The Great Southern Railways Company was an Irish company that from 1925 until 1945 owned and operated all railways that lay wholly within the Irish Free State.
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 Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the largest of Ireland's "Big Four" railway networks. At its peak the GS&WR had an 1,100-mile (1,800 km) network, of which 240 miles (390 km) were double track.
Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell held the post of chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the 1923 Grouping and then the post of CME of the Southern Railway in England until 1937. He had previously worked his way up through positions in other railways in Ireland, England and India.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Class 5 were 2-4-2T steam locomotives designed by Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) John Aspinall and introduced from 1889 for local passenger work. Later batches included progressive modifications such as extended coal bunkers and belpaire fireboxes. The final batch built from 1911 to 1914 under George Hughes incorporating superheated boilers and belpaire firebox gave increased tractive effort, others were also rebuilt to this standard. When Hughes introduced his classification system in 1919, the more powerful superheated locomotives were designated Class 6. The final examples were withdrawn in 1961.
The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) was the third largest Irish gauge railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railways in 1924. At its peak the MGWR had a network of 538 miles (866 km), making it Ireland's third largest network after the Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) and the Great Northern Railway of Ireland.
The GS&WR Class 2 was a lightweight 4-4-0 steam locomotive used by the Great Southern and Western Railway in Ireland in the late 19th and in the first half of the 20th century. They were the first locomotives of type 4-4-0 in Ireland.
The GS&WR Class 101, classified as Class 101 or Class J15 by the Great Southern Railways, was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives designed for working goods traffic although they did, and were quite capable of, working branch and secondary passenger trains.
The Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway (WL&WR), formerly the Waterford and Limerick Railway up to 1896, was at the time it was amalgamated with the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1901 the fourth largest railway in Ireland, with a main line stretching from Limerick to Waterford and branches to Sligo and Tralee.
The Mallow–Tralee line runs from Mallow to Tralee Casement. Intermediate stations include Banteer, Millstreet, Rathmore, Killarney and Farranfore.
Alexander McDonnell was an Irish locomotive engineer and civil engineer. He was born in Dublin on 18 December 1829 and died in Holyhead on 14 December 1904. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, where he graduated with an honours BA in mathematics (1851). He brought order and standardisation to the workshops and locomotive designs of the Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland, and was later employed to do the same for the North Eastern Railway in England, although resistance to his changes meant little progress was made before he left.
The GS&WR 400 class or CIE class B2/B2a were a class of ten 4-6-0 steam locomotives built for the Great Southern & Western Railway (GS&WR) between 1916 and 1923 for express passenger duties on the Dublin to Cork main line. They proved initially unreliable but rebuilds from four to two cylinders between 1927 and 1937 for the seven survivors produced locomotives yielding satisfactory performance with the last two being withdrawn in 1961.
The Farranfore–Valentia Harbour line was a 39.5 miles (63.6 km) long single-track broad gauge railway line that operated from 1892 to 1960 along Dingle Bay's southern shore in Ireland. It was the most westerly railway in Europe.
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 500 were 4-6-0 locomotives intended for mixed-traffic work. The lead member of the class was built in 1924 under the GS&WR, the remaining two in 1926 under the amalgamated grouping of the Great Southern Railways (GSR).
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 900 consisted of a pair of 4-8-0T locomotives designed by E.A. Watson and introduced in 1915 and 1924 as a heavy shunter and banker for use on the relatively severe gradient from Kingsbridge to Clondalkin.
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 52 consisted of twenty 4-4-0 express passenger tender locomotives designed by John Aspinall. Aspinall also built a further fifteen similar but slightly larger locomotives of GS&WR Class 60.
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 1 consisted of half of the initial order of 40 passenger locomotives ordered for the GS&WR and which entered service between approximately 1845 and 1847. The double-frame design was typical of the locomotives Sharp, Stewart and Company of Manchester, England were producing for other railways.
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 37 consisted of six 4-4-2T tank engines. The first two built by locomotive superintendent Henry Ivatt (Snr.) were based on a previous 2-4-0T design by McDonnell, as were some 2-4-2Ts Ivatt produced two years earlier for the Kerry branches.
The (GS&WR) 0-6-4T were a set of 6 locomotives of two variants of the 0-6-4T arrangement designed by Alexander McDonnell. When introduced in 1876 it was the first use of a 0-6-4 configuration in the British Isles. The final four locomotives were to be designated GS&WR Class 203.
Robert Coey (1851–1934) was a locomotive superintendent of the Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) of Ireland from 1896 until 1911.
