The

Great Southern Railways The Great Southern Railways Company (often Great Southern Railways, or GSR) was an 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 Ireland). The p ...

(GSR) Class 670 consisted of five

0-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the English language, modern English English alphabet, alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is English alphabet#Letter names, ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''te ...

tank locomotives built by Inchicore railway works in 1933 for suburban services south of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

to Bray and Greystones.

Design

On the amalgamation of the

Dublin and South Eastern Railway The Dublin and South Eastern Railway (DSER), often referred to as the Slow and Easy, was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland from 1846 to 1925. It carried 4,626,226 passengers in 1911. It was the fourth largest railway operation in Ireland oper ...

(DSER) into the GSR in 1925 the former was found to be short of operational working motive power due to

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

, maintenance backlog and proportion of stock being life expired. In the interim locomotives from outside the DSER area were used to cover the shortfall. The commuter services to the south of Dublin were best served by a tank engine. The GSR chose not to continue with any DSER designs but created the GSR Class 850 design incorporating several modern features with a single example being built. The acute motive shortage was resolved by this 1933 design by A.W. Harty. It incorporated the modern type Z boiler used successfully elsewhere but many other features were considered conservative and retrospective compared to the class 850 and in practice they were more difficult to access for repairs and maintenance. Harty also produced the GSR Class 710 which was a related design but with a tender.

Service

The locomotives almost served exclusively on the

— Bray— Greystones passenger commuter services, though they were also scheduled to work the ''

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

Mail'' from Bray to

Westland Row Westland Row is a street on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland. Location The street runs along the east end of Trinity College Dublin. History Westland Row first appears on maps in 1776. It was originally known as Westlands after Willi ...

and once at least one of the class was noted in Wexford. They were noted for having some difficulty with timekeeping. A 1948 report noted their shortcomings but also noted they were essential for the suburban services they worked.

Incidents

In 1934 two of the locomotives suffered read end collision damage at Bray. On repair their bunker was extended into the cab increasing coal capacity by about half a ton.

Livery

The carried standard GSR grey livery and painted side numbers from new, acquiring a CIÉ lined green passenger livery with repaints from 1948 onwards.

Model

There is a detailed

O Gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scal ...

model of engine 670 in the Fry model railway collection.

References

{{Ireland Steam Locomotives 0-6-2T locomotives 5 ft 3 in gauge locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1933 Steam locomotives of Ireland Scrapped locomotives