Burma Railways Beyer-Garratt Locomotives in Burma

Class GA.I (Locobase 574)

Data from Wiener (1930) and "Garratt" Locomotive for the Burma Railways", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXIX [29] (15 December 1923), p. 366. See also "Articulated Locomotive Tests in India and Burma", Railway Engineer, Volume 46, No.11 (November 1925), pp. 399-402; and "Burma Railways-Design 1129", Beyer-Garrrat Patent Articulated Locomotives (Manchester, England: Beyer-Peacock & Company Limited, 1931), archived on flickr's Historical Railway Images at [], et seq, p. 24. Works numbers were 6385-6389 in 1931.

Like so many other Garratts, these engines operated over railways that most standard locomotives wouldn't touch. As the LM report contended, on the basis of the limited permissible axle load, the GAs were, at the time of their introduction, "probably the most powerful metre gauge locomotive ever put into service."

These climbed 4% grades pulling 200-ton trains at 9 mph. One section climbed at 4% for 16 3/4 miles, topping out with another 11.8 miles at 2 1/2%. Cartazzi sliding axle boxes on the innermost coupled axles allowed a 3/8" (9.5 mm) traverse provided easy travel through relatively tight curves. In addition, the leading and trailing trucks traversed along radial arms rather than central pivots.

In trials comparing this superheated variant with the Beardmore Mallets (Locobase 20201), the Garratt showed its heels to the North British product. It proved capable of train loads 40% higher than those of the Mallets while burning about 17% more coal.

1927's 6411-6413 were the GA.IIIs (Locobase 6848) , follow-ons to the GA.I

Wiener (1930).

Class GA.II (Locobase 575)

Data from Gavin Hamilton's excellent compilation of Garratt data posted at [] (6 September 2005); and "Burma Railways-Design 1119", Beyer-Garrrat Patent Articulated Locomotives (Manchester, England: Beyer-Peacock & Company Limited, 1931), archived on flickr's Historical Railway Images at [], et seq, p. 25. Works numbers were 6385-6389 in 1931.. Works number was 6354 in 1927.

One-off compounded version of the 1923 GA I Consolidation Garratts (Locobase 574)purchased for comparison. The larger, low pressure cylinders powered the engine group ahead of the smokebox and the lead water bunker was quite small. Otherwise the design displayed the typical Beyer-Garratt Belpaire firebox, outside constant-lead radial valve gear, superheater.

The compounding wasn't retained, but the smaller superheater was fitted in the GA IIIs (Locobase 6848) produced a few years later.

Even so, it remained in service until the Japanese invasion in 1942.

Class GA.III (Locobase 6848)

Data from Gavin Hamilton's excellent compilation of Garratt data posted at []

(6 September 2005); and "Burma Railways-Design 1127", Beyer-Garrrat Patent Articulated Locomotives (Manchester, England: Beyer-Peacock & Company Limited, 1931), archived on flickr's Historical Railway Images at [], et seq, p. 28. Works numbers were 6385-6389 in 1931.and Burma Railway Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2021 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works numbers were 6411-6413 in 1927.

This trio followed the three GA.Is supplied by BP in 1924 (Locobase 574).

Class GA.IV (Locobase 576)

Data from Gavin Hamilton's excellent compilation of Garratt data posted at []

(6 September 2005); A[rthur] E[dward] Durrant, Garratt Locomotives of the World (revised edition) (Newton Abbott, UK: David & Charles, 1981), p 58; and from Burma Railways locomotive diagrams posted on Flicker by Florian Grupp, last accessed 3 March 2012. Works numbers were 1077-1084.

Essentially identical to the Beyer-Peacock Consolidation Garratts (Locobases 574-576), Krupp , although the boiler did have 1/3 more superheating surface area than the GA III and 12% more than the GA I. Gavin Hamiilton's photograph shows that, unusually for Krupp, this class had Belpaire fireboxes like the other Beyer Peacock-built GAs. Durrant wrote that all four GA subclasses had fallen out of service due to war damage.