GNRI Class VS


The Great Northern Railway VS class steam locomotives were 4-4-0 three-cylinder simple expansion steam locomotives built in 1948 at the Dundalk works of the GNRI. They were procured in order to operate the Enterprise train service between Dublin and Belfast and were the last series of steam engines ordered by the company.

Design

The locomotives of class VS, designed by Mcintosh, were very similar to the compound locomotives of GNRI Class V, built in 1932 by Beyer, Peacock and Company. Unlike the latter, however, they had only simple expansion steam engines with Walschaerts valve gear. Their wheel arrangement was due to the restricted space in the Dundalk workshops. Class VS used the same Belpaire boilers as class V with an evaporation surface of and a superheating surface of, and other parts were also interchangeable. The locomotives were equipped with smoke deflectors, rocking grates, hopper ashpans, and self-cleaning fireboxes with a grate area of, and were fitted with Stanier type tenders.

Roster

Five locomotives of this type were built. Their works numbers were 6961 to 6965, their running numbers were 206 to 210. They were named after the rivers Liffey, Boyne, Lagan, Foyle, and Erne, and were taken out of service by 1965.