Irish Steam on Wikipedia.Has nobody thought of it or is there not enough info?

[GSR 800]

Looking on the Web their seems to be very little on irish steam.Is this because their is not enough info and pictures?

[minister_for_hardship]

The info is out there in printed form now, only no-one's bothered about putting it in.

[jhb171achill]

It's spread all over the place, GSR; there isn't any one main central online repository about most aspects of Irish railway history. If you check out th likes of the photo website flickr, you'll get some superb contributions. In some cases these are made by people who post here.

 

If you're anywhere close to Dublin, there is a lot of ("offline"? - as in not computer based!) material in the archives of the Irish Railway Record Society, which are open on Tuesday nights if you're a member. There is a good selection of photos and books available there too. The GSR was Ireland's largest company by a very long way, in pre-nationalisation days. It might be useful if you could give a few ideas about what particular aspect of the GSR you are interested in. If it's for a layout, then the types of locos and coaches used. You might like main line operation, like modelling the Galway, Cork or Waterford main lines. or you might prefer a sleepy rural terminus. If the latter, this could be of ex-DSER, ex-MGWR, ex-WLWR or ex-GSWR origins; all had their differing styles of architecture, but all were under the overall GS banner fro 1925-45. Because of this, there was also vast diversity in the range of locos and rolling stock used.

 

Then there was the narrow gauge - at its inception, the GSR inherited no less than seven separate 3ft gauge systems, four of which it retained to hand over to CIE in 1945. It narrowly missed inheriting the Blessington tram as well. The separate and self-contained Waterford & Tramore system, ad the "as-good-as" separate West Cork system were all part of the GSR.

[GSR 800]

Thanks guys.Does anyone know how many of the 500 class 4-6-0s their were?

Bigger is Better

[leslie10646]

thanks guys.does anyone know how many of the 500 class 4-6-0s their were?

 

three

[jhb171achill]

The 400s were more numerous. In Senior's day (GSR heyday and early CIE) all manner of 4.4.0s and "Woolwich" 2.6.0's kept company with the 400, 500 and 800 classes on the main line. Even humble J15s got a look in on stopping trains.

[GSR 800]

I know the 400s were very unrealiable before their rebuilding. Their rebuilding cost the GSR alot of money.They should have scrapped more of them and built more 500s.

[Mayner]

The GSWR were supposed to have been plans to build total of 10 500 Class 4-6-0s, this appears to have been cancelled after the amalgamation in favour of buying another 15 sets of Woolwich parts.

 

The Woolwich had wider route availability than the 4-6-0s and could be assembled at a fraction of the cost of building a new loco. Another likely factor is that the GSR board may have quickly realised that the operating department was struggling to find enough work for the 13 4-6-0s already in service. CIE appeared to have had similar problems in the early 1950s

 

Interestingly 500 Class cylinders and motion parts were used in the rebuilding several of the 400 Class into two cylinder engines.

 

 

402 was supposed to be the best of the re-built locos basically a 500 class with large driving wheels

Edited March 11, 2015 by Mayner

[Weshty]

John,

 

Are you talking about this page?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotives_of_Ireland

 

The more popular ones have had detail added (I have certainly done my bit), and particularly the RPSI ones.

 

The big difficulty is images, as you have to own copyright to put them up.

There is a fair use policy on copyrighted images, but I've found it to be policed very harshly and more trouble than it's worth.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Weshty

[jhb171achill]

I've seen that wiki thing before all right, Weshty. Interesting comprehensive list. Would be interesting to know who took the time to put it all together.

[GSR 800]

John. the woolwiches instead of the 500s would make sense as you said.The woolwich moguls could work on the Mullingar Athlone Dublin route which the larger engines probably couldnt ,because of their axeload.still wouldnt they have enough money to build the 500s if they scrapped the 400s?I think if CIE had named their expresses it would have made them more profitable and in larger demand.They could have learned alot from the GNR if they were not to busy closing some great lines.

Bigger is Better

[GSR 800]

The drivers of the woolwich moguls 400s 500s and 800s must of had a hard time trying to get out of glanmire road! double and triple heading wasnt unheard of.this must have been very uneconomical. i think that must have made the 400s even more unrealiable. I know they had alot of trouble getting up.

[Warbonnet]

.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Warbonnet

[Warbonnet]

I know they had alot of trouble getting up.

 

Sounds like a few members on here...

[GSR 800]

Sounds like a few members on here...

=))=))=)) Edited March 11, 2015 by GSR 800

[Weshty]

Yup, a lot of work filling in the basic list detail alright. C'mon lads, get cracking and start filling in the blanks!

[GSR 800]

Right on Des!