Samuel Wilfred Haughton
Samuel Wilfred Haughton (1822-1898)
1857 Locomotive Superintendent of the Dublin and Wicklow Railway.[1]
1899 Obituary [2]
SAMUEL WILFRED HAUGHTON, the eldest son of Mr. Thomas Haughton, of Kelvin Grove and Greenbank, Carlow, Ireland, was born on 2nd February 1822 at Graigue, a village adjoining Carlow, but in the Queen's County.
His early education was received at the Carlow Diocesan School, where he developed a liking for mechanics, and with his cousin and schoolfellow, the late Rev. Dr. Samuel Haughton, F.R.S., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin (Proceedings 1397, page 514), constructed a model steam-engine, which worked to their satisfaction.
From about 1838 to 1845 he served his apprenticeship for seven years to his uncle, Mr. Richard Pim, chief engineer of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, whom he succeeded in 1846 as locomotive superintendent, and as chief engineer on his death shortly afterwards. This was the first railway constructed in Ireland, and the second railway opened in the United Kingdom; the opening took place in 1834. On the occasion of the Queen's first visit to Ireland in August 1849, he drove the engine of the royal train from Kingstown to Dublin.
On the amalgamation of this line with the Dublin and Wicklow Railway in 1856 he became locomotive superintendent of the joint concern, and also in 1860 of the extension of the line to Wexford.
After twenty-six years of railway service he retired in 1864, and lived in Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, with his uncle, Mr. Henry Pim.
On his death he returned in 1865 to Greenbank, Carlow, which had descended to him on his father's decease. Here he devoted his energies to the management of the property, including an extent of farm land in County Kildare; and to the welfare of his tenants, among whom were included a considerable number of cottiers in Carlow. For many years he was chairman of the Dispensary Committee, despite the difficulty under which he laboured latterly of increasing deafness.
After a very short illness his death took place at Greenbank on 25th March 1898, at the age of seventy-six.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1857.