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GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY (IRELAND)
"V" CLASS 4-4-0 No. 85 "MERLIN"

BUILT BY : BEYER, PEACOCK & CO. (WORKS NO. 6733) 
YEAR BUILT : 1932
WITHDRAWN : 1963 
LAST MAJOR OVERHAUL COMPLETED : 1994
GNR(I) Compound No.85 'Merlin' runs light engine to Belfast Central.No. 85 was built for express passenger trains on the Dublin - Belfast line, the main line which links Ireland's two biggest cities. She is on long term loan to the Society from the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra, Co Down. However, the tender she runs with belongs to the Society! This locomotive survived the break up of the Great Northern Railway in 1958, ending her days on secondary duties in 1963 after diesel railcars had taken over express services. After a period in the former Belfast Transport Museum (now part of the UFTM collection), she underwent extensive renovation in Harland & Wolff's shipyard in Belfast between 1977 and 1982. Since 1986, the RPSI has used her on tours all over Ireland, and she is one of only two surviving operational main line compound locomotives in the British Isles. As built, 85 and her four sisters (all now scrapped) were unlined black, but the famous GNR sky blue livery presently carried was applied from the mid 1930's. 

No.85 out of traffic due to the expiry of her 'boiler certificate'. 
 
 

Click here to read an article of the history of No.85 from her working days through to today. 




Keeping Steam alive in Ireland since 1964


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