Early Service Life
The DH class of Northern Ireland Railways consisted of three diesel-hydraulic shunting locomotives numbered 1, 2 & 3. They were built by the English Electric Company, works numbers 3954 - 6 (although the Irish Traction Group lists them as D1266-D1268), at their Vulcan Foundry works in Newton-le-Willows in 1969. They were of 0-6-0 wheel arrangement and fitted with Dorman 12QTV engines of 620hp, connected to an EE twin-disc torque converter and a Wiseman final drive. They weighed 42.5 tonnes and had a maximum speed of 49km/h (29mph).
The locomotives were of EE's standard 'Stephenson' class, and were obtained primarily for shunting work, trip freights and engineer's trains. Locomotive No. 1 was the first to enter service on 31 July 1969, with No. 2 following on 27 September and No. 3 on 4 October. However, the locomotives were not particularly successful due to problems with the engines overheating regularly while in service.
Read more about this topic: NIR 1 Class
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