GNRI Class Q

The GNR(I) Q Class was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), used mainly on cross-border mixed traffic duties between Dublin and Belfast and on the Derry Road between Portadown and Derry. It was designed for the railway under Charles Clifford and built by three firms, Neilson, Reid and Company, the North British Locomotive Company and Beyer, Peacock and Company. Slightly smaller than the class S 4-4-0 but powerful enough to haul a rake of eight or more carriages, it was made faster in the 1920s by superheated boilers and widened cylinders under G.T. Glover, and in 1932 a two coach newspaper train hauled by No. 135 covered Howth Junction to Drogheda at a start-to-stop average of 67.06 mph, the fastest run in Ireland achieved with a steam locomotive on a scheduled train. No. 131 was withdrawn in October 1963, has been restored by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, returned to mainline service in April 2018 and is based at Whitehead.