GSR Class 800
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Great Southern Railways The Great Southern Railways Company (often Great Southern Railways, or GSR) was an Ireland, Irish company that from 1925 until 1945 owned and operated all railways that lay wholly within the Irish Free State (the present-day Republic of Irelan ...
Class 800 steam locomotives were built principally for express passenger work on the Dublin to Cork main line of that company. These locomotives were designed under the supervision of E. C. Bredin with his Chief Draughtsman, H. J. A. Beaumont, preparing the drawings. They were the largest and most powerful engines ever to run in Ireland by quite a large margin, and the only three express passenger locomotives to be built in an independent Ireland.


Design

The engines had three cylinders and boiler pressure. The nominal tractive effort was , which corresponded with Great British main-line power. Further, it was the only design which exploited the full extent of the extra width afforded by the gauge. Originally four or five were to be built, named ''Maeḋḃ'', ''Maċa'', ''Táilte'', ''Gráinne'', and ''Deirdre'', but only three were eventually produced - 800 ''Maeḋḃ'' in 1939, with ''Maċa'' (801) and ''Táilte'' (802) in 1940, along with a fourth boiler which acted as a spare. They were intended for the Dublin–Cork route, but wartime coal shortages and the early 1950s advent of diesels on main line services resulted in their never having had much chance to show what they were capable of. In the 1950s, they gradually became neglected and even resorted to light goods trains on occasion, with little other work to do. The name and number plates were of cast bronze with polished raised lettering and beading on a blue painted background. The nameplates’ lettering was in Gaelic script using
dot above When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot refers to the glyphs "combining dot above" (, and "combining dot below" ( which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in a variety of languages. Similar marks are ...
in place of the 'h' (see
Irish orthography Irish orthography is the set of conventions used to write Irish. A spelling reform in the mid-20th century led to , the modern standard written form used by the Government of Ireland, which regulates both spelling and grammar. The reform re ...
), although at first locomotive 800 was planned to carry an Anglicised name ''Maeve'' in Roman type, though it never did. No. 800 ''Maeḋḃ'' was withdrawn from service in 1962 and is now on display at the
Ulster Folk and Transport Museum Both the Ulster Folk Museum and Ulster Transport Museum are situated in Cultra, Northern Ireland, about east of the city of Belfast. Now operating as two separate museums, the Folk Museum endeavours to illustrate the way of life and traditions ...
,
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,
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.


Livery

The engines were turned out in a unique livery, which no other locomotives ever carried. In the height of the Great Southern era, when every single locomotive in Ireland was painted in plain unlined battleship grey livery, these engines were turned out in a smart mid-green, with a distinct bluish tint. The green was lined in black and light yellow, and the GSR coat of arms was carried on the tender, flanked by large pale yellow letters "G S", which appear to have been shaded in red and gold. The cabside number plates and nameplates had blue backgrounds, and raised polished brass rims and numerals. In Córas Iompair Éireann days, they received the 1950s standard green, somewhat darker than they had carried before, with black and white lining. In the early 1950s, ''Táilte'' was apparently repainted a light green, as an experiment. The colour was not unlike the green used for coaches on CIÉ in the late 1950s, but she was then repainted like her sisters. ''Maċa'' and ''Táiltes nameplates and cab side number plates were given red backgrounds in the mid-1950s instead of the dark blue that they had originally, however ''Maeḋḃ'' retained the blue background. This is the livery the preserved 800 carries, though rather than the CIÉ "flying snail" emblem which would be appropriate to this later livery, it incorrectly carries the earlier "G S" without shading, and a replaced GSR coat of arms.


Service

The locos entered service between 1939 and 1940. Their axle load was 21 tons which meant that they could only work on the Dublin-Cork mainline. They were noted for climbing the steeply graded route from Cork Kent station (then Glanmire road station) unassisted, but because of coal shortages after WWII they never got a chance to show their full potential. They were slightly modified in the early 1950s with ''Maċa'' and ''Táilte'' receiving single funnels and all three gaining extra hand-railings and a wheel on the smoke-box door instead of a dart. The main difference following these modifications was a decrease in tractive effort. With the arrival of the Metropolitan-Vickers A class first generation diesel locomotives in the 1950s, they were made virtually redundant, with ''Táilte'' being taken out of service in 1955 and scrapped two years later. However, ''Maeḋḃ'' and ''Maċa'' remained in service pulling light expresses and goods trains. ''Maeḋḃ'' was taken out of service in 1962 and was repainted at Inchicore for preservation. Both Nos. 800 and 801 were noted for being at Thurles in the 1960s after withdrawal. ''Maċa'' was retubed for an IRRS tour in 1964 and was steamed up for the last time, after which she was scrapped. Having been at Thurles for a year 800 was brought to the Belfast Museum. In 1993, ''Maeḋḃ'', along with the NCC compound ''Dunluce Castle'' and the GNR S class 4-4-0 No. 171 ''Slieve Gullion'' were brought to the new Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra.


Models

An etched-brass 4 mm scale model is available from Studio Scale Models.Studio Scale Models
/ref> There is a detailed O Gauge model of engine 800 in the Fry model railway collection.


See also

*
Coaching stock of Ireland A wide variety of hauled Coach (rail), coaches have been used on the railways of Ireland. This page lists all those since 1945. Republic of Ireland When formed in 1945, CIÉ inherited from its constituents a motley collection of coaching stock f ...
* Diesel locomotives of Ireland * Multiple units of Ireland *
Steam locomotives of Ireland A wide variety of steam locomotives have been used on History of rail transport in Ireland, Ireland's railways. This page lists most if not all those that have been used in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Irish railways generally fo ...
*
History of rail transport in Ireland The history of rail transport in Ireland began only a decade later than that of History of rail transport in Great Britain, Great Britain. By its peak in 1920, Ireland had 3,500 route miles (5,630 km). The current status is less than half ...


References

* {{Ireland Steam Locomotives Steam locomotives of Ireland Steam locomotives of Northern Ireland 4-6-0 locomotives 2′C h3 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1939 800 Passenger locomotives 5 ft 3 in gauge locomotives