One of the engines featured in the race, Dublin & South Eastern Railway engine No 18, later renumbered No 444, on a Wexford-bound cattle train passing through Glenageary, Co Dublin, in September 1939. The GSW closely guarded the region’s valuable bovine workings and were running 30-wagon cattle trains three times a week to Dublin. By 1910, competition between them had grown so fierce that a race was organised to determine which one should exclusively run the services. By the time the DSE crew and 18 arrived, Cuckoo and Kavanagh had already shunted their wagons away into the Dublin yard. It later starred in 1979’s The First Great Train Robbery, along with Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and sister engine No 186.

Source: The Irish Times March 17, 2026 22:00 UTC