This little-known experimental locomotive represents one of the most obscure locomotive for the Franco-Crosti Boiler system. It was based on the Italian F-C designs, with a preheater on each side.
The 1907 Coey locomotive was modified in 1951 by Córas Iompair Éireann, (Irish National Railways) the group formed on nationalisation in 1945, which included the former Great Southern Railways company. The Irish railways had suffered severe coal shortages during WW2, and these recurred during the exceptionally severe winter of 1947. Experiments were therefore conducted in 1952-1954 on burning turf, (ie peat) fed by a screw from an enlarged tender.
The famous O V S Bulleid had resigned as CME of the Southern Region of British Railways in Sept 1949, and became CME of CIE. He is known to have been in touch with Locomotive A Vapore Franco, the Italian constructors, and it appears that a Franco-Crosti boiler was fitted to 356 at his instigation. Whether this was an attempt to do two experiments at once, or if the increased thermal efficiency was considered crucial to the turf-burning project, is currently obscure.
The design appears to have differed from your average Franco-Crosti in that exhaust steam as well as hot gas were used to warm the preheaters. The exhaust steam was then used to preheat the combustion air, the air heater being underneath the tender. At the moment, the exit path of the exhaust gas is rather obscure. On leaving the preheaters, it was ducted over the roof of the cab to the tender, possibly so that it could be ejected by a blastpipe fed from the exhaust steam leaving the air heater. As originally built, the steaming was awful, and a forced-draught fan was later added, powered by a bus engine carried on a wagon behind the tender.