over of the D&KR and conversion to 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) c.1856 rolling stock had the Bergin buffer removed and replaced by a then standard twin buffer arrangement.[24]

Rope driven row-boat patent

Bergin together with James Pim put forward a patent for a rope driven "Row-boat" in 1837; a man-powered rail handcar.[25][lower-alpha 8]

Notes
  1. On the basis of a claim the Liffey in Dublin was "our river"[2]
  2. Records at Mount Jerome confirm age 66 on death
  3. The equivalent today of Company Secretary
  4. Effectively General Manager
  5. Star was designed by Dodds, a Yorkshireman, but was built in Birmingham
  6. Murray (1981) notes this as possibly a tactless insult invoking traditional Yorkshire versus Lancashire rivalry, however Horsley Ironworks was at Tipton and design Dodds was from County Durham.[14]
  7. As of 2020 the current reference for the Dublin microscope is RCSI/M/6
  8. It is pragmattically probable at least one was built and tried on the D&KR however functionally similar and possibly better crank and polling based cars may have existed by this point.

References
  1. Dublin Daily Express (1862), p. 1.
  2. Cooper (1842), p. 69.
  3. Murray (1982), p. 22.
  4. Murray (1981), pp. 21–22.
  5. Vignoles (1889), p. 331.
  6. Thomas (1980), p. 229.
  7. Murray (1981), p. 97.
  8. Digges La Touche (1900), p. 657.
  9. Bergin (1843).
  10. Saunders (1843).
  11. Murray (1981), pp. 62–66.
  12. Murray (1981), p. 173.
  13. Vignoles (1889), p. 185.
  14. Murray (1981), p. 184.
  15. Murray (1981), p. 182.
  16. Murray (1981), p. 187.
  17. RIA (1864), p. 303.
  18. Cooper (1842), p. 158.
  19. RIA (1850), p. 273.
  20. Society (1981), pp. 55–56.
  21. Kings County Chronicle (1862), p. 2.
  22. Mollan (1995), 4252 RCS002 & Ex0563.
  23. Thomas (1980), p. 174.
  24. Murray (1981), p. 193.
  25. Velocipedes (2016), pp. 1–2.

Bibliography
  • Bergin, Thomas F. (1843). The Atmospheric Railway: Observations on the Report of Lieut. Colonel Sir Frederick Smith, R.E., and Professor Barlow, on the Atmospheric Railway. Addressed to Francis Low, Esq., Chairman of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway Company (Report). Dublin: Hodges and Smith.
  • Cooper, Daniel (1842). The Microscopic Miscellany; being selections from the Microscopic Journal. London.
  • Donaghy, Thomas J (1972). Liverpool & Manchester Railway operations, 1831-1845. Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles. ISBN 9780715357057. OCLC 637059.
  • Dublin Daily Express (3 December 1862). "Deaths".
  • Grierson, Thomas B (1887). "The enlargement of Westland Row Terminus Part I". Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. 18. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  • Digges La Touche, J. J. (1900). Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command, Volume 44. p. 657. Appendix to Thirtieth Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland. M Allister, Martha and Thomas Fleming Bergin — 1835 — M.L.
  • Kings County Chronicle (3 December 1862). "Deaths". Kings County Chronicle.
  • Kullmann, Kurt (28 May 2018). The First Irish Railway: Westland Row to Kingstown. THP Ireland. ISBN 978-0750987646.
  • Lyons, Garrett (15 October 2015). Steaming to Kingstown and Sucking Up to Dalkey: The Story of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. Dublin: Londubh Books. ISBN 978-1907535772.
  • Mollan, Charles (1995). Irish National Inventory of Historic Scientific Instruments. Dublin: Blackrock & Co. : Stanton. ISBN 1898706050. OCLC 716410184. 4252 RCS002 & Ex0563.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Murray, Kevin (1981). Ireland's First Railway. Dublin: Irish Railway Record Society. ISBN 0-904078-07-8.
  • RIA (1850). "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy". IV. OCLC 297603481. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • RIA (1853). "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy". V. OL 20482528M. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • RIA (1864). "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy". VIII. OCLC 297603481. OL 25600122M. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Saunders (18 October 1834). "The Dublin and Kingstown Railway". Mechanics Magazine. London: J. Cunningham. 22 (584): 47 – via googlebooks.
  • Saunders (26 August 1843). Robertson, J.C. (ed.). "The Atmospheric Railway". Mechanics Magazine. Vol. 39 no. 1046. pp. 149–151.
  • Snell, S (1921). A Story of Railway Pioneers — being an account of the inventions and works of Isaac Dodds and his son Thomas Weatherburn Dodds. London: Selwyn & Blount, Ltd. OCLC 1085335383. OL 7035758M.
  • Society, Heather (1981). Year Book 1981. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 1963-2003. Heather Society. pp. 55–56.
  • Thomas, R. G. H. (1980). The Liverpool & Manchester Railway. London: B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0713405376. OCLC 6355432. OL 6395958W.
  • Vignoles, Olinthus J. (1889). "XIII". Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles ... soldier and civil engineer, formerly lieutenant in H.M. 1st Royals, past-president of Institution of civil engineers; a reminiscence of early railway history. London & New York: Longmans, Green & Co. OL 6928380M.
  • Velocipedes (January 2016). "1837 British Patent No. 7352 by Pim & Bergin" (PDF). Velocipede. No. 64. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2020.
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