2-8-0 Steam Locomotives in India

Class ISR (Locobase 2757)

Data from [], a scanned-in copy of a catalogue prepared ca. 1920. The photo shows a design with the front axle well forward of the smokebox and sporting relatively large-diameter wheels. See also Charles Lake, Locomotives of 1907 (London: Percival Marshall & Co, 1907), presented on [], last accessed 31 January 2009.Works numbers were 2240-2279 in 1907.

A product of the Indian Locomotive Standards Committee, the first batches showed that heritage by driving on the second axle with inside Stephenson link motion. This allowed a shorter main rod than was usual for a Consolidation of the time, most of which drove on the third axle. Other features included a Belpaire boiler, a thick smokebox collar, and typically British cleanliness. Later batches used Walschaerts gear and, probably because of that gear's bigger dimensions, drove on the third axle.

Lake commented: "The engines, with their large cylinder and boiler capacities and ample adhesion weight, are admirably adapted for the work of hauling heavy train-loads over difficult sections of line, and they will doubtless prove highly successful under these

conditions in India. The combination of simplicity and straightforwardness of design, care and skill in manufacture, and the ample character of the proportions present in these engines, place them in the most favourable position possible for the accomplishment of the

purpose for which they have been built."