In 1925, at the behest of the government of the newly established Irish Free State, the Great Southern Railways was created to take over the running of all the railways, both broad and narrow gauge, which were located wholly within the Irish Free State. It continued to fulfil this role until 1945, when it became part of CIE.
The inter-war years were bleak for the railways in the south of Ireland. Great damage had been done to the network during the War of Independence and the Civil War which followed the 1922 settlement with Britain. During the GSR era, economic conditions were grim yet the company did provide a reliable service and even managed to introduce some innovations including the only Pullman cars ever to run in Ireland, the Drumm battery trains and several classes of steam locomotives culminating in the three B1a class 4-6-0s built in 1939-41, probably the largest and most powerful 4-6-0s ever to run in these islands, locos which were on a par with the GWR ‘Kings’ and the LMS ‘Royal Scots’. This attractive pictorial survey of the GSR covers both its broad and narrow gauge lines as well as some of the company‘s other activities, such as its road freight and bus services.