Great Northern 4-4-2 Locomotives in Ireland

Class T1 (Locobase 20326)

Data from "New Side Tank Engines, Great Northern Ry (Ireland)", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XX [20] (15 June 1914), pp. 145-146. See also steamindex.com's summary of "Great Northern Railway (Ireland)", last accessed at [] on 27 November 2017, including cite to Johnston, Norman. Locomotives of the GNR(I). Newtownards: Colourpoint, 1999, 208pp. Works numbers were 5737-5741 in 1913.

George T Glover, the GN (I)'s locomotive superintendent, wanted an engine equally capable of shunting and short local runs on the mainline. He felt a superheater was unnecessary in such an operating environment, but he did include a Weir feed water heater.

Steamindex cites Johnston (p. 110), who wrote that the GN (I) inserted bushings in the cylinders to reduce diameter to 17 1/2" (445 mm) and cut fuel consumption. Although the class at first appeared at the head of Clones-Belfast trains, the engines were mostly used in suburban service.

Shortly after their delivery, Glover apparently concluded that he had a good design, but that it could be improved by superheating after all. Many more were built after World War One; see Locobase 7513. The T1's received superheaters at the same time.

Class T2 (Locobase 7513)

Data from 1946 Beyer, Peacock catalogue hosted on Martyn Bane's website at [] (accessed 21 May 2006); and "GNR (Ireland) New Passenger Engine", Locomotive News and Railway Contractor, Volume XI [11], No. 4 (22 February 1922), p. 119. See also steamindex.com's summary of "Great Northern Railway (Ireland)", last accessed at [] on 27 November 2017. Beyer Peacock produced ten of the engines Batch #01821 (works numbers 6035-6039 in 1921) , which the Nasmyth Wilson order book claimed as their 1115-1119, finished by BP. Nasmyth-Wilson built the middle ten in 1924--works numbers were 1423-1427 and 1435-1439. Beyer-Peacock finished the class with 6631-6635 in 1929.

As stated in Locobase 20326, the first five T1 class engines were satisfactory. A year or so after their delivery, however, the railway designed a superheated successor, intending it to be built by Nasmyth Wilson. The result was this design, which was delayed by wartime constraints, first appeared in 1921.

Note: Beyer Peacock's 1946 catalog showed superheater area as 151 sq ft (14.03 sq m). This is lower than the 1922 figure, also supplied by BP, probably refers to the 1929 batch. Likewise, BP's later class had higher weights: 76,160 lb (34,546 kg) on the drivers and 150,080 lb (68,075 kg) for the engine.

The T2s proved useful for both passenger and fast freight work and served for 35-40 years or more.

The first two--30 and 148--were withdrawn in 1958 and the last--5, renumbered 5X by the Ulster Transport Authority--in 1964.