GSR Class 800

The Great Southern Railways 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 in place of the 'h' (see Irish orthography), 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 No. 800 Maeḋḃ was withdrawn from service in 1962 and is now on display at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, County Down.