Ulster 2-4-0 Locomotives in Ireland

Class Province (Locobase 20701)

Data from "Four-coupled Passenger Engines, Ulster Ry", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXV [25] (15 August 1919), pp. 124-125. Works numbers were 367-370 in 1863.

This quartet of express engines were the only ones to run on the Ulster Railway before its absorption by the Great Northern of Ireland in 1876. As built, the design reflected contemporary BP practice in using a raised firebox and a dome positioned well forward, brass casings and copper-topped chimneys. Locobase has designated them as the Province class because each engine was named for one of the four Irish Provinces: Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught in works and road number order.

"For many years", said the 1919 report, the class "performed the most important work on the system." Impressive, but the report immediately adds, "[I]t must be admitted that at the time they were built this was not of a very exacting nature." The premier trains of the Dublin mails covered the 25 miles between Belfast and Portadown in 48 minutes while making two intermediate stops for a 31 mph (50 kph) average.

A few years after their adoption by the GNR(I), the Belfast Works rebuilt the engines; see Locobase 20702.