Ireland's longest-serving diesels: 50 years of the 071 class locomotives
- Táilte Tours
- May 9
- 6 min read
Updated: May 11
Perhaps the most popular diesel locomotive class in Ireland, there is no dispute that the 071 class are certainly the longest serving. 2026 marks the 50th Anniversary of the eighteen-strong class. While the older 141 class GMs didn’t quite make it to 40, and the A/001 class just so, a service life of 50 years is truly remarkable for an Irish diesel locomotive fleet. The 071 class locomotives have travelled to every corner of today’s operable Iarnród Éireann network. Not only that, but they have also been used on some parts of the system now vanished from the grid, such as the Mullingar to Athlone line. Let’s take a look at their life and times in this article.
Early days of the 071 class
Built by General Motors at La Grange, Illinois, in 1976, the locomotives sported a 2475hp EMD 12-645E3B engine. This incorporated a turbocharger, a first for Irish locomotives. Visually, they resembled a larger, stretched version of the older 141/181 class Bo-Bo locomotives, with the same cab styling which GM had developed for CIÉ. On completion, the eighteen members of the class were taken by barge down the Mississippi to New Orleans for onward transport to Dublin by ship. The latter journey took over two months, with the locomotives finally arriving in Ireland in September 1976. The planned introduction of the 071s into service was delayed due to union disputes, with the first revenue-earning operation actually taking place in May 1977, when 082 entered traffic on the Dublin-Cork route. While nominally deployed on top link passenger services, in their early years, it was not entirely unknown for the 071 class to find their way onto secondary services such as those from Rosslare to Dublin, although this would become uncommon until the mid-1990s.
Such was the success of the locomotives, Northern Ireland Railways ordered two for their Belfast-Dublin service. Known as class 110, the two locomotives arrived in 1980 and were later joined by a third in 1984.
During the 1980s, a series of bogie frame cracks caused major availability problems for the class, to the point that withdrawn B201 © Class locomotives had to be reinstated for a period. This was, however, later resolved.
The IR era
The first livery change for the class came in 1987, when the Transport (Reorganisation of Córas Iompair Éireann) Act, 1986, saw CIÉ spilt into three subsidiary companies, with Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) being the rail operator. The existing livery was modified with the addition of white stripes above and below the black band, giving rise to it being nicknamed the ‘toothpaste’ livery by some enthusiasts. The CIÉ roundel was replaced by a new ‘IR’ logo, depicting a railway junction. The 071 class was used to launch the new colour scheme at a ceremony in Heuston station that February. During the early 1990s, the class had their engines modified to the 12-645E3C spec, which resulted in the loss of the distinctive ‘whistle’ sound over the turbochargers (this would return when 076 received a second-hand engine a decade later).
The IÉ era begins
With the arrival of the 201 class locomotives over the course of 1994/5, the 071 class found themselves displaced, to a degree, from top link services out of Heuston. They would become a steady fixture on the Dublin to Sligo and Rosslare services from 1995 until the mid-2000s. The 201s also introduced a new corporate logo, with the Irish IÉ replacing the IR. This logo was applied to the 071 class in due course, although 072 continued to carry the older IR logo until at least late 2000. Some locomotives, such as 076 and 078, carried a smaller version of this logo for a period.
While nominally usurped by the 201s, the 071s were far from unusual on Heuston-based services, continuing to be regular performers on Galway and Limerick direct services, for example. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, they were also common on suburban and outer-suburban services from Dublin Connolly, working commuter trains with Cravens (and sometimes, mk2a or hauled mkIII pushpull) carriages into Connolly from Dundalk, Arklow, and Longford, and many points in between.
The arrival of the 201 class locomotives also enabled the 071 class to take over the zinc ore traffic from Tara Mines to Dublin Port, which had been largely the domain of the 001/A Class locomotives up until then. The 071s remained a firm fixture on these trains right until the traffic flow paused in the early 2020s.
In 1998, 082 would become the first of the locos to be named, “Cumann Na ninnealtóirí/The Institution of Engineers of Ireland)”.
The 2000s: a time of change
The 2000s would herald a gradual reduction in the use of the 071 class on passenger services. The arrival of the new 2800 class railcars at the start of the decade removed the need for loco haulage on Maynooth commuter trains, with the arrival of the 2900 class units in 2003 reducing their presence on outer-suburban services. In July 2004, the deployment of 2700 class railcars on the Dublin-Rosslare Intercity service saw the 071s removed from these links, but plenty of work was still to be found for them on the Heuston side. Late 2005/early 2006 would see loco haulage gradually phased out on the Dublin-Sligo service too, although the 071s would get a reprieve on this route in 2007, when one link went back to loco haulage to allow the freeing up of 29000 class railcars for the then-new Clonsilla-Docklands service. This ended in December 2007 when the first InterCity Railcar (ICR) units entered traffic.
A major visual change for the class came in 2007 when 081 emerged from Inchicore Works sporting an all-new livery consisting of silver cabs and a black bonnet, with yellow warning panels on each end. This was the most radical colour-scheme departure for the class since their arrival way back in 1976.
The 071s continued to hold strong on Heuston-based passenger services, for a while more, sometimes being used almost interchangeably with the newer 201 class fleet. However, all good things must come to an end, and by late 2009, ICR sets had taken over all the remaining loco-hauled services, bar of course the mkIV and Die Dietrich pushpull sets, which required 201 class locomotives.
The 2010s and beyond
From late 2009 on, the 071 class locomotives became almost exclusively freight and Permanent Way locomotives. The withdrawal of the 141/181 class Bo-Bo fleet had seen 071s become a fixture on the latter movements, such as ballast and rail trains. They would, however, become a popular choice on enthusiast railtours. The early 2010s also saw the beginning of an extensive bodywork overhaul programme in Inchicore Works. With this came another livery change, with the class being repainted in all-over grey and the new corporate logo applied. A small number of locomotives, such as 078 and 084, went straight from orange to all-over grey, never having received the 2007 silver livery.
In 2016, the 40th Anniversary of the class’s introduction was marked with the repainting of class leader, 071, into the original 1970 orange livery, complete with CIÉ roundel. In a similar vein, the 30th Anniversary of the creation of Irish Rail was commemorated in 2017 with the repainting of 073 into the 1987 IR ‘toothpaste’ livery. In 2022, 071 became the second member of the class to receive a name, being christened “Great Southern & Western” at the Inchicore Works 175 event. This follows a similar naming convention to the NIR 110 class variants, all of which are named after former railway companies.
The class even had a brief return to regular passenger workings when the Belmond Grand Hibernian train operated during the late 2010s, being ‘booked’ traction on the Sunday working from Connolly to Waterford and Bagnelstown, returning to Heuston on the Monday. It is also not unknown for the class to have rescued failed Die Dietrich and mkIV passenger sets, but this is rare.
As their half-century in service draws near, the 071 class are far from inactive. All 18 members of the class remain on the Iarnród Éireann books, with 085 currently being evaluated for conversion to hydrogen power. No indications of their withdrawal are forthcoming, and while nothing lasts forever, is it really that improbable to assume that at least some will still be active as preserved locos in 50 years' time?
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