6Oth Anniversary of End of Steam on CIÉ Irish Railways
On 31st March 1963, steam traction ended on Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), Ireland’s transport company. One of the locos withdrawn was a Great Northern Railway 4-4-0 No 131, built in 1902. After a period as a stationary boiler, as an exhibit on a plinth, the loco arrived at the RPSI depot and museum at Whitehead and returned to the mainline in 2015. Almost sixty years to the day after the end of CIÉ steam No 131 returned to the Irish Rail network on 1st April, having hauled a seven-coach passenger train from Dundalk, 100 km north of Dublin and the station nearest the border with Northern Ireland.
Peter Rigney, Chairman, Railway Preservation Society of Ireland
