The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) Class 9 consisted of four engines built by

Thomas Grendon and Company Thomas Grendon and Company was an engineering company established in 1835 based in Grendons Foundry and Engineering Works, South Quay, Drogheda, Ireland. Employing up to over 600 people, it was first forced to close in the late 1880s with cont ...

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

in the period 1855-1856. The MGWR Class 9 was the first

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

type on the MGWR. It has driving wheels. They were ordered by Edward Wilson during his short tenure as Locomotive Superintendent from 1853. It is speculated Wilson had little to do with the design, especially as

Robert Stephenson and Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomotiv ...

had subcontracted an 0-6-0 build to Grendons at this time. The 0-6-0 three driving axle design has 6 driving wheels against the rail as opposed to the

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

4-2-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle and no trailing wheels. This type of locomotive is often called a ...

which have two axles and 4 driving wheels. If other factors are equal will have better adhesion and less propensity to slip and should be able to haul a heavier train, for example the MGWR Class 9 had demonstrated the capability to pull 600 tons at . The difficulty lies in a coupling rod over more than 2 axles is more complex to allow for vertical motion. The next two Locomotive Superintendents, Joseph Cabry and Robert Ramage, remained with the 2-4-0, 4-2-0 and even

2-2-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both ...

one or two driving axles designs. It was not until

Martin Atock Martin Atock, also formerly known as Martin Attock, was an English railway engineer, who is best known as the Locomotive Superintendent of the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) from 1872 to 1900. Life Atock was born in June 1834 in Presto ...

became Locomotive Superintendent in 1872 that further 0-6-0 locomotives were ordered with MGWR Class L four years later. Grendons supplied two similar engines to the

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

and

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from ga, Inis Ceithleann , 'Cethlenn, Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of ...

Railway at about the same time.

References

{{Ireland Steam Locomotives 0-6-0 locomotives 5 ft 3 in gauge locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1855 09 Thomas Grendon and Company locomotives Scrapped locomotives Steam locomotives of Ireland