The
"Type K", number 801 was a diesel
locomotive which was allocated to
Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) following the disbanding of the
Great Northern Railway Board (GNRB) in 1958.
History
The single locomotive of this class was acquired by the GNRB in December
1954 and became their number 800.
It was built by German builders
Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK), who built over one hundred of these
Type 800 D locomotives between
1953 and
1965. It was delivered free of charge for trials and unloaded at North Wall, Dublin on December 14, 1954. The locomotive closely followed German practice being fitted with an MaK
diesel engine, feeding power to the rails through a
Voith torque converter. The locomotive shared many similarities with the less powerful
Deutsche Bundesbahn class V65, it had a "D" (8-coupled) wheel arrangement and was controlled from an off-centre cab.
The locomotive underwent trials on both goods and passenger trains over various parts of the GNRB system and on some of the
Ulster Transport Authority's former
Northern Counties Committee lines. Following the trials, it was purchased by the GNRB for the sum of £29,500.
Following the dissolution of the Board in 1958 it was allocated to CIÉ and renumbered K801. Trials between Dublin and Kildare and on Dublin–Bray passenger trains followed before K801 was transferred to Cork, where it worked mainly on the Cobh and Youghal lines.<ref...
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