The
Córas Iompair Éireann 181 Class
locomotives were built in 1966 by
General Motors Electro-Motive Division
Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its sub ...
(EMD) and numbered B181 to B192.
These locomotives were virtually identical to the earlier
141 Class locomotives, but fitted with the more powerful
645
__NOTOC__
Year 645 ( DCXLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 645 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...
engine and thermostatically controlled engine cooling fan and inlet shutters. Delivery took place in 1966, with introduction into service happening a short time later.
They were fitted with an EMD 8-645E engine of 1100 hp, weighed , and had a maximum design speed of which was restricted to in service. Number 186 was later fitted with an
EMD 8-567CR engine of , as used in the 141 Class locomotives.
Withdraw and preservation
All of the 181 class have been withdrawn, the first being 191 in 1991 after a runaway incident at Clonsilla; it was later scrapped in 1998. The last was 190 in November 2009 and has been preserved by the
Irish Traction Group
The Irish Traction Group is a railway preservation society dedicated to preserving diesel locomotives from Irish Railways. It was formed in 1989, with the intention of attempting to preserve at least one example of every type of diesel locomoti ...
. In their final days they were only used on permanent way trains or as pilots.
Accidents and incidents
*On Tuesday 13 August 1974, locomotive B192 was hauling a passenger train when it was involved in a head-on collision with
locomotive B176, which was also hauling a passenger train, at . Fifteen people were injured.
Model
Murphy Models commissioned Bachmann to produce an
'00' gauge model of these locomotives.
This model first was released in December 2007. It has been supplied in all four main liveries worn by the class.
References
*
External links
Eiretrains - Irish Locomotives

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cie 181 Class
Iarnród Éireann locomotives
Electro-Motive Division locomotives
Bo-Bo locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1966
Diesel-electric locomotives of Ireland