2-4-0 Steam Locomotives in India

Class 101 (Locobase 16103)

Data from tracing archived at [], last accessed 26 July 2015. Works numbers were 332-336 in 1852.

Class 34 (Locobase 21228)

Data from tracing archived at [], last accessed 26 July 2015. (Thanks to Abjihit Gore for his 13 December 2024 email verifying the identity of these East Indian locomotives.) Works numbers were 332-336 in 1852.

Abjihit Gore was able to supply Locobase with the two entries that confirmed Vulcan's use of the same design This was the broad-gauge result and among the very first of 2,750 Leeds-built locomotives that would serve in India over the next 100 years.

Class 800 (Locobase 11288)

Data from Ernest Taillard, Exposition Universelle de Paris de 1867-Chemins de Fer-Les Locomotives et le Materiel de Transport, 1ie Volume (Paris: Dunod, 1867), pp.38-39.

Class unknown (Locobase 3509)

Data from D[aniel] K[innear] Clark, "On the Locomotive Engines in the International Exhibition of 1862," Newton's London Journal of Arts, (1 January 1864), p. 34.

A "standard" class of outside-cylinder 2-4-0s built for the railroad over a seven-year period by a variety of British builders. Data are of the WG Armstrong & Co. batch. Avonside, Hawthorn, Canada Works, Kitson's, J Morrison (10 in 1867), Cross & Company. Kessler of Esslingen and Escher Wyss of Zurich also contributed engines. (Thanks to Werner Hardmeier for his 5 January 2022 email asking for more information on the Escher-Wyss contribution to this large class.)

(Hardmeier pointed out that Escher-Wyss built only 35 locomotives before moving on to specialize in "paddle steamers an other technical items.") The 10 sent to East Indian represented slightly less than 1/3 of the total. Works numbers were 51-60 in 1866; EIR road numbers were 366-375.

Clark, a well-known designer and commentator on steam locomotives of the time, commented that the tube diameter of 2 1/4" meant the tubes were laid in the boiler at only a .56" (14.2 mm) spacing.

"These proportions would", in Clark's opinion, "be improved by reducing the tubes to 2 inches diameter, with increased clearance; and the reduction of heating surface would be amply compensated by the increased facility for circulation of the water and steam between the tubes." Such discussions would recur frequently throughout the age of steam.

Class unknown (Locobase 8454)

Data from John Bourne, CE, Recent Improvements in the Steam-Engine (London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1880), p. 243.

Bourne says little specific about this locomotive (which he credits to "Kepler of Wurtemburg [sic]") other than to note that it appeared at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. The official report of the United States Commissioners singled out this locomotive as an example of how new manufacturers were competing successfully for business.