GNRI Class Q
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The Q Class 4-4-0 steam locomotive was mainly used on cross border mixed traffic duties between Dublin and Belfast. It was built for the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) by Neilson Reid in Glasgow and was designed under the auspices of Charles Glifford. The Q Class is slightly smaller than the equivalent 4-4-0 S Class [1], but was powerful enough to handle a rake of eight or more carriages.
An example, Number 131 [2], is presently being restored by the RPSI. She was used mainly on the northern routes from Belfast-Clones and Belfast-Derry [3]. While in service she maintained standard GNRI black livery. She operated on CIE lines from 1958 and was withdrawn in October 1963. In the late 1970s the locomotive was repainted and placed on a plinth at Dundalk station. In June 1984, No.131 and her tender were moved to Mallow as the main locomotive of the Great Southern Railway Preservation Society. Unfortunately this venture did not bear fruition and the locomotive (partially stripped down and with the boiler and firebox out of the frames) was moved back to Inchicore Railway Works in the late 1990s while the running frames were moved to Whitehead in May 2003.
![[2]](http://www.rpsi-online.org/images/bpickup_131dundalk.jpg){kind=link}