Irish….ish Locomotives

[Westcorkrailway]

Some foreign locomotives with very strong Irish Connections
 

Im hoping to uncover more examples of these types of locos

This locomotive is a sister to the 2 peckets on the Schull and Skibbereen. And is named Gabriel, same as S&S loco which is named after the mountain in Schull, and is located in New Zealand, still around today 

 

A MGWR 2-2-2 locomotive was built, but the midland never paid for it. It ended up in Brazil, and also still survives 

[Galteemore]

Very nice. The Brazil 2-2-2 is how the MGWR ‘Elf’ class looked before rebuilding with saddle tanks 

[jhb171achill]

When I was in Myanmar about 6 or 7 years ago, I saw a plinthed 3ft or 3ft 6ins gauge 2.6.4T which was as close as dammit to a Donegal 5B!

[Mol_PMB]

The Manx Peacocks and Southern N / U class fit the bill. LMS Jinties too. 
 

 

[Galteemore]

The Australian K class have very close links to SLNC small tanks 

[Mayner]

Checked out Gabriel (Peckett 4-4-0T) and the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway when we visited Northland about 20 years ago. At the time the railway was going through a difficult time, the NZ Transport Agency had withdrawn the railways operating license in 2001 and Gabriel required a major repairs. The group that controls the railway began to gradually restore and re-open the line and recently completed the overhaul of Gabriel  complete with a new boiler https://bayofislandsvintagerailway.org.nz/.  

As far as I recall the loco built 1927 for use in a Cement Works only acquired the name "Gabiel" after it passed into preservation during the late 1980s.   Apparently Peckett supplied five 4-4-0T of the same/similar design to Gabriel: Two to the S&S, Two to Borneo (plantations?) & One to New Zealand (Cement Works which also operated 2 small Peckett 0-4-2Ts)

One of the most distinctive features of the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway is that the line runs down the main street of KawaKawa (a reasonable sized town) in  similaar manner to the Clogher Valley through Fivemile town. The main street is on SH1 the main road linking Northland to Auckland and the rest of the country and can be quite busy. At one stage the line was a section of a main line from Auckland to the port of Opua in the Bay of Islands served by the trice weekly "Opua Express' with 4-8-2 and main line EE & A1A A1A locos & diesel railcars regularly operating over the line.

 

I must find an excuse to visit Northland again and ride the train.

[Killian Keane]

After his time with the GS&WR Alexander McDonnell moved to the North Eastern in England and produced some very familiar looking locos in the shape of classes 38 and 59, dead ringers for the much more long lived 52 and 101 classes

[jhb171achill]

7 hours ago, Galteemore said:

The Australian K class have very close links to SLNC small tanks 

G'day!

I'm seeing flocks of wild roaming kangaroos in rural Co. Leitrim...... Wallabies at Kilmakerrill, and kangaroos just outside Glenfarne..... 16 metre long snakes, and ten-foot-wide killer spiders nesting behind the loco shed at Manorhamilton....

And funny old men digging turf near Dromahaire wearing shorts and hats with corks hanging off them, mate.....

2 hours ago, Killian Keane said:

After his time with the GS&WR Alexander McDonnell moved to the North Eastern in England and produced some very familiar looking locos in the shape of classes 38 and 59, dead ringers for the much more long lived 52 and 101 classes

PURE GSWR, yes.....

Edited Tuesday at 15:09 by jhb171achill

[Colonel]

REALLY don't like snakes, so thank you St Patrick!

[commerlad]

Well the Wallabies don't have far to swim.

Wallabies and the Isle of Man | Manx Wildlife Trust

[Mol_PMB]

8 minutes ago, commerlad said:

Well the Wallabies don't have far to swim.

Wallabies and the Isle of Man | Manx Wildlife Trust

There are plenty of marsupials in County Cork! It may even be possible to spot them from a train on the line to Cobh.

[jhb171achill]

There are wild wallabies on Lambay Island…..

[Broithe]

4 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

There are plenty of marsupials in County Cork! It may even be possible to spot them from a train on the line to Cobh.

Not marsupials maybe, but I've always liked this picture of a few lemurs heading off for a night out in the metropolis.
 

That No Pedestrians sign needs updating - the instruction is clearly only applicable to humans.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnyus/19970181912/in/photolist-wqGpkf

[Mol_PMB]

Wonderful! 

[Bullet_Wanderer]

In Portugal’s Museu Nacional Ferroviário, national railway museum, they have a 2-2-2 Fairbairn tank engine very similar to ones that used to run in Ireland !

 

[Colonel]

And 5'6 gauge is seriously wide when you see one of their preserved locos up front. Nothing to do with here, but there is a British built shunter on a plinth by the Sunderland like Staines at Almeria in Spain.

[Horsetan]

2 hours ago, Colonel said:

And 5'6 gauge is seriously wide ....

Indian standard gauge

[Mol_PMB]

12 minutes ago, Horsetan said:

Indian standard gauge

A little birdie tells me at @Darius43 might have something to show on that front, in due course.

[Horsetan]

35 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

A little birdie tells me at @Darius43 might have something to show on that front, in due course.

Is yer man going the whole 22mm gauge?

[Darius43]

3 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

A little birdie tells me at @Darius43 might have something to show on that front, in due course.

[Darius43]

Already made a start…

Cheers

Darius

[Mayner]

On 10/6/2026 at 11:37 PM, Broithe said:

Not marsupials maybe, but I've always liked this picture of a few lemurs heading off for a night out in the metropolis.
 

That No Pedestrians sign needs updating - the instruction is clearly only applicable to humans.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/finnyus/19970181912/in/photolist-wqGpkf

Remember seeing Wallabies (marsupials not Aussie Rugby Union Team) at Fota when I visited the park in the 80s & 90s. Surprised thay havn't taken the train to Cork. 

Kangaroos are listed on the parks website. https://www.fotawildlife.ie/pages/animal-and-plant-listing/eastern-grey-kangaroo

 

 

[Broithe]

There were feral wallabies in the Peak District, around Buxton, since WW2. I've never seen one, but they are still reported, though they seem to be in much smaller numbers than were around in the 70s - and they are still occasionally seen in other areas of England.

https://www.roaches.org.uk/wallabies.html

[Mol_PMB]

16 minutes ago, Mayner said:

Remember seeing Wallabies (marsupials not Aussie Rugby Union Team) at Fota when I visited the park in the 80s & 90s. Surprised thay havn't taken the train to Cork. 

Kangaroos are listed on the parks website. https://www.fotawildlife.ie/pages/animal-and-plant-listing/eastern-grey-kangaroo

 

 

Yes, I visited Fota earlier this year and there were plenty of both. I think they have free run of the park but in theory aren't allowed outside the fence.

Trying to keep a group of Lemurs inside an enclosure is obviously more of a challenge!

26 minutes ago, Darius43 said:

Already made a start…

Cheers

Darius

Those are superb!

I saw on RMweb that you had ordered some more. You need to get some wires up at Whiterock!

[Darius43]

28 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Yes, I visited Fota earlier this year and there were plenty of both. I think they have free run of the park but in theory aren't allowed outside the fence.

Trying to keep a group of Lemurs inside an enclosure is obviously more of a challenge!

Those are superb!

I saw on RMweb that you had ordered some more. You need to get some wires up at Whiterock!

Thanks.  I scratch built the Bombay suburban train and the electric loco is a much modified Electrotren model.

Cheers

Darius

[Horsetan]

1 hour ago, Darius43 said:

Already made a start…

 

All you need to complete that commuter train are teeming hordes of passengers. 

[jhb171achill]

9 hours ago, Darius43 said:

Already made a start…

Cheers

Darius

WOWWWW!!!!!!!!  Amazing stuff! (Any chance of a YP, YG, YL, CWD or WP?)

[jhb171achill]

13 hours ago, Horsetan said:

Indian standard gauge

I had a footplate run on a WP 4.6.2 some fifty years ago on the main line between Lucknow and Varanasi. Driver, TWO (barefoot!!) firemen and a coal-breaker, sitting up in the tender with a hammer breaking up huge lumps of coal. He has no less than twenty heavily laden bogies behind an engine marginally larger than "Maedb" and he was doling 70 miles an hour. Most amazing footplate run I ever had, all on the 5'6". Boy, those engines were POWERFUL!!!! To be fair, long straight dead-level track for maybe 50-60 miles.

Despite a crowd of that many people (like an RPSI steam train with 35 people on the footplate!!!) there was room for everyone. Cabs on those yokes are so big you could host a six nations game there while in motion.....

(Did I exaggerate?)

[Horsetan]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

.... (Any chance of a YP, YG, YL, CWD or WP?)

Don't frighten the lad. An XE is enough to be going on with for now.

Edited Thursday at 23:13 by Horsetan

[jhb171achill]

13 hours ago, Horsetan said:

Don't frighten the lad. An XE is enough to be going on with for now.

An XE would be nice!

[Mol_PMB]

15 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

An XE would be nice!

Getting back to Irish-ish locos, I'd prefer an XA:

 

[Galteemore]

Photos courtesy Science Museum. This BP/Vulcan design for India and then Pakistan is almost pure GNRI https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/pakistan-railways-sps-3157-part-one/

[jhb171achill]

23 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Photos courtesy Science Museum. This BP/Vulcan design for India and then Pakistan is almost pure GNRI https://blog.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/pakistan-railways-sps-3157-part-one/

Yes, the SPS class 4.4.0s and SGS class 0.6.0s were in daily use well into the 1980s, possibly early 90s. I missed them, unfortunately, though I saw a near-equivalent 4.4.0 in India, out of use. 

[Darius43]

Not sure what class this 2-8-0 is, but it is my one and only footplate ride in Pune, India in 1971.

Perhaps it’s a Class H/4

Cheers

Darius

Edit - it is indeed a Great Indian Peninsula Railway Class H/4.  My grandfather was a permanent way engineer for the GIPR.

Edited 13 hours ago by Darius43

[Horsetan]

1 hour ago, Darius43 said:

Not sure what class this 2-8-0 is, but is my one and only footplate ride in Pune, India in 1971.

Perhaps it’s a Class H/4

Cheers

Darius

Edit - it is indeed a Great Indian Peninsula Railway Class H/4.  My grandfather was a permanent way engineer for the GIPR.

I wonder if the H/4 was derived from the HG? There's a very Robinson Great Central 8K look about it.