Great Northern Railway (Ireland): No 171?

[carlwebus]

Hi All

 

I have several photos of Irish railways bought  at my local  auction.

 

Most I can identify (or have identified with the help of rmweb members).

 

There are two or three of the blue GRN(I) S class 4-4-0 No 171 "Slieve Gullion"

 

Then there are the two shown here.

 

Both are blue and, I think, the right outline for the S class, but

1. I'm almost (but only almost) sure that photo 20 is No 171. Photo dated 3 April 1969.
2. Photo 19 looks like the S  class - but the  tender seems wrong.  All the pictures I've seen of No 171 show the tender cut back at an angle at  front and rear.  This tender hasd a straight  front and the rear cut out is longer.  Photo dated 31 May 1975

 

Any ideas / confirmations?

[Mike 84C]

I am  puzzled so will offer no opinion. Try posting on the Irish section of RM web or IRM  lots of clever boyos on there who will know. Nice photos I hope the rest are as good.

[brack]

I think (and may be wrong, but bear with me) that when Merlin was preserved (at cultra) it had no tender, that had already been scrapped. Merlin is currently on loan to the RPSI and the tender running with it is owned by the RPSI. Is it safe to assume that prior to Merlin arriving on long term loan they had 171 and two tenders? Therefore it could just be 171 running with each of the two.

When they first got 131 running it had with a blue tender for a while (until they finished it's new one I presume).

 

This is 131 on the plinth in dundalk (no idea what number tender it is):

 

This is the new build tender for 131 (on an original underframe)

 

So that'd give at least one spare tender?

[John M]

It looks like 171 was running with the tender from a scrapped GNR Vs 4-4-0

 

 

 

[brack]

I can imagine that as bigger locos were withdrawn their old tenders might well be cascaded down to others to give greater range or replace knackered tenders. I think I'd heard somewhere that a VS tender had survived, maybe that's the one.

[Mike 84C]

Thats the first picture of a Vs without smoke deflectors I can remember seeing. A much better looking loco.