Development of Steam Locomotive Designs in Railways in India

Since commencement of regular operation in 1853, most of the early steam locomotives were having six wheels for the engine in 2-2-2, 0-4-2,  2-4-0 or 0-6-0 wheel arrangement. Steam Locomotives with bogies became popular only after 1880 with 4-4-0 'outside cylinder' type design became popular. Individual Railway companies adopted their own standards. Orders for Steam Locomotives went beyond  traditional British manufacturers to German and American manufacturers.  The locomotive featured is a 1855 Built Broad Gauge Locomotive, EIR-22 or Fairy Queen, built in UK. This is the oldest working Steam Locomotive in the World ( alongwith its twin EIR-21 or Express). The locomotive was deployed by East Indian Railway Company (EIR), Headquartered in Calcutta (Now Kolkata), India

“British Engineering Standards Committee” or BESA was set up to limit the number of classes or designs used by Railways in India. The committee submitted its report in 1903 and a revised report in 1905. The committee suggested eight classes for broad gauge and four for meter gauge locomotives for operating all kind of services.  These classes are referred to as the BESA class.     The HGS-26761 is a 1922 Built Broad Gauge Locomotive, now preserved at Howrah Rail Museum.

During the war years of 1939-45, the traditional suppliers of steam locomotives from Britain could not meet India’s requirements and locomotives were ordered in large numbers from North America. The popular American broad gauge War Designs (AW) designs were AWC (Goods Locomotive), AWE (Heavy Goods Locomotive), AWD (Goods Locomotive) classes from USA and CWD (Goods Locomotive) from Canada. The wheel configuration was mostly 2-8-2.  During this period, a large number of meter gauge locomotives were also ordered from America. These were popularly called MAWD or simply WD (war department) locomotives.  The MAWD 1798 is preserved in front of New Jalpaiguri Station.  

Another post war IRS design was WG 2-8-2 freight locomotive using the same boiler, motion and other parts as of the WP locomotive but with smaller coupled wheels and larger cylinders. WG class earned the distinction of being the largest single class ever built for any railway in the Commonwealth. A large number of post war standard locomotives were built at the Indian Railway's Workshop at Chittaranjan. A detailed model of WG 10560 is displayed at Rewari Steam Centre.

Although, regular steam operations in main line have been discontinued, Steam hauled trains are regular feature in Darjeeling Himalyan Railway (DHR) ane Rack & Pinion equipped Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR). B class steam ( 2 feet, Narrow Gauge) works in DHR while oil fired X Class works in NMR. In addition, Indian Railways operate several steam services over Broad Gauge Main Line and Hill Railways