Cavan & Leitrim 4-4-0 Locomotives in Ireland

Class 1 (Locobase 6400)

Data from Flanagan, The Cavan & Leitrim Railway (1968), p 80; and "Light Locomotive, Cavan, Leitrim and Roscommon Railway," Engineer, Volume 65 (20 April 1888), pp. 318, 321. Works numbers were 2612-2619 in 1885.

County Leitrim is a long ribbon with its northwest end bordered by Donegal Bay and what became Northern Ireland. The railway was established after much discussion as a narrow-gauge line that ran 33 3/4 miles between Dromond and Beltrebet. In addition to bridging the broad gauge traffic on the Midland and Great Western and Great Northern, respectively, the C & L was to contribute to an economic brightening in a predominantly agricultural area.

Its later history included a relatively prosperous first two decades followed by a steady decline. In 1925 the C & L was amalgamated along with dozens of other small lines into the Great Southern Railway system. Although coal shipments during the war years and a relatively deliberate development of roadways in that area of Ireland delayed its closure, its non-viability was patent and the line closed in 1959.

When it opened in 1887, these tank engines were the first class to run. All of the eight save one were named after daughters of directors -- Isabel, Kathleen, Lady Edith, Violet, Gertrude, May, and Olive. One director declined the honor for his daughter and that engine became the politically correct Queen Victoria. Because part of the line ran as a tramway through settled areas, four of the eight had long skirts over the running gear, condensing gear, better visibility in both directions, and two sets of controls to allow the operator to face in either direction and operate the train (see engraving on p.318, Engineering, for the tramway; 321 shows the other four in conventional trim.).

Alterations included brick arches in the fireboxes almost as soon as the locomotives entered service. In the early 1900s, the locomotives were reboilered. 4 & 5 (1904) and 1 & 3 (1906) received vessels with 113 1 3/4" tubes (11 fewer than before) but a larger firebox with 68 sq ft (6.32 sq m) of heating surface and 10 1/2 sq ft (0.98 sq m) of grate. The firebox now contributed 13.5% of the total heating surface of 505 sq ft (46.92 sq m). Weight increased to 27 long tons (60,480 lb). The other four also were fitted with new boilers of very similar dimensions (save for 109 tubes) in 1908-1910.

2, 4, and 7 were fitted with yet another boiler in 1922, although Olive's was Kathleen's 1908 boiler. By that time Isabel and Lady Edith had each accumulated over 500,000 miles in service. Flanagan details their later career -- suffice to say that each had a different history with only 4 remaining in service at the time the line was closed in 1959.