Midland Great Western 0-6-0 Locomotives in Ireland

Class 141 (Locobase 21009)

Data from "Goods Locomotive, Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway," The Locomotive Magazine, Volume V (November 1900), p. 180; and Railway and Locomotive engineering, Volume 15, No 9 (September 1902), p. 382. . Works numbers were 3974-3975 in 1900..

Designed by John George Robinson, later of the Great Central. just before the WL&W was absorbed by the Great Southern & Western. Only the 2 remained with the WL&W (Locobase 2687). Engines numbered 4 and 11 were sold to the Midland Great Western before their delivery to the Limerick.

As noted in the WL&W entry, this was a handsome bulldog of an engine with Belpaire boiler and well-spaced drivers with individual splashers. R&LE succinctly praised the Leeds-built design" "They are magnificent machines and can easily handle within reasonable limits as many wagons as can be strung behind."

Class 175 / J5 (Locobase 13582)

Data from "Six-wheeled Mixed Traffic Locomotives", Locomotive News and Railway Notes, p. 124. See also "MGWR Classes F, Fa, and Fb", Wikipedia at [],_Fa,_and_Fb, last accessed on 26 December 2011. See also Steamindex's entry at [], last accessed 26 December 2011.

The MGW wanted to update its motive power holding with a dual-service engine that could pull both passenger and freight trains. Its Chief Mechanical Engineer Walter H Morton of the MGW's Broadstone Works came up with the design and built eighteen of the engines. Armstrong-Whitworth's Woolwich plant produced five (works numbers 175-179) and five more frame-and-cylinder sets. Their 8" (203 mm) piston valves were set inside the frames next to the cylinders.

Steamindex's summary attests to the variety of use when it reports that the class hauled the Limited Mail between Mullingar and Sligo as well as being "...favoured [sic] for livestock traffic and passenger extras and excursions."

When the MGW was consolidated with the Great Southern & Western as the Great Southern, the class received its 623 identification and later the J5. After World War II, when the Irish Free State nationalized its railways as the Coras Iompair Eireann (CI+), all 23 remained to transfer to the new logo. Steam's phase-out in 1963 included some surviving J5s.

Class Canada (Locobase 10472)

Data from "Midland Great Western," Railway Notes, The Locomotive Magazine, Vol X (15 November 1904), p. 188. See also Steamindex's [] entry, last accessed 26 December 2011.

Very similar to the English parent company's six-coupleds of a year earlier (see Locobase 8450), this class also had a Belpaire firebox. The wheelbase was unequally subdivided between the front two close-coupled axles and the wider spread of the rear two axles that admitted the firebox between them.

The class later received superheaters from 1916 on, 43 being the only one fitted with a Schmidt superheater (211 sq ft), the others receiving the Robinson (170 sq ft) in 1917-1919.