0-6-4 Steam Locomotives in Ireland

Class Leitrim (Locobase 3034)

Data from E L Ahrons, The British Railway Locomotive, 1825-1925 (London: Locomotive Publishing Company, 1926); and "The Sligo, Leitrim, and Northern Counties Ry," The Locomotive Magazine, Volume VIII [8] (9 May 1903), pp. 335.

Based on a design originally developed for South Australian railways. Works numbers were 2137-2138 in 1882, 36677 in 1895, and 4073-4074 in 1899. The first two were named Leitrim and Fermanagh, the next Lurganboy, and the last two Lissadell and Hazlewood. The class had a low profile with a dome over the center driven axle.

The S L & NC opened its first section in 1879 and completed its 49-mile main line in 1882. It ran from Sligo on the northwest coast to Enniskillen. Among the distinctions owned by this Irish Broad Gauge railway was that it was the last railway to retain its independence from the national system. Subsidized since the 1920s by both the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom - because it served both jurisdictions - traffic had fallen off enough by the mid-1950s to render the line unsupportable and it closed on 1 October 1957.

Class Sir Henry (Locobase 10561)

Data from "Goods Tank Locomotive, Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway", The Locomotive Magazine (15 June 1906), p.99-100. ((Thanks to George Ferguson for his 12 July email correcting the country's ID.)

Reported to have "...proved very successful in service ...economical in coal consumption," this trio of six-coupled goods locomotives had the typical Beyer, Peacock Belpaire firebox. BP supplied the Sir Henry (works 4592) in 1904 and Enniskillen (works 4720) in 1906. Lough Gill followed in 1917.