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07/30/2004 Archived Entry: "Brighton Daddy Long-legs"

I was reading Angela Thirkell's Three Houses, a memoir of various places where she lived or spent time during her childhood in the 1890s. On one of the last pages, I was really startled by this passage, about the beach in Rottingdean:

By this time a little crowd was collecting on the pier and if my brother and I could find a suitable escort (for we were never allowed to do anything alone, possibly with reason), we had permission to join it. An uncle, or good-natured Julian Ridsdale, would volunteer to look after us and off we would go to see the arrival of the Daddy Long-legs. This was the most preposterous machine which came on railway lines through the sea from Brighton every day. Huge blocks of concrete had been laid in the sea with lines on them and along these rolled a kind of elevated platform with four immensely long legs ending in great boxes with wheels inside them. It was more like a vision of the Martians than anything you ought to see at a peaceful seaside village. We were never allowed to go in it, partly because no grown-up thought it amusing enough to go with us and partly because it had a habit of sticking somewhere opposite the ventilating shaft of the Brighton main sewer and not being moved till nightfall. When it had discharged its passengers at the pier it took on a fresh load and stalked back again to Brighton leaving us in gaping admiration.

What was the Daddy Long-legs? Her description didn't make it clear to me, but a web search did. Magnus Volk built an electric tram that ran on tracks built under the sea! So the legs above the wheels had to be tall enough to keep the car out of the water. "A delightful vehicle to run on the sea railway was made by the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co., surely the strangest thing that firm ever produced. Looking at it, one came to the inescapable conclusion that its ancestors were respectively an open-top tramcar, a pleasure yacht and a seaside pier. It weighed 40 tons, and consisted of an elliptical platform or deck 50 ft. by 33 ft., supported by four braced legs 23 ft. long. Each leg ended in a small truck with four 33-inch wheels, encased in steel plates, and somewhat resembling a midget submarine."

Do look at the poster that advertised this charming but short-lived contraption.

Posted by Adam @ 08/05/2004 09:36 PM PST

Why, yes, mike, I believe I did! after I posted it I realized it would be good for boing boing, so I submitted it via the form there.

What a strange image! I wish it really did walk, like the giant spider in the Wild Wild West movie.

Posted by Anita @ 08/04/2004 08:13 PM PST

Say, did you start this meme? Cool!

Posted by mike @ 08/04/2004 03:36 PM PST