brassnut

That's a beauty, Brassnut. The livery is a unique one only carried by this locomotive and no other. She is one of a class built by the MGWR (who ordered the first of two batches of them) and the GSR and introduced into traffic between 1925 and 1930. Mostly withdrawn in the 1950s, a couple lasted in use into the very early 1960s.

They were colloquially known as "Woolwichs" because they were built from kits of parts brought in from the SECR in England. Officially they were K1a class (NOT "N" class as sometimes misquoted; these were the narrower-gauged similar locos in Britain!).

They were to be seen on the Dublin - Galway, Dublin - Cork, and Cork - Mallow - Waterford - Rosslare routes in particular. They were too big for branch lines and never went north.

That one you have, 388, was painted thus for a few short years in the late 1950s specially for the Cork - Rosslare line, in particular the "Rosslare Express". It left Cork in the early morning, and returned from Rosslare in the late afternoon.

All of the class entered traffic initially in all over grey, and several of the 26 (?) were never painted any other way. Most became lined green from 1945 onwards, though at least one, I believe, was painted plain black in the late fifties too.

In this form, therefore, its historically correct surrounding would be late 1950s CIE, with a mix of old GSWR wooden coaches, possibly a then-brand-new Park Royal or laminate, and the odd Bredin or 1951-3 era CIE coach....