MGWR Classes C and Cs

C class

Type and origin Power type Steam Builder Edward Cusack Build date 1909–1915

Specifications Configuration 4-4-0 Gauge 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) Leading dia. 3 ft 6 in (1,070 mm) Driver dia. 6 ft 3 in (1,900 mm) Tender wheels 3 ft 9 in (1,140 mm) Wheelbase:  • Engine 20 ft 11 in (6,380 mm)  • Drivers 8 ft 2 in (2,490 mm)  • Tender 12 ft (3,700 mm) Total weight 74 tons Firebox:  • Firegrate area 16 sq ft (1.5 m^2) Boiler: ​  • Diameter 4 ft 5 in (1,350 mm) Boiler pressure 175 lbs Heating surface:  • Tubes 975 sq ft (90.6 m^2)  • Firebox 115 sq ft (10.7 m^2) Cylinder size 18 in × 26 in (460 mm × 660 mm)

Career Operators Midland Great Western Railway Great Southern Railways Class C Number in class 9 Numbers 536–544 Locale Ireland Withdrawn 1950–1959

The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) C Class was a class of 4-4-0 locomotives designed and built at Broadstone by Edward Cusack between 1909 and 1915 using parts obtained from Kitson and Company. They replaced the earlier 7-12 class. The class consisted of nine locomotives as follows:

No.	Name	Built	GSR No.	Withdrawn
4	Ballynahinch	1910	538	1950
5	Croagh Patrick	1910	539	1952
6	Kylemore	1911	542	1959
7	Connemara	1909	540	1953
8	St. Patrick	1913	541	1959
9	Emerald Isle	1912	537	1953
10	Faugh a Ballagh	1909	543	1959
11	Erin go Bragh	1915	544	1955
12	Shamrock	1913	536	1951

The class was used from their introduction in 1909 principally on trains on the Sligo and Mayo branches until their withdrawal in the 1950s.

Several of the class were rebuilt with superheated boilers and new cabs over their long lives beginning in the 1920s. In 1912 during the coal strike of that year No. 10 was converted to an oil burning locomotive using Holden oil burning apparatus.

Liveries

When introduced the locomotives carried an apple green livery with black edged with white lining. The tender was lettered MGWR with the company seal between the letters G and W. They carried brass nameplates on the lead driving when splasher with the builders plate and number on the cabside. From 1915 after W.H. Morton was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer of the MGWR the engines were repainted black until the merger of the MGWR into the Great Southern Railways in 1925. From then until withdrawal, all were painted plain grey, initially with cast cabside numberplates (also plain grey), but from about 1949 these were gradually removed with pale yellow painted numerals substituted.

References

• Shepherd, Ernie. The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland.
• Railway Magazine. XXV. 1909. Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Irish Railways In Pictures No. 2 The Midland Great Western Line.
• The Locomotive Magazine. 1910. Missing or empty |title= (help)
• The Locomotive Magazine. 1912. Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Clements, Jeremy; McMahon, Michael. Locomotives of the GSR.