The Midland Great Western Railway was the third largest operator by route mileage in Ireland at the 1924/5 Amalgamation that created the Great Southern Railways. Deriving from dissatisfaction with the Great Southern & Western Railway’s prioritisation of its Dublin-Cork connection over plans to serve settlements in the midlands and the west, a breakaway group formed a separate venture to fulfil these intentions.

Unlike other major railway projects, this entirely local initiative lacked financial or commercial support from British operators. At its creation in 1845, the new company was poorly capitalised, faced unusual engineering challenges in crossing extensive tracts of bog-land, and was crippled by severe population decline within its territory, driven by the human tragedy of the Irish Famine.

Initially, locomotive policy was under-funded and generally shambolic. The situation was stabilised in the 1870s leading to transformation whereby the fleet evolved as the most standardised of the major companies. Designs remained typically small and often looked old-fashioned, but they worked well and with economy. Despite external anachronisms, the 20th Century MGWR led Irish railways in modern design and construction techniques, factors of immense value to the newly formed Great Southern Railways.

The MGWR’s motive power has never previously been comprehensively surveyed. This is a story of success against adversity that yielded a fiercely proud, independently-minded transport enterprise.