India railway steam engine history
The Indian locomotive class WP was a class of 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives used in India. It was introduced after World War II for passenger duties, marking the change from 'X' to 'W' as the classification code for broad gauge locomotives.
First steam engine railway in India
The Red Hill Railway
The country's first steam locomotive ran on the Red Hill Railway (built by Arthur Cotton to transport granite for road-building) from Red Hills to the Chintadripet bridge in Madras in 1837.
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The Red Hill Railway, the country's first train, departed from the Red Hills to the Chintadripet Bridge in Madras in 1837. It was towed by a locomotive engine built by William Avery. Built by Arthur Cotton, the railway was used primarily to transport the future stone of road construction work in Madras .
While the early railway proposals were being scrutinised by the directors of East India Company, Britain was going through the battle of gauges. A large portion of British Railways was built with 4' 8.5" gauge whereas Great Western Railway adopted a wider 7' 0" gauge for better stability and larger locomotives. At home, Lord Dalhousie had seen the danger of break of gauge and when he came to India as Governor General, he was already quite aware of the problem. In his historic minutes of July 4, 1850, written at Sini, a hill resort in the North, he discussed at length the necessity of not only selecting a proper gauge but also the imperative need of sticking to a uniform gauge throughout the country. Dalhousie favoured a gauge of 6' 0" width, though the Board of directors had recommended a gauge of 4ft. 8.5" A compromise was struck later and a new standard gauge of 5ft. 6" width was adopted for the early railway lines in India.
The first two railway companies, the East Indian Railway Company (EIR) and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company (GIP) were the pioneers in the development of Railways in India. The first engines ordered by GIP were eight 2-4-0 tender engines from Vulcan Foundry in 1852. On the Eastern side, two of the earliest engines ordered by EIR were 12" diameter outside cylinder double frame, 2-2-2 underslung tank locomotives from Kitson, Hewitson and Thomson of Leeds in 1855. Both of them have survived all these years. They are FAIRY QUEEN preserved at Rail Transport Museum, New Delhi and EXPRESS, displayed at Jamalpur.
Right from the earliest orders, European makers in knocked down condition supplied the locomotives. The locomotives were then assembled at the workshops set up in India. It was customary to supply one extra spare set of locomotive components for every batch order of twenty so as to cater for any breakage or loss enroute. Jamalpur Workshops and latter Allahabad Workshops of EIR took a lead in assembling complete locomotives. They also assembled locomotives from the extra spare components and gave them Jamalpur and Allahabad makes plates as early as 1870's. That was the beginning of locomotive manufacture in India, which continued for over hundred years. The broad gauge locomotive ANTIM SITARA in 1970 and metre gauge locomotive No.3573 YG in 1972 were the last in the line to be turned out from Chittaranjan shops of Indian Railways.
Broad Gauge Steam Locomotives
The emergence of various designs of broad gauge locomotives on the Indian scene can be divided into five distinct phases namely-
Non standard designs (upto 1905)
BESA designs (1905-1928)
IRS designs (1928-1939)
WarTime designs (1939-1945)
Post War IRS designs (1945-1970)
Most of the early locomotives were having six wheels for the engine in (a) 2-2-2, (b) 0-4-2, (c) 2-4-0 or (d) 0-6-0 wheel arrangement. The bogie pattern became popular only after 1880; the favourable combination was 4-4-0 'outside cylinder' type design. The individual Railway systems, however, adopted their own standards and the types of locomotives multiplied to such an extent that the traditional British manufacturers could not fulfil the requirement of Railway Companies. This resulted in orders being placed on German and American manufacturers and as could have been natural, protest was made on behalf of the trade circles in the British Parliament. The outcome was that the 'British Engineering Standards Committee' was asked to appoint a sub-committee for the purpose of preparing designs for a limited number of standard classes and the railway companies on Indian subcontinent were expected to order their future requirement accordingly. The committee gave its first report in 1903 and a revised report in 1905. The committee suggested eight types of locomotives on broad gauge to cover various natures of duties that a steam locomotive was to be used for. These standard types became popular as 'BESA' classes and were ordered in large numbers.
In 1924, the newly appointed Locomotive Standards Committee was asked to update and re-standardise the BESA design and to recommend new standard types of more powerful locomotives. This committee recommended eight basic types of locomotives, which became popular as Indian Railway Standards or IRS classes. The six IRS classes adopted in large number by the various railways were .
last steam train used in India
All regular broad-gauge steam service in India ended in 1995, with the final run made from Jalandhar to Ferozpur on 6 December. The last meter-gauge and narrow-gauge steam locomotives in regular service were retired in 2000.
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