Hove talk marks 130 years since the Daddy Long Legs first ran to Rottingdean

The artist Luciana Haill is marking 130 years of the Daddy Long Legs with a talk and an afternoon of projected art at the Regency Town House in Hove on Saturday 28 November. That is the anniversary of the day the train first left Banjo Groyne for Rottingdean.

Magnus Volk’s Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway opened on 28 November 1896. Its one car, officially named Pioneer, was a pier-like building on four 23ft legs that ran on rails laid through the shallow sea. A storm on the night of 4 December nearly wrecked it and knocked Pioneer on its side. Volk rebuilt the line and it reopened in July 1897, but it closed after the council decided in 1900 to build a beach protection barrier that the line would have had to go round.

The celebration starts at 2pm with a seated talk of about 30 minutes. After that, visitors can try Haill’s exhibits, which use augmented reality and projected visuals to show Pioneer in different ways. One is a mixed reality room where you sit inside the train carriage, and there are souvenir photos.

The first session ends by 3.30pm. The listing says a second, from 4pm to 5.30pm, will be added if the first sells out. Tickets are £6.13 on Eventbrite.