IR / IÉ 001 CLASS (A CLASS) CO-CO METROPLOITAN VICKERS

THE PROTOTYPE

Built in 1955 by Metropolitan Vickers, the 001 Class locomotives were the workhorses of the Irish railway network for forty years, on passenger and freight until the mid-1990s.

As with the BR Class 28 they suffered badly from the unreliability of their Crossley engines. The solution was the progressive conversion of the entire fleet with General Motors engines starting in 1968.

These locomotives were originally numbered A1 – A60 and as they were re-engined, they had the suffix ‘r’ added to their number. From 1972 the prefix letters were dropped and the locomotives were renumbered 001 to 060.