Irish loco album

Fabulous shots of intriguing locos.

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/Trains-Railways-British-Isles/Irish-railways/Irish-railway-archive-3/

 

Brilliant! some fascinating stuff on there. I have always got the impression that the CIE seemed to rely on very old stuff for the bulk of its services and not many new locos were added from about the time of the First World War onwards

 

yes you're spot on. I think the steam fleet was grinding itself into oblivion and diesels arrived in the nick of time.

 

They seemed to go more or less from Victorian 2-4-0s, 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s straight to diesels. Think the LMR directly replacing Webb Precedent 2-4-0s or George Vs with Class 47s!

 

Mike has a fantastic archive.
Intrigues me how many Irish class designations are the same as GNR/LNER. B for 4-6-0, C for 4-4-2, D for 4-4-0, F for 2-4-2, J for 0-6-0 and K for 2-6-0.

 

There was a 2-4-0 in it which I first thought was one of the GER Holden ones, it looks pretty much the same

 

Just having a look... The photo of the D14 at Wexford Quay just oozes atmosphere, with the road vehicles and the sense of action... Superb stuff!

Richard.

 

not entirely , there were few more modern locos, not least some 4-6-0s including the superb Queens and a couple of dozen Woolwich Moguls (SR N class....).

 

I wonder who had that system first, there was a lot of cross fertilisation between Irish and UK railways.

 

Ivatt was at the GS&WR before moving to the GN at Doncaster so maybe that's the link.

 

Well spotted! The 1925 Inchicore classification, or rather one of the Inchicore classification systems (!) was as follows:
A: 4-8-0 (only ever 2 locos!) B: 4-6-0 C: 4-4-2 (all were tank locos)
D: 4-4-0 E: 0-4-4 (all tank locos) F: 2-4-2 (all tank locos)
G: 2-4-0 H: 0-6-4 (all tank locos) I: 0-6-2 (all tank locos)
J: 0-6-0 K: 2-6-0 L: 0-4-2 M: 0-4-0 (all tank locos & surprisingly thin on the ground)
N: 2-2-2 (By 1925 just old Waterford &Tramore Nos.1&2)
P: 2-6-2 (a rare beastie in Ireland)
For 3ft gauge locos, the class letter was followed by 'N' (e.g. the Tralee & Dingle 2-6-0t's were class KN2).

Unlike the LNER, no sub-classes were used. Odd, since several classes contained examples with or without superheating, and/or with Belpaire or round topped boilers.

5'-3" locos were also known by a numeric classification, usually this was the lowest number of a class member surviving at grouping in 1925. This seems to have been the most used (e.g. Class J15 were class 101, far and away the most numerous of all Irish classes).

There was a third classification, based on load capacity, but this seems largely unused outside the traffic department.

The fleet in 1925 consisted of 390 tender locos (110 of which were class 101) and 173 tank locos (incl 45 3ft gauge). By 1944 (the last year of the GSR), the numbers were 375 tender locos and 128 tank locos (incl 29 3ft gauge)

 

Plus, of course (can't pretend it didn't exist):
Photo from 'quazoo.com'

 

Add to that sizeable NI fleets especially GNR

 

Aye, The GNRI was the 2nd largest railway in Ireland. Then there was the Belfast & Northern Counties Rly (later LMS(NCC)), the Belfast & County Down Rly, all subsumed in NI, then butchered by the UTA and the cross border Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Rly and Dundalk, Newry & Greenore Rly (a little slice of the 19th century LNWR on the broad gauge!) .... and the 'Independents', the County Donegal and the Lough Swilly both had reasonably large fleets.

'Spose we'd better mention the Listowel & Ballybunion's trio of 0-3-0's while we're about it!

There were a few respectable industrial installations too. The the Bord Na Mona (peat extraction, 3ft gauge) and Guinness Brewery (5'-3" & 1'-10" gauge) being the largest, though the extensive dual gauge installation at Derry Harbour deserves a mention, with it's capstan and rope worked Foyle Bridge.

 

Understand that was slightly more successful than the Leader, and it did actually do a bit of revenue earning freight work

 

Beyond chain coupled bogies with BFB wheels, the Turf Burner had surprisingly little in common with Leader.

The driving wheels were smaller (3'-7" against Leader's 5'-1"), the boiler was a complete departure, being of two rectangular sections each end of the deep firebox. It had 2 cyls per bogie with piston valves (as opposed to the notorious sleeve valves of Leader's 6 cylinders). The majority of trials were conducted during 1957/58 and although it was never officially added to CIÉ capital loco stock, it did undertake a few freight turns, for which fuelling arrangements must've been "interesting"!

The generally held view is that the loco worked OK and was plenty fast and poweful enough, but suffered from poor driver lookout. It transpires that a single ended 0-4-4 version was sketched out, but got no further. Think double vs single Fairle.

With dieselisation well advanced by the late 1950's, the turf burner was officially scrapped in 1963, though the main frame was photographed, still kicking around Inchicore, in the 1970's.

The loco owed it's existence to a combination of the RoI's penury and the spectre of fuel shortages during and after 'The Emergency" (that's WWII to folk outside Ireland!). With local conditions in mind, it was a worthwhile attempt to use native fuel, but came too late in the day to stand a realistic chance. On any list of putative Irish "new builds", it'd have to rate a ways behind a 'Bandon Tank' or SG2 .... probably a very long way behind.

 

I don't think the turf burner did anymore than run pretty successful trial runs, but as said it was too late, GM diesels came to the rescue (don't talk about the British ones......) I understand if a diesel failed when new and under test, the crew would sit in a siding and wait for the Turf Burner to go away (if was near) rather than be rescued by it.

 

"Outstandingly successful" isn't exactly the first description of the Crossley engined diesels which leaps to mind, is it! I've seen two photos of the Turf Burner on what look to be separate freight turns. As both predate Photoshop by some years, I'm guessing they're genuine and several sources do mention commercial freight turns. With the availability of diesels, coupled with the heavy seasonal beet traffic, CC1 must've been a last resort of choice, though I'd imagine the number of crews 'passed' to operate it was confined to those who'd been involved in it's testing. Perhaps the IRRS have more detail on this fascinating loco?

 

Didn't the early Irish diesels have 2 stroke engines like the Metro Vick Co-Bos?

 

yep and were all replaced by GM motors fairly early on, the first time GM allowed their motors to be used in other manufacturers locos.