Two diesel locomotives and wagons from the Irish peat railways have been delivered to the island.

The machines from Bord na Móna will be used on the Steam Railway and Manx Electric Railway for shunting, line upkeep and fire duties.

They cost £17,500 each.

Both locos were refurbished at Bord na Móna’s Blackwater works in County Offaly before being shipped to the Isle of Man.

Bord na Móna once operated an extensive network of railways to serve its peat harvesting and briquetting operations.

But the semi-state company formally ended all peat harvesting on its bogs in 2021 as part of its ‘brown to green’ strategy. It plans to develop wind, solar and other renewable energy capable of suppling a third of Irish homes by the year 2030.

That transition has spelled the demise of its railway network with rolling stock, locos and track being disposed of via a series of auctions.

A spokesman for Isle of Man Railways said: ‘Isle of Man Railways will shortly take delivery of two small shunter units and wagons from Bord na Móna of Eire.

‘Both engineering vehicles are the correct gauge for the Isle of Man’s railways and can be used as fire trains, for shunting duties and for transporting track materials, which will allow the team to undertake additional maintenance work and improve efficiency.

‘The locomotives will operate on both the Steam Railway and Manx Electric Railway. They cost £17,500 each, including documentation, parts and training.’

Both machines were built by Bord na Móna in 1994 and 1995 respectively. They are diesel hydraulics with 100hp, capable of pulling 16 wagons of milled peat.

The first of them to be shipped to the island worked at the Cuil na Móna peat works in County Laois, while the second operated on the Blackwater system.

Last year Media IoM reported that Isle of Man Railways was considering buying redundant equipment from Bord na Móna to be used for track maintenance, management of lineside vegetations and fire response duties.

At that stage it said it had made only ‘tentative’ inquiries.

In response to a Freedom of Information request in May last year, it insisted it had made no arrangement to buy any stock from Bord na Móna.

Bord na Móna suspended and subsequently ended its peat harvesting activities in the wake of a 2019 high court ruling that permission had to be granted in order to harvest peat on bogs of more than 30 hectares.

It continued to produce peat briquettes from existing reserves but that too ended last year.