GSWR 90

Thank you. There are a surprising number of photos of them on the IRRS site – if you search their account for "CSE" you'll find a good few of them, but I'm always on the hunt for more! There are good pictures of them at Dalkey as well. Yes, as mentioned above, it was because of the Anglo-Irish trade war. Here is a very simple explanation: On foot of the Land Wars in the 1870s, Westminster passed the Irish Land Acts which allowed tenant farmers to buy their land with very long-term loans from the British Government. Large amounts of money were involved, with the proportion of farmers who were landowners increasing from 3% to 97% in about 50 years. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the funds were paid by farmers to the Free State, who in turn paid them to the British Government. When Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932, the Free State refused to pay back the loans to Britain, took a generally protectionist trade policy in the context of the Great Depression, and sought leverage for constitutional change (which eventually resulted in the 1937 Bunreacht which we still have today). This resulted in a trade war between the Free State and Britain, with each country targeting the other's key exports: high tariffs on agricultural goods (e.g. beef) going from Ireland to Britain, and high tariffs on machinery (e.g. steam engines) going from Britain to Ireland. This created a perfect storm in Ireland that led to the Free State using cows to buy locos from Germany: a shortage of cash, a glut of cattle, a need to develop local industry (i.e. build new sugar factories), and tariffs on British goods. I'm not an expert so I apologise if I got any of that is wrong; I'm very open to correction. It's funny how a series of political crises long ago resulted in these unique-looking locos coming to Ireland, but they have continued to be reliable and easy to work on almost 100 years later. They are a testament to the people who designed and built them, and they now also serve as important living reminders of the Irish sugar industry.

Amazing, I can’t thank you enough for these! Great to have photos of all three of them, and really interesting to see the positioning of the number which is something I’ve always wondered about. In the third photo, the numbers are in the same position as the Tuam locos (each factory put the numbers on differently) so the location might be Tuam.

Thanks, but I've seen all those ones before unfortunately!

Aside from the ones that are on Flickr and the Paul Johnston (transport of delight) SmugMugmugmug site, does anyone have any photos of the CSE O&K locos in their own collections? Alternatively, do you know of any groups/people who might be able to help me with this? And I don't mean photos of them at Downpatrick I'm particularly interested in photos of the Mallow and Tuam locos, as there are a fair number of photos online of the Thurles ones and I don't think I've ever seen a Tuam one. Thanks!

Sorry, misread the caption – thanks for the correction! That raises the question, I wonder why it was hauling passengers in Fenit? This is therefore probably G617 with the above-mentioned railtour?

Interesting info, thanks for this. I think G613 also worked the Foynes train, but after a quick look I can't find any photos of it doing so. I'd be very interested if anyone has so. Here is an IRRS photo of G613 with passenger coaches at Fenit in September 1963, I wonder what the occasion is for this? Interestingly, G613 seems to have carried black and tan for its whole career with CIÉ; I think it was only repainted black and white while in storage in Athlone before it was moved to Tuam for use by CSÉ.

No work on 90 this weekend – but I noticed that one of its oil cans is stamped “B&NCR” (Belfast and Northern Counties Railway), meaning that it’s at least 124 years old!

Blessings of victory to our glorious volunteers who continue to extract pieces of metal which used to be bolts from 90’s smokebox. Aaron and Shea made excellent progress this weekend, with all the bolts from the front of the smokebox now removed. The auld doll also got a bit of sun on Saturday, as we started up 80 class 69 and opened the doors to let out the exhaust. Meanwhile, your humble narrator has been spending his lunchtimes and evenings trying to get quotes for a contractor to carry out the NDT, boiler repairs, etc. (as well as trying to manage everything else). It never stops!

Ouch – I hope that isn't from experience!

So the Hunslets are being delivered – does anyone have any thoughts on them?

Thank you, no worries as I've pored over that IRRS article plenty of times!

Thanks very much for this. Which book is it from? I'd be interested in learning more about their work at CSÉ if it gives more details. I'm not sure why 613's plates are black and brown. Maybe a varnish that went funny? Here is a photo from the early 2010s, and they're very definitely black and silver: And here's a photo of it in the 1990s, in cream and black:

I hope IRM don't start making G class models. I would be financially ruined.

Contortionists wanted. Removing the cement so we can get at the bolts holding the smokebox to the frames. We’re also having a whack at the ones holding the steam pipe together. I have put together a No. 90 “mood board” so we can illustrate its history to our visitors

Thanks – no, they are not in order, these plates are off 611, 613, and 617 respectively