John Luce, Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and Public Orator of the same, writes about the old, extinct Giant's Causeway electric tramway to emphasise the connections between that project and Trinity College, for more than one Traill was involved. The man at the heart of the matter was William Acheson Traill who graduated in 1865 as a BA, and with an engineering degree (M. Eng) in 1873, "so that he put what he learned with us to good use". Kenneth Bailey, in his History of TCD, says that the project was the first hydro-electric railway in the world and records the admiring comment of an early visitor: "I have seen tramways and I have seen railways but this is the first time I have seen a Traill-way."
John Luce in his own history of the College, The First Four Hundred Years, records that William's brother Anthony was closely involved with him in the project. Anthony, a TCD Fellow, became Provost in 1904. He was instrumental, writes Luce, in persuading the Board to erect the first extension to the Engineering School, designed to give the students practical experience of mechanical and electrical engineering. So Anthony's Antrim experience of the tramway led to a useful advance to the College, writes Luce.
And there are still Traills around in the Bushmills area as can be seen from an information sheet issued by David Laing, the man who is carrying on the Traill example, by putting a railway system into the stretch from Bushmills to the Causeway. In June of last year, the first train went down the line. The next day a second train went "with great care, quite rightly, all seven passengers were direct descendants of Uncle Willie Traill who had built the tramway in 1881-3 only one was over (a lot over) the age of twelve".
David Laing's train may run for a shorter distance than the original Traill brothers' tram, but it is a colossal undertaking just the same, involving not only the construction of a new bridge over the river Bush and the laying of miles of new track, but the construction, too, of a new railway station in Bushmills and a new station with engine and carriage sheds at the Causeway.
Enormous patience and courage and foresight. How can the people of the North repay him? Many have come to visit the good work. And no one put it better than one of those who said "world-famous before you built it". So roll on summer and the joys of that great enterprise. If you know the invigorating air of that part of our country, you'd come from the ends of Ireland, if not the world. Y