County Donegal 4-6-4 Locomotives in Ireland

Class Class 4 (Locobase 2702)

Data from R M Livesey, "Rolling-Stock on the Principal Irish Narrow-Gauge Railways", Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (London: IME, 1912), pp. 606-608; reproduced in, Engineering, Volume 94, (2 August 1912), pp. 169-176, table on p. 175. Works numbres were 697-700 in 1904.

Hudson (aka Baltic) tanks of a rated power between the two classes of Adriatic tanks on the same railway (Locobase 2700-2701). They featured Belpaire fierboxes and signicantly greater heating surface area.

Livesey in 1912; and SJ Carse, writing 90 years later in the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI)'s excellent journal Five Foot Three (appearing on [], visited in November 2002), offers a low opinion of the type in its original form. They steamed poorly even as they gobbled coal. Indeed their appetite ranged as high as 45 lb/mile (12.68 kg/km) while the Class 5s consumed but 29 (8.17 kg/km). (Carse notes parenthetically that the builder Nasmyth Wilson had not wanted to use 15" cylinders.)

The problem may have been related to a boiler overstuffed with firetubes. When #12 came in for an overhaul, Donegal's Livesy removed the top row of tubes, which materially improved steaming qualities.

All were superheated in the 1920s and this proved to be a key improvement. Their newfound power was applied on all kinds of service.

Names, works numbers, and scrapping dates were: Eske (697, 1954), Owenea (698, 1952), Erne (699, 1968), and Mourne (700, 1952).