Where can I find locomotives from India that have been preserved or restored outside India?

Latest News

General Manager’s Safety Award for 10 Staff of Central Railway

View All >>

1 Rail News

क्षेत्रीय हिंदी प्रतियोगिता 2023 संपन्न

Central Railway Revolutionizes LHB Power Car Testing with Static Water Load Testing Units in a First of its kind Innovation
Shri Ram Karan Yadav takes over as General Manager, Central Railway
भारतीय रेल ने नवंबर 2023 तक 1015.6 एमटी माल लदान का लक्ष्य हासिल किया
जबलपुर-हजरत निजामुद्दीन एक्सप्रेस सहित 10 ट्रेन निरस्त, कामायनी एक्सप्रेस परिवर्तित मार्ग से चलेगी
रेलवे की बड़ी सौगात! अब इन स्‍टेशनों से पटना के लिए मिलेगी सीधी ट्रेन, जानें शेड्यूल
किसानों के बाद अब पूर्व सैनिकों ने घेरा रेलवे ट्रैक, One Rank One Pension की मांग को लेकर शुरू किया प्रदर्शन
रेलवे स्टेशन के फुट ओवरब्रिज पर ले सकेंगे स्ट्रीट फूड का आनंद

view all>>

2 Railway Employee

General Manager’s Safety Award for 10 Staff of Central Railway

view all>>

3 Always Important

जानिए पटरियों के साइड में क्यों लिखे होते हैं नंबर?

view all>>

Where can I find locomotives from India that have been preserved or restored outside India?

June 20, 2019, 12:38 PM

During the World Wars, many Indian locomotives were transferred to the middle East, Africa, and elsewhere to support British military efforts. Most of these locomotives of course do not survive now and may be difficult to trace. Details of these wartime transfers are found in works such as ‘Middle East Railways’ by Hugh Hughes as well as railway periodicals of the time. This section does not deal with those, nor with the many Indian locos that have been exported to other countries as part of commercial deals by IR, IRCON, CLW or DLW, etc. (including renovated and new locos). Other than all of these only a few Indian locomotives have been transferred to other countries.

ये भी पढ़े – दवाइयों के बिना, नेचुरल तरीके से ऐसे कंट्रोल करें ‘डायबिटीज’

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway 19B — One of the most well known Indian locos outside India is a ‘B’ class tank, #19, of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway which was sent to Chicago, USA, in 1961 after purchase by a private party, and later was for many years at the Hesston Steam Museum in Indiana (USA). It is believed to have been running during most of this time. In the early 1990s or so, it was reported not in running condition, following some boiler defects and other problems that could not been fixed for lack of funding. Most unfortunately, it was further damaged during the collapse of the shed where it was stored. In late 2002 the museum sold the locomotive to a Briton and it was moved to the Tyseley Locomotive Works of the Birmingham Railway Museum by January 2003. Some photos here. It underwent restoration work there.

Matheran Light Railway 740 — Loco number 740 of the Matheran Light Railway was sent to the Leighton Buzzard Railway where it has been renovated in 2001 and is now running regularly there. This is a 0-6-0T side-tank locomotive built by Orenstein and Koppel (Berlin, Germany) in 1907 (works number 2343). An unusual feature of this and other locos of the MLR are radial steering axles that allow the negotiation of sharp curves.

‘Rishra’ — A 0-4-0T side-tank locomotive now named ‘Rishra’, the only known survivor of a rare batch of locomotives from Baguley, is now at the Leighton Buzzard Railway. Baguley Cars, Burton-on-Trent, England, were better known for their railcars and diesel locomotives. Built in 1921 with works number 2007, the loco was used by the Calcutta Corporation shunting coal wagons at a water pumping station in Barrackpore for many years, and then apparently abandoned.

It was rescued from its site of abandonment from under overgrown vegetation in 1963 through the efforts of Mike Satow, then a senior executive at ICI, India, and who later went on to play a pivotal role in the establishment of the National Railway Museum in New Delhi. (Mr Satow also later became the president of the Leighton Buzzard Railway.)

‘Rishra’ was restored to working order at the Hooghly Docking and Engineering Company, Rishra, Calcutta (and ICI subsidiary) and then shipped overseas to England in 1971. It commenced operations at Leighton Buzzard Railway in 1972. After working for some years, it developed some problems and its boiler was condemned. Recently [2001] volunteers have raised money and built a new boiler for it and renovated it. It is said to be steaming regularly now.

Baldwin WDLR 778 — Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, USA, built 495 locomotives for the US War Department Light Railways (WDLR), for use in transporting men and materiel in the battlefields of the First World War in France and Belgium. WDLR No. 778 was a 4-6-0T tank locomotive, built in 1917. After the war was over, it was one of fifty such wartime locomotives that were exported from the battlefields of Europe to the North Western Railway in India. There, it was re-numbered No. 16 by the NWR.

Later, the locomotive was transferred to the Daraula Light Railway, and much later tot he Upper India Sugar Mills in Khatauli, Uttar Pradesh, where it finished its working life in 1983. The locomotive was rescued and sent to the Leighton Buzzard Railway, UK, and a charity, the Greensand Railway Museum Trust, raised money for its renovation.

Other — A couple of YP locomotives have been bought by private groups in the USA. A narrow-gauge locomotive from Katwa was sent to the UK a few years ago (late 1990s). Two YP 4-6-2 locos were bought by a private businessman and sent to Togo, however they have apparently not been used since they were moved there.

India-Pakistan Hostilities In 1969, one WDM-2 locomotive of Indian Railways was appropriated by Pakistan and incorporated into Pakistan Railway’s fleet. The circumstances of the appropriation remain somewhat mysterious, and in particular the road number of the locomotive assigned by IR has not been determined, although it is thought to be from a batch erected by DLW in 1965. PR initially assigned it a road number of 3770, but it was later renumbered to 4621 to fit into the ALU26 loco series since the WDM-2 is an Alco DL-560 model. As late as 2000, the loco is said to have been active and based at Rawalpindi shed.

Another instance of such a locomotive ‘transfer’ because of hostilities between India and Pakistan is that of a locomotive that arrived at Howrah from the then East Pakistan in 1971 just as the war between India and Pakistan began. The loco was detained at Howrah and never went back even after the cessation of hostilities. It is said to be stationed at Bandel

Source – IFRCA.org

This entry was posted in 2 Railway Employee, STUDY NEW, Railway Employee