The Irish Chemist Who Put Battery-Powered Trains on the Rails in 1932

Part 4 of our Irish Renewable Energy Pioneers series

Fr. Nicholas Callan built batteries big enough to electrocute turkeys. Kathleen Lonsdale proved the molecular shapes that make solar cells work. Prof. Sarah McCormack is engineering the next generation of solar technology. But there's one Irish scientist who took batteries out of the lab and onto the rails, literally, running passenger trains on pure battery power through Dublin and Wicklow in the 1930s and 1940s.

Dr. James J. Drumm was an Irish chemist who developed a revolutionary traction battery at University College Dublin in the late 1920s. His battery-powered trains ran successfully on the Dublin to Bray route from 1932 to 1949, carrying thousands of passengers and proving that electric transport powered by rechargeable batteries wasn't science fiction, it was perfectly viable engineering.

Nearly a century later, we're finally catching up to what Drumm demonstrated: that batteries can power transport, cleanly and efficiently, without a drop of petrol or diesel.

The Chemist Who Cracked Fast Charging

Drumm completed his education at UCD in 1918 and spent several years working in industry in the UK and Ireland before returning to UCD in 1925 to begin his PhD research in the Experimental Physics Laboratory under Professor John J. Nolan, who also advised the Irish Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Drumm's research focused on a new type of alkaline battery chemistry. In 1929, he applied for a patent on an improved design that combined the advantages of both alkaline and lead-acid cells. The breakthrough was speed: the Drumm battery could charge four times as fast as contemporary batteries (notably those from the Edison Battery Company) and discharge up to three times as fast, enabling strong acceleration and regenerative braking.

Think about that for a moment. In the 1920s, most batteries took hours to charge and couldn't deliver power quickly enough for heavy-duty applications like trains. Drumm's chemistry solved both problems, and the Irish government took notice.

From Lab to Live Service

In 1930, the government backed Drumm's work with £27,000 (equivalent to roughly €2 million today), and the Drumm Battery Company was formed. The timing was strategic: Ireland's new Shannon Hydroelectric Scheme was generating surplus electricity, and battery trains offered a way to use that clean, homegrown power for transport instead of importing coal or oil.

A small four-wheeled petrol railcar was modified at Inchicore railway works and fitted with a 110V Drumm battery and two 22kW motors. Trial runs in 1930 were spectacular: the train could hit 80 kph (50 mph) within 50 seconds of starting and maintained 88 kph (55 mph) for most of the Dublin to Bray run.

In February 1932, a Drumm train was fully charged at Inchicore and ran to Portarlington and back, a total distance of 130 kilometres (80 miles), on a single charge. The test was repeated several times successfully, and the trains entered regular passenger service.

Four Trains, Seventeen Years of Service

Four Drumm Battery Train units (designated A, B, C, and D) were built at Inchicore between 1931 and 1938. Units A and B entered service in 1932, with C and D joining in 1939. Each two-car articulated set could carry 140 passengers and had a maximum design speed of 76 kph, though they reportedly touched 97 kph on occasion (and one claim puts them at 116 kph, though that seems optimistic for 1930s rail infrastructure).

The trains' specifications were impressive for the era:

• Power supply: 272 nickel-zinc cells connected in series, producing 460 volts
• Traction motors: Two per set, delivering 600 horsepower (450 kW) total
• Operating range: 64 kilometres (40 miles) per charge
• Recharge time: About one minute per mile to be covered, so roughly 15 minutes to recharge for the Dublin to Bray run, which took about 20 minutes non-stop

Charging was done via an overhead pantograph pickup at the turnaround station, making it quick and convenient. The trains could be coupled together with an unpowered trailer in between for extra capacity.

The Emergency Years and the End of an Era

During World War II (known in Ireland as "The Emergency"), coal and petrol shortages crippled steam locomotives and road transport. The Drumm trains, running on domestically generated hydroelectric power, became invaluable. Their use increased significantly during the war years, proving the strategic value of electric transport that didn't depend on imported fossil fuels.

But the post-war years were less kind. Electricity shortages in 1949 (ironically caused by low water levels at the Shannon scheme) limited their operation. More critically, the batteries were reaching the end of their service life after nearly two decades, and replacement batteries were expensive. Cheaper diesel railcars were becoming available.

On 12 July 1949, the last Drumm train left Bray. All four units were converted into ordinary passenger carriages and hauled by steam locomotives until the mid-1950s, when they were finally withdrawn and scrapped between 1957 and 1964.

A Technology Ahead of Its Time

The Drumm trains weren't a failure, they were a working proof of concept that ran successfully for 17 years. The technology worked. What killed them wasn't engineering problems; it was economics and timing. Diesel was cheap in the 1950s, battery technology was expensive, and there was no pressing reason (yet) to electrify transport.

But Drumm had proven the principle: you could run passenger trains on rechargeable batteries, charge them quickly, and operate them reliably over decades. He'd essentially built an electric multiple unit (EMU) decades before they became standard across Europe's railways.

From Rail to Road

Today, we're applying the same principle Drumm demonstrated to road transport. Modern EVs use lithium-ion instead of nickel-zinc, and they charge at home instead of via overhead pantographs, but the core concept is identical: store electricity in batteries, use it to power electric motors, recharge quickly when you reach your destination.

At WattCharger, we help Irish homes and businesses install the charging infrastructure that makes electric transport practical. When you plug in your EV at home and top up overnight using cheap electricity (or better yet, solar power from your own roof), you're doing exactly what the Drumm trains did at Bray station in 1932, you're turning stored electricity into clean, efficient mobility.

Drumm also proved another principle that's relevant today: domestically generated renewable electricity can power transport, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels. In the 1930s, that was Shannon hydro powering battery trains. In 2026, it's Irish wind and solar powering home EV chargers and, increasingly, electrified public transport.

The Legacy Lives On

The Drumm trains are long gone (though a handbuilt model survives in the Fry Model Railway collection), but the idea lives on. Ireland's rail network is gradually electrifying, and battery-electric buses are being trialled in Dublin and Cork. The Irish government has committed to phasing out petrol and diesel cars, and over 200,000 homes now have EV chargers installed.

James Drumm proved it could be done nearly a century ago. We're finally building the infrastructure to do it at scale.

So next time you plug in your EV or see an electric bus glide silently past, remember the Irish chemist who put battery power on the rails in 1932, and proved that clean, electric transport wasn't a fantasy, it was just good engineering.

Coming Next: Part 5: The Irish Scientist Who Discovered Why We Need Solar Panels Today 

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