Thomas_Fleming_Bergin

Thomas Fleming Bergin

Thomas Fleming Bergin

Irish railway official and inventor

Thomas Fleming Bergin (n/a - 1862) was an Irish civil engineer and early Irish railway official. He was the Company Clerk of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR),[1] the first public railway in Ireland.[2] He was also responsible for the design of the Bergin Patent Spring Buffer, the buffering system that it used.[3]

Biography

Bergin, who was by profession a civil engineer, was to join the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) in 1832, replacing James Pim as company secretary.[4][5] Lyons notes Pim and Bergin as "two of the most valuable engines the D&KR possessed, although other individuals also played an important part."[6] Murray notes Bergin was to have a "large part of the daily management of the railway", and also notes the Bergin and Pim made an excellent team.[5] Bergin was to remain loyal to the D&KR despite offers from other railways.[7]

Thomas notes the D&KR Chief Clerk (aka Bergin[lower-alpha 1][9]) was sent to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR)[lower-alpha 2] in June 1833.[9] Dawson notes Bergin observed the sprung buffer / connection system used on the L&MR and determined to develop his own design for the D&KR.[10]

On 16 December 1834 Bergin was to place advertisements in the Dublin newspapers as Clerk of the Company proclaiming the public opening of the D&KR with an hourly service from 9am to 4pm inclusive from Westland-Row to Blackrock and Kingstown.[8]

Bergin was additionally appointed 'Mechanical Engineer in 1835, though as that position was found to be needing a full time appointment Bergin was to revert to Clerk.[7] Bergin retired when the operation of the D&KR was taken over by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway in 1856.[7]

Bergin served as president of the Microscopical Society of Ireland in 1842.[11] He died in December 1862.[7]

References

Notes

  1. Thomas actually uses the term Chief Clerk but as Lyons notes that as Bergin style's himself Clerk of the Company Bergin is the only reasonable candidate here.[8]
  2. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was in the 1830s the first, and perhaps for a few years only, example of a significant and effective railway with both freight and scheduled passenger operations; additionally it was a relatively short distance from Dublin by steam packet

Footnotes

  1. [1]
    Mulligan 1990, p. 13.
  2. [2]
    Mulligan 1990, p. 10.
  3. [3]
    Murray 1981, pp. 195–199.
  4. [4]
    Lyons 2015, p. 28.
  5. [5]
    Murray 1981, p. 22.
  6. [6]
    Lyons 2015, pp. 28–29.
  7. [7]
    Murray 1981, p. 97.
  8. [8]
    Lyons 2015, p. 32.
  9. [9]
    Thomas 1980, p. 229.
  10. [10]
    Dawson 2021, p. 224–225.
  11. [11]
    Baker & Gill (2017)

Sources

  • Baker, Richard, and Denis Gill. "Men, microscopes and meetings—the nineteenth century Dublin microscopists and their work." The Irish Naturalists' Journal (2017): 110-115.
  • Dawson, Anthony (2021). Locomotives of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Transport. ISBN 9781526763983. OCLC 1190858980.
  • 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. OCLC 932822091.
  • Mulligan, Fergus (1990) [1983]. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Irish Railways. Belfast: Appletree Press. ISBN 9780862812331. OCLC 20525095.
  • Murray, Kevin (1981). Ireland's First Railway. Dublin: Irish Railway Record Society. ISBN 0-904078-07-8. OCLC 25224606.
  • Thomas, R. G. H. (1980). The Liverpool & Manchester Railway. London: B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0713405376. OCLC 6355432.


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