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Dublin United Transport Company (by Shane Conway)

Page last updated on 2nd October 2023

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Public transport services in the Dublin area commenced with the building of the Dublin and Kingstown (now called Dun Laoghaire) Railway in the 1830s, with the line opening for business in 1834. An extension of the line to Dalkey in 1844 operated on the atmospheric system, but this had given way to conventional loco hauled trains by 1854, following the takeover of that section of the line by the Dublin and Wicklow Railway. Horse drawn buses are on record as operating from as early as 1836, with the following areas being served in 1840: Clonskeagh, Clontarf, Rathfarnham and Sandymount. Rathmines and Terenure were also being serviced by June 1850. By 1854 a service was operating from Nelson Pillar to Leixlip, and the Clontarf and Clonskeagh routes had been extended to Dollymount and Dundrum respectively.

Although the inauguration of a tram service was mooted as early as 1860, it was May 1867 before anything actually happened. The City of Dublin Tramways Company was formed, intending to have horse trams on the south side of the city, and got as far as laying a section of track on Aston Quay. Following abandonment of the project, the Dublin Tramways Company was formed in 1871, and opened a line to Rathgar in February 1872. By 1878 three other companies had also begun running horse trams on both sides of the river Liffey.

In 1881, three of these operators (Dublin Tramways, North Dublin Tramways and Dublin Central Tramways) joined forces and thus was born the Dublin United Tramways Company. This left just one other company (Dublin Southern Districts Tramway), but two years later, in 1883 the Blackrock and Kingstown Tramways Company started in business. Eventually these two also came into the Dublin United fold, with a new concern (Dublin United Tramway Company (1896) Ltd.) being established in 1896. The same year saw the introduction of the first electric trams, a process of conversion that took five years to achieve. The last horse tram ran to Sandymount in January 1901. In 1907 the DUTC leased the Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramway (not to be confused with the G. N. R.'s scenic Hill of Howth tram route), while, finally in 1928 the former Dublin and Lucan Steam Tramway was taken over. It had been electrified in 1900, and converted to 5'3" gauge tracks before the take-over.

Early independently run bus services fell foul of the successful trams, and thus were short-lived. After the end of the first world war, fresh efforts were made, this time with greater success. Not only did these buses compete with the D. U. T. C. trams, but rival companies competed with each other too, often on the same route. In 1924 the D. U. T. C. announced it too would enter the bus business, and having obtained the necessary powers to do so, it commenced bus route 43 (Eden Quay to Killester) in July 1925. Its tram routes were numbered between 1 and 31 (with a few gaps). As tram services were withdrawn, the number was usually given to the replacement bus service.

Despite the gradual replacement of trams with buses, a gap (331 to 380) was left in the fleet numbering to allow for possible future new trams. By 1928 the decision to oust the trams was definite, and buses in that year took up numbers 331 to 380. During 1933 and 1934, most of the DUTC's competitors were acquired, nearly all of them being compulsory take-overs. The last acquisition was that of the Wicklow Hills Bus Company, Enniskerry in 1936, bringing the fleet numbers up to 704. In 1936, a Mr. Bissett joined the company as rolling stock engineer, formerly of the Scottish Motor Traction group. In December 1936 he devised a new fleet numbering system, based on that of his previous employers, in some cases using the same letters. A new design of single deck bus body was also produced, and these vehicles (on AEC Regal and Leyland Lion chassis) would outlive the company by serving C. I. E. until the early 1950s.

At this point the entire bus fleet was single deckers, but 1937 was to change that. Leyland Motors were then promoting the Titan (with the slogan buy a Titan and bury a tram). The D. U. T. C. borrowed one of the first two G. N. R. AEC Regents in the autumn of 1937 and tried it out on route 50 to Crumlin. On December 18th 1937 Titans R1 and R2 (registered ZC 714 and 715) took to the streets, also on route 50. All future purchases after this date were to be of Titans, with a total of 242 being placed in service up till 1941. A further ten near identical buses were bodied for the Great Southern Railway in 1940. In return four unbodied Leyland Tiger chassis were acquired from the G. S. R. in 1944 and fitted with double deck bodies, these then being put to work on route 25.

At the end of 1944, the D. U. T. C. bus fleet comprised 45 AEC Regals, 99 Leyland Lions, 242 Titans, and the four Tiger based deckers. Of the 144 single deckers, only 118 were actually in service. This fleet of 390 buses and 65 bus routes, along with five surviving tram routes and their cars, became part of Coras Iompair Eireann from January 1st 1945.

This line up of DUTC buses was photographed in Donnybrook garage, sometime in the early 1940s. The single deckers are N class Leyland Lions, nine of which are depicted, while the six deckers are Leyland TD5 and TD7 Titans. Nearest the camera is R212, which was new in 1940. It carries front adverts for long defunct company Merville Dairies; the others are promoting Dublin Zoo.

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1931

1932

1933

Acquired vehicles which were not placed in service by the DUTC

1934

Acquired vehicles which were not placed in service by the DUTC

1935

1936

1937

This photo, taken on Easter Monday 2002, depicts the entire Dublin United and C. I. E. Leyland Titan story in brief. The leading bus, R1, was the very first D. U. T. C. Titan to enter service in December 1937 at Clontarf and it remained in service until September 30th 1956. The following day R686 (at the back of this line up) entered service at Ringsend garage, and it displaced a bus to Clontarf to replace R1. The bus in the centre is RA37, one of the 1959 PD3s, and it was to be among the last survivors of the breed in service in 1982, again in Clontarf garage. Thus Clontarf was home to both the first and last batches of Leyland Titans to operate in service in the Dublin City area.

1938

1939

Above is a photo of Leyland TD5 R160 in O'Connell Street, Dublin sometime after 1951, which is the year the 22A route started. In order to show a route 22A display on older buses, an extra panel was made up and stitched into place, instead of replacing the entire blind. Photo by Roy Marshall.

1940

1941

1944

Total fleet = 785 with 2 survivors (F21 and R1).

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