North West 4-4-0 Locomotives in India

Class BESA/SPS (Locobase 4257)

Data from [], a page of the Vulcan Foundry catalogue ca. 1920; and "Superheater Engines for the Indian State Railways", Engineer, Volume 114 (11 October 1912), pp/ 384, 386.

This is the superheated variant of the smaller of the Small Passenger (SP) engines. It used the same Belpaire boiler as several other BESA designs .Indeed, comparing the various locomotives shows many common points only slightly affected by wheel arrangement.

The accompanying photographs show the Eight-wheeler's inside plate frames, cylinders and valve motion inside the frames ("all inside"), low running board with separate splashers over each driver, dome centered on the boiler, Belpaire firebox, and capped stack. A large grate suitable for burning the available indifferent-quality coal was paired with a small boiler.

As with the 0-6-0s described in Locobase 4247, India's operating conditions dictated small "cowcatcher" style pilots on the front buffer beam and full cabs shrouding both the footplate and the front of the tender.

The latter two were delivered with a Phoenix smokebox superheater and 229 tubes in the boiler that provided 1,193.3 sq ft (110.86 sq m) of heating surface. As with other trials in India, the British Isles, and elsewhere, the design didn't prove very effective and it was removed.

See the HP 4-6-0 for full description of the BESA intention and varying views of its utility.