The Daddy Long Legs

Luciana Haill's mobile artwork, Pioneer AR, revives the spectacular, yet short-lived, history of an electric train that ran on rails through the sea.

Launched in 1896, this unique Brighton marvel was officially named Pioneer, but affectionately known as "The Daddy Long Legs." Designed by local engineer Magnus Volk, the life-size train operated for only five years, carrying upto 150 passengers who embarked from a wooden jetty near the Banjo Groyne in Kemptown (Paston Place). It was decommissioned in 1901 when the Brighton Corporation extended the coastal groynes. The faint scars of its submerged track remain visible at low tide, stretching past The Marina toward Rottingdean.