Barsi Light Railway 4-8-4 Locomotives in India

Class B (Locobase 20991)

Data from "Barsi Light Railway 4-8-4T" in , Locomotives Manufactured by Messrs Kitson & Co Ltd, Leeds. See also "The Barsi Light Ry India", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 13 (15 January 1907), pp. 17-19. Works numbers were 4328-4329 and 4373 in 1905; 4507-4510 in 1907; and 5123-5126 in 1915.

Edward Calthrop's 30" gauge railway benefited considerably from Kitson's execution of his tank locomotive specs; see Locobase 20990 for additional discussion. Five 0-8-4Ts (Locobase 20991) and the twelve 4-8-4Ts each rolled on four adhesion axles and a trailing bogie that carried the coal bunker. In the 1905 engines, a leading bogie appeared under the smokebox and all dimensions except maximum axle loading increased.

Locobase has no other entry covering a 30"-gauge 4-8-4T. Several Baldwin Consolidation tender engines--e.g., Locobases 12831, 14429, 14914, 14428-- operated on Cuban sugar plantations offered very similar heating surface areas and adhesion weights. But smaller cylinder volumes or taller drivers reduced their calculated tractive effort compared to the B class.

Generally regarded as successful locomotives, they provided a counter example to Merivale's criticisms of sub-3ft gauge laid out in Locobase 20989. It's quite likely that the operating conditions in the Venezuelan plateau, the six-inch wider gauge, and the BLR's requirements were sufficiently different to allow the longer-wheelbase engines to work the trains they did.

And Calthrop reported to the Locomotive Magazine that a B-class engine hauled an average load over the Barsi Road 275 long tons of trailing load. In a March 1906 test run, a B ran over the same line "under ordinary running conditions and without special effort" a 310 1/2 ton train that was made up of four passenger coaches carrying a total of 140 passengers, 15 goods wagons, and 1 tank wagon. Train length came to 659 1/2 feet (201 metres).

By the time the BRL had added mileage to its network, it covered 202 mile (325 km) in Maharashtra State from Miraj northeast to Latur. It remained private until 1954.