Great Southern Railways. The Great Southern Hotels Group was dissolved in 2006, when its hotels were sold off separately to private investors. GS&WR strike In September 1911 the workers of the Great Southern and Western Railway went on strike nationally after two checkers at Kingsbridge goods station in Dublin were suspended for refusing to handle timber that had been delivered by "blackleg" lorry drivers during a strike by the timber merchant's workers. The British Army was brought in to guard tracks and trains, and Protestant strike-breakers from elsewhere in Ireland to do the work of the strikers. The strike was savagely broken in two months, with the railway's proprietor, William Goulding, sacking 10% of the workers for their participation in the strike. Goulding told his associates, "Now that we have the men defeated, we'll never have any more trouble." People Chairmen Peter Purcell, a wealthy landowner and mail coach operator, was the main mover of the GS&WR railway and became its first chairman: 1844 — Peter Purcell 1846 — George Carr 1849 — Sir Edward McDonnel 1860 — William Haughton 1878 — James C. Colvill 1897 — Joshua Pim 1901 — William Goulding Civil engineers Alternative titles include engineer, engineer-in-chief, chief civil engineer. 1844 — Sir John Benjamin Macneill 1847 — George Miller (Also locomotive engineer) 1864 — Valentine Browne and Charles G. Napier; permanent way engineers for Dublin and Cork respectively 1874 — William Scott replaced Napier as permanent way engineer Cork. 1878 — Kennett Bayley 1901 — Albert Gordon 1921 — John F. Sides Locomotive engineers At different times in its history the GS&WR variously used the titles Locomotive Engineer, Locomotive Superintendent or Chief Mechanical Engineer to describe the same post. 1844–47 — John Dewrance 1847–64 — George Miller 1864–83 — Alexander McDonnell 1883–86 — John Aspinall 1886–96 — Henry Ivatt 1896–1911 — Robert Coey 1911–13 — Richard Maunsell 1913–21 — E.A. Watson 1921–23 — J.R. Bazin Incidents Lombardstown train crash A year after the 1911 strike, on 5 August 1912 at 8.50pm, an excursion train from Killarney crashed in Lombardstown, near Mallow in Cork. The driver had been on duty from 3.50am. Of the 200 passengers on board, 96 were seriously injured, one of whom later died as a result. Kiltimagh train crash On 19 December 1916, in foggy conditions, the driver of a ballast train failed to see a red signal at Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo. The