Steam locomotives of Ireland

A wide variety of steam locomotives have been used on Ireland's railways. This page lists most if not all those that have been used in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Irish railways generally followed British practice in locomotive design.

The list that follows is roughly geographic (north to south) order.

The Ulster Transport Authority, which controlled the railways in Northern Ireland between 1948 and 1966, replaced steam haulage on passenger trains with diesel multiple units, but had only two diesel shunting locomotives, which meant a continued role for steam on freight work. Twenty-three locomotives passed to Northern Ireland Railways in 1967, but most were not used again and all had been withdrawn by 1971.

The Belfast and County Down Railway was founded in 1848. It absorbed the Belfast, Hollywood and Bangor Railway in 1884 and continued operating until it was nationalised in its centenary year into the Ulster Transport Authority as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.

The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR), was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. It had its origins in the Belfast and Ballymena Railway that opened to traffic on 11 April 1848. The Northern Counties Committee came into existence on 1 July 1903 as the result of the Midland Railway taking over the BNCR. At the 1923 Grouping the Committee became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS); with the nationalisation of the railways in Britain in 1948 the line passed to the British Transport Commission and in the following year, 1949, it was sold to the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.

Belfast and Ballymena Railway (1848–1860) and other constituents

The early locomotives of the constituent companies were to assorted designs from a number of manufacturers. The first locomotives for the Belfast and Ballymena Railway were purchased from Bury, Curtis and Kennedy. These were four 2-2-2 singles and one 0-4-2 goods engine. Later, four more 2-2-2s were ordered but this time from Sharp Brothers. Fairbairn 2-2-2s were to be found on the Ballymena Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine and Portrush Junction Railway but this company also favoured Sharp locomotives which were double framed 2-4-0s.

The BNCR introduced class letters for its locomotive stock in 1897. The MR (NCC) and later the LMS (NCC) continued to use the system adding new classes as required.

Following the division of Ireland in 1921 into two administrations, a number of railways now found themselves operating on both sides of the newly created boundary between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State (later Republic of Ireland).

The 3-foot (914 mm) West Donegal Railway became the Donegal Railway in 1892; and the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee after being jointly acquired in 1906 by the Great Northern Railway and the Midland Railway's Northern Counties Committee.

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was formed in 1876 acquiring a variety of locomotives. Nos 1 to 23 were from Dublin and Drogheda Railway; Nos. 24 to 41 from the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway; Nos. 43 to circa 78 from the Irish North Western Railway and Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway; Numbers in the eighties from the Newry and Armagh Railway and nos. 100 to 141 from the Ulster Railway.^[5] Later acquisitions in the 1880s from the Newry, Warrenpoint, and Rostrevor and the Belfast Central Railway were numbered in the Nineties.^[6] The GNR straddled the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland (after 1921), and so was not incorporated in either the CIÉ or Ulster Transport Authority. However, mounting losses saw the network purchased jointly by the Irish and British governments on 1 September 1953. It was run as a joint board, independent of the CIÉ and UTA, until 30 September 1958 when it was dissolved and the remaining stock split equally between the two railways.

? (1877–1881)

James Crawford Park (1881–1895)

Charles Clifford (1895–1912)

G. T. Glover (1912–1933)

G. B. Howden (1933–1939)

H. R. McIntosh (1939–1953)

Broad gauge locomotives (1862–1882)

Narrow gauge locomotives (1882–1954)

The Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway was a small cross-border railway that closed in 1957. Its locomotive fleet never carried numbers, only names.

The railways wholly in the Irish Free State were merged into one private company — Great Southern Railways — in 1925. The GSR renumbered all the broad gauge locomotives into one series with the former Great Southern and Western Railway locomotives retaining their old number. The GSR had two parallel classification systems – a numerical system which was the lowest number of a locomotive in that class, and an alpha-numerical which used a letter to indicate the wheel arrangement, and a number, with the lowest number given to the most powerful class with that wheel arrangement. The latter system was only used by Inchicore Works for accounting purposes, while the former was used by locomotive crews and the drawing office at Inchicore Works.

Note that narrow gauge locomotive classes included the letter N after the prefix letter, letter C was also used for Bo-Bo diesels, and that letters B, C, D, F, J, and K were used for the same wheel arrangements by the London and North Eastern Railway, while E and G changed places.

In 1945, the GSR became part of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), which amalgamated the railway, road transport and canal functions of the State. CIÉ was nationalised in 1950 and settled on a policy of replacing steam with diesel locomotives, a process that was completed in 1962.

M. Atock (1872–1901)

• MGWR Class D – GSR Class 530 or Class D16
• MGWR Class E – GSR Class 551 or Class J26
• MGWR Class H – GSR Class 619 or Class J6
• MGWR Class K – GSR Class 650 or Class G2
• MGWR Classes L and Lm – GSR Classes 573 and 594, Classes J18 and J19
• MGWR Class Ln – GSR Class 563 or Class J16
• MGWR Class P – GSR Class 614 or Class J10
• MGWR Class W – GSR Class 234 or Class J17

E. Cusack (1901–1915)

• MGWR Classes A, As and A1 – GSR class 545 or Class D5
• MGWR Class B – GSR Class 646 or Class J2
• MGWR Classes C and Cs – GSR Class 536 or Class D7
• MGWR Classes C and C1 – GSR Class 540 or Class D6

W. H. Morton (1915–1924)

• MGWR Classes F, Fa, and Fb – GSR Class 623 or Class J5

Alexander McDonnell (1864–1883)

• GS&WR Class 2 – GSR Class 2 or Class D19
• GS&WR Class 21 – GSR Class 21 or Class G4
• GS&WR Class 47 – GSR Class 47 or Class E3
• GS&WR Class 90 – GSR Class 90 or Class J30
• GS&WR Class 91 – GSR Class 91 or Class J29
• GS&WR Class 92 – GSR Class 92 or Class H2
• GS&WR Class 101 – GSR Class 101 or Class J15
• GS&WR Class 203 – GSR Class 203 or Class H1
• GS&WR Class 204 – GSR Class 204 or Class J12
• GS&WR Class Sprite – GSR Class Sprite or Classes L4 and L5

John Aspinall (1883–1886)

• GS&WR Class 52 – GSR Class 52 or Class D17
• GS&WR Class 60 – GSR Class 60 or Class D14

Henry Ivatt (1886–1896)

• GS&WR Class 33 – GSR Class 33 or Class F6
• GS&WR Class 37 – GSR Class 37 or Class C7
• GS&WR Class 201 – GSR Class 201 or Class J11
• GS&WR Jumbo – GSR Class Jumbo or Class J13

Robert Coey (1896–1911)

• GS&WR Class 27 – GSR Class 27 or Class C4
• GS&WR Class 211 – GSR Class 211 or Class J3
• GS&WR Class 213 – GSR Class 213 or Class I1
• GS&WR Class 301 – GSR Class 301 or Class D11
• GS&WR Class 305 – GSR Class 305 or Class D12
• GS&WR Class 309 – GSR Class 309 or Classes D3 and D10
• GS&WR Class 321 – GSR Class 321 or Classes D2, D3, and D4
• GS&WR Class 333 – GSR Class 333 or Classes D2, D3, D4, and D4a
• GS&WR Class 341 – GSR Class 341 or Class D1
• GS&WR Class 351 – GSR Class 351 or Class J9
• GS&WR Class 355 – GSR Class 355 or Class K3
• GS&WR Class 362 – GSR Class 362 or Class B3 – "Long Toms"
• GS&WR Class 368 – GSR Class 368 or Class K4

Richard Maunsell (1911–1913)

• GS&WR Class 257 – GSR Class 257 or Class J4
• GS&WR Sambo – GSR Class Sambo or Class L2

E. A. Watson (1913–1922)

• GS&WR Class 900 – GSR Class 900 or Class A1
• GS&WR 400 Class – GSR Class 400 or Classes B2 & B2a

J. R. Bazin (1922–1924)

• GS&WR Class 500 – GSR Class 500 or Class B1

The Waterford and Limerick Railway changed its name to Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway in 1896. It was acquired by the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1900; by which time all but one of its locomotive fleet had been designed by Robinson.

J. G. Robinson (1888–1900)^[9]

The Dublin and South Eastern Railway started out in 1846 as the Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin Railway Company. In 1853 it was renamed the Dublin and Wicklow Railway Company, and in 1860 it was renamed the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Company and on 31 December 1906 it was renamed again as the Dublin and South Eastern.

Frederick Pemberton (1854–1856)

S. W. Haughton (1856–1864)

William Meikle (1856–1864)

J. Wakefield (1865–1882)

W. Wakefield (1882–1894)

T. Grierson (1894–1897)

R. Cronin (1897–1917)

G. H. Wild (1917–1924)

• WTR Nos. 1 and 2 – GSR Class 483 or N1
• WTR No. 3 – GSR Class 485 or L3
• WTR No. 4 – GSR Class 486 or L1

• CMDR Nos. 2–4 – GSR Class 487 or G5
• CMDR No. 5 – GSR Class 490 or I2
• CMDR No. 6 – GSR Class 491 or F5

• TCLR Argadeen – GSR Class K5
• TCLR St. Molaga – GSR Class L6

• CLR 1 to 8 — GSR Class 1L or Class DN2
• CLR 9 – GSR Class 9L or HN1

• CBPR 1 to 3 – Broad gauge 2-2-2WT
• CBPR 4 to 7 – GSR Class 4P or Class FN1, later Class 10L

• CMLR 1 to 3 – GSR Class 1K or Class DN6
• CMLR 4 and 5 – GSR Class 5K or Class EN1, later Class 6S
• CMLR 7 – GSR Class 7K or DN3
• CMLR 8 – GSR Class 8K or DN7

• SSLR 1 to 3 – GSR Class 2S or Class MN1
• SSLR 4 – GSR Class 4S or Class DN5
• SSLR 1 and 3 – GSR Class 1S or Class DN4

• TDLR 1 to 3, 6, and 8 – GSR Class 1T or Class KN2
• TDLR 5 – GSR Class 5T or Class PN2 Currently preserved
• TDLR 7 and 8 – GSR Class 4T or Class KN1

• WCR 5 to 7 – GSR Class 5C or Class IN1. No 5 is preserved and operational at the West Clare preserved Railway
• WCR 2, 4, 8, and 9 – GSR Class 2C or Class PN1
• WCR 10 – GSR Class 10C or Class BN1
• WCR 11 – GSR Class 11C or Class BN2
• WCR 1 – GSR Class 1C or Class BN3
• WCR 3 and 7 – GSR Class 3C or Class BN4

• BNM 1/3 WN 2263-2265 Originally numbered 1-3 Renumbered to LM43/45. Extensively upgraded and Modified E Class locomotives from WW1. All 3 survive in Preservation. 1 is now No 7^[14] on the Talyllyn. No 2 resides operational on the Stradbally Woodland Railway. No 3 "Shane" now preserved and awaiting overhaul on the Giants Causeway Line.

The GSR introduced just under sixty steam locomotives between 1925 and 1944,^[15]: 349 whilst CIÉ introduced one, the experimental Bulleid turf burner. CIÉ did however acquire 83 steam locomotives, which was precisely half of the Great Northern Railway stock, when that company was split between CIÉ and the Ulster Transport Authority after 30 September 1958.^{[16]: 184–185}

J. R. Bazin (1925–1929)

• GSR Class 372 – also Class K1: Numbers 372–391 (R.E.L. Maunsell, imported in 1924)
• GSR Class 280 – also Class M1 (previous Class M1 became Class M2): numbers 280–281
• GSR Class 700 – also Class J15a: Numbers 700–704
• GSR Class 850 – also Class P1: Number 850

W. H. Morton (1929–1932)

• GSR Class 393 – also Class K1a: Numbers 393–398 (R.E.L. Maunsell, imported in 1924)
• GSR Class 495 – also Class M3: Number 495

A. W. Harty (1932–1937)

• GSR Class 670 – also Class I3: Numbers 670–674
• GSR Class 710 – also Class J15b: Numbers 710–719

Edgar Craven Bredin (1937–1942)

• GSR Class 800 – also Class B1a: Numbers 800–802

M. J. Ginnetty (1942–1944)

C. F. Tyndall (1944–1951)

O. V. S Bulleid (1951–1958)

• CIÉ No.CC1 Turf-burning locomotive

• List of steam locomotives in Ireland

• Diesel locomotives of Ireland
• Multiple units of Ireland
• Coaching stock of Ireland
• History of rail transport in Ireland
• Rail freight stock of Ireland

• Ahrons, E. L. (1954). L. L. Asher (ed.). Locomotive and train working in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Vol. six. W Heffer & Sons Ltd.
• Clements, Jeremy & McMahon, Michael (2008). Locomotives of the GSR. Newtownards: Colourpoint Books. ISBN 978-1-906578-26-8.
• Haresnape, Brian; Rowledge, Peter (1982). Robinson Locomotives, a pictorial history. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-1151-6.
• Rowledge, J. W. P. (1993). Irish Steam Locomotive Register. Stockport, Merseyside: Irish Traction Group. ISBN 0-947773-33-9.

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