Indian non-standard pacifics

[andrewshimmin]

I am trying to find photographs of non-standard pacific (4-6-2) locos used on the Indian broad gauge during British imperial times. There were six classes (as well as the standard pre-war XA, XB and XC and the post-war WP and WL – I am not looking for photos of these). The six were: BB&CIR P, EIR PS, GIPE XP, NWR XS1 & XS2 and NWR WL (not the later standard WL). I know of some photos (see below) but very few. I would be most grateful if anyone can point me in the direction of other photos.

1. Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway P Class N°s 601 & 602 (Built 1924 by Kitson, works N°s 5366& 5367), later Indian Railways N°s 24267 & 24268. I know of only two photos of these locos, this one (http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Heritage/bbcir/s27.jpg.html) which looks official, and one by P S A Berridge which appears in the Railway Magazine of April 1953. Berridge was a prodigious photographer of Indian Railways, who worked for the NWR as a bridge engineer, and wrote “Couplings to the Khyber”. He bequeathed some seventy-odd glass plate negatives to the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge, but unfortunately his negatives seem to have disappeared (I fear destroyed). The photo of the BB&CIR P class is not amongst the slides in Cambridge.
2. East Indian Railway PS Class N°s 1138 & 1139 (also built in 1924 also by Kitson, works N°s 5372 & 5373) which were a bit smaller than the BB&CIR locos. They were later Indian Railways N°s 24153 & 24154. Amazingly 24153 survived out of use at Jamalpur shops until the early 21^st century, when she was unfortunately scrapped. There are a few photos of these locos in the Kelland collection (Bournemouth Railway Club) and the Bowtell collection (Manchester Loco Soc.) so they are better represented than the other classes.
3. Great Indian Peninsula Railway XP Class N°s 3100 ‘King George’ & 3101 ‘Queen Elizabeth’ (built in 1937 by Vulcan Foundry, works N°s 4694 & 4695), later Indian Railways N°s 22599 & 22600. They are shown on this Vulcan photo: http://www.enuii.org/vulcan_foundry/photographs/locomotives/gipr%20XP%20class.jpg, otherwise the only photo I know of is one of 22600 derelict at Jhansi in 1967 by A T Johnson, reproduced in Hugh Hughes original edition of the broad gauge volume of “Steam Locomotives in India”.
4. North Western Railway XS1 Class N°s 760 & 761 (Caprotti valve gear) and XS2 Class N°s 780 & 781 (Lentz valve gear) which were all 4-cylinder simple machines, and with different crank angles. They later were Pakistan Railways with the same numbers. A couple of photos are in the Vulcan reproduction brochure: http://www.enuii.org/vulcan_foundry/photographs/locomotives/Publicity/North%20Western%20Railway%20Pakistan.pdf, otherwise the only photo I know of is 780 leaving Lahore for Karachi, which is in the Berridge collection, fortunately this one being amongst the slides which are in Cambridge.
5. North Western Railway WL Class N°s 101 to 104, which were built by Vulcan Foundry in 1939 as works N°s 4779 to 4782. These are not to be confused with the later Indian Railways WL class built by VF from 1955. They were later Pakistan Railways with the same numbers. There is a photo here: http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Foreign/ghilzai/Steam+Locomotive+working+on+North+Western+Railways.jpg.html, otherwise the only photo I know is by Berridge and reproduced in his “Couplings to the Khyber” but is not, sadly, amongst the slides in Cambridge.
6. Bengal Nagpur Railway M Class N°s 792 to 809 were 4-cylinder de Glehn compounds built by North British in 1929, works N°s 23868 to 23885. They were later Indian Railways N°s 38792 to 38809. These are also relatively well photographed, in the Kelland and Bowtell collections amongst others, and also an A T Johnson photograph is reproduced in Hugh Hughes original edition of the broad gauge volume of “Steam Locomotives in India”.

I would be very grateful for any info on where there are other photos available (not mentioned above) and/or any news on the “missing” Berridge photos, or indeed A T Johnson’s photos.

 

 

[EddieB]

PM sent.