Locomotive 190 is a 181 class locomotive built for Coras Iompair Éireann (CIE), the Irish State owned transport company, by General Motors at their premises at La Grange, Illinois, USA in 1966. Originally numbered B190, it was part of a class of 12 Bo-
The 181 (B) class locomotives were almost identical in appearance to the thirty-
Internally, the 181 (B) class locomotives were fitted with the larger GM-
The 181 (B) class locomotives could be seen working all over the Irish Rail network, operating both local and express passenger, and also freight and engineering services, either singly, or in multiple with other 181 (B) class, 141 (B) class and even 121 (B) class locomotives.
B190 entered traffic with CIE on 3rd December 1966. The letter prefix ‘B’ was dropped from 1972 onwards, and the locomotive eventually became 190.
The first locomotive to be withdrawn was locomotive 191. Whilst in use as a pilot locomotive in North Wall on 17th August 1991, an unauthorised person got into the cab whilst the locomotive was unattended and applied full power before jumping off again, leaving locomotive 191 to run away in the direction of Sligo. The locomotive travelled for around 7 miles before it finally ran into a set of buffers in a headshunt at Clonsilla. Following recovery, locomotive 191 was taken back to Inchicore Works, where the bogie-
During the course of their operating lives, several of the 181 class locomotives had their original engines exchanged with GM 8-
The next locomotive to be withdrawn from service was locomotive 188, which was taken out of service in November 2003 in need of an overhaul. Over the following six years, the other remaining members of the 181 class were gradually taken out of traffic, one at a time, and scrapped shortly thereafter. By February 2009 locomotive 190 was to be the only remaining example of its class left in existence.
Locomotive 190 spent around the last 12 months in service as pilot locomotive at Inchicore Works, Dublin. It was eventually taken out of traffic and withdrawn in November 2009 and sold to the Irish Traction Group for preservation. Indeed, it was the only 181 class locomotive to be preserved.
Norman Bodel watches 190 as it is gently lowered off its low loader at Downpatrick.
Locomotive 190 was moved by low-
On 7th June 2025 190 was successfully started by ITG volunteers for the first time in preservation, marking the start of restoration work on the locomotive.
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