A wide variety of steam locomotives have been used on Ireland's railways. This page lists most if not all those that have been used in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Irish railways generally followed British practice in locomotive design.
The list that follows is roughly geographic (north to south) order.
Northern Ireland
The Ulster Transport Authority, which controlled the railways in Northern Ireland between 1948 and 1966, replaced steam haulage on passenger trains with diesel multiple units, but had only two diesel shunting locomotives, which meant a continued role for steam on freight work. Twenty-three locomotives passed to Northern Ireland Railways in 1967, but most were not used again and all had been withdrawn by 1971.
Belfast and County Down Railway
The Belfast and County Down Railway was founded in 1848. It absorbed the Belfast, Hollywood and Bangor Railway in 1884 and continued operating until it was nationalised in its centenary year into the Ulster Transport Authority as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.
Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (1848–1903) & Northern Counties Committee (1903–1949)
The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR), was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. It had its origins in the Belfast and Ballymena Railway that opened to traffic on 11 April 1848. The Northern Counties Committee came into existence on 1 July 1903 as the result of the Midland Railway taking over the BNCR. At the 1923 Grouping the Committee became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS); with the nationalisation of the railways in Britain in 1948 the line passed to the British Transport Commission and in the following year, 1949, it was sold to the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.
Belfast and Ballymena Railway (1848–1860) and other constituents
The early locomotives of the constituent companies were to assorted designs from a number of manufacturers. The first locomotives for the Belfast and Ballymena Railway were purchased from Bury, Curtis and Kennedy. These were four 2-2-2 singles and one 0-4-2 goods engine. Later, four more 2-2-2s were ordered but this time from Sharp Brothers. Fairbairn 2-2-2s were to be found on the Ballymena Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine and Portrush Junction Railway but this company also favoured Sharp locomotives which were double framed 2-4-0s.
Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (1860–1903) The BNCR introduced class letters for its locomotive stock in 1897. The MR (NCC) and later the LMS (NCC) continued to use the system adding new classes as required.
Northern Counties Committee (1903–1949)
Cross-Border Lines
Following the division of Ireland in 1921 into two administrations, a number of railways now found themselves operating on both sides of the newly created boundary between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State (later Republic of Ireland).
West Donegal Railway
The West Donegal Railway became the Donegal Railway in 1892; and the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee after being jointly acquired in 1906 by the Great Northern Railway and the Midland Railway's Northern Counties Committee.
Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway
Great Northern Railway
The Great Northern Railway (GNR) was formed in 1876 acquiring a variety of locomotives. Nos 1 to 23 were from Dublin and Drogheda Railway; Nos. 24 to 41 from the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway; Nos. 43 to circa 78 from the Irish North Western Railway and Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway; Numbers in the eighties from the Newry and Armagh Railway and nos. 100 to 141 from the Ulster Railway. Later acquisitions in the 1880s from the Newry, Warrenpoint, and Rostrevor and the Belfast Central Railway were numbered in the Nineties. The GNR straddled the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland (after 1921), and so was not incorporated in either the CIÉ or Ulster Transport Authority. However, mounting losses saw the network purchased jointly by the Irish and British governments on 1 September 1953. It was run as a joint board, independent of the CIÉ and UTA, until 30 September 1958 when it was dissolved and the remaining stock split equally between the two railways.
? (1877–1881)
James Crawford Park (1881–1895)
Charles Clifford (1895–1912)
G. T. Glover (1912–1933)
G. B. Howden (1933–1939)
H. R. McIntosh (1939–1953)
Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway
Broad gauge locomotives (1862–1882)
Narrow gauge locomotives (1882–1954)