East African Railways 2-8-2 Locomotives in Kenya

Class 29 (Locobase 4330)

Data from Dr. Jonathan Smith's data tables at [], later supplemented and amended by "'29' class", East African Railways and Harbours Magazine, Volume 1, No 11 (December 1954), p. 14. Works numbers were 26905-26920, 27085-27088 in 1952; 27436-27446 in 1955.

Ziel and Eagleson (1973)'s photo show 2931 had a Giesl stack, lots of piping, and double air pumps.

Colin Garratt (Steam Trains of the World, 1987) notes that these were part of the Tribal series of metre Mountains built in the early 1950s -- the other two classes were 30 and 31, which had lighter axle loadings.

See also Nairobi museum website [] (accessed November 2002)

This running gear and Belpaire boiler were adopted as a pocket Berkshire (EAR 30 class) with the addition of one more trailing axle.

Class EA/28 (Locobase 20936)

Data from "2-8-2 Type Locomotives for Kenya & Uganda Ry", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 33, No 420 (15 August 1927), pp 241-242; '"28' class' Locomotive, East African Railways and Harbours Magazine, Volume 2, No 2 (April 1955), archived at [], last accessed 2 September 2021; and Roger Farnsworth, "The EA Class, later Class 28--Uganda Railways - Part 24 - Locomotives and Rolling Stock - Part B (1927 to 1948)" on Roger Farnsworth's real treasure of an blog at [], last accessed 2 September 2021. Works numbers were 3921-3926 in 1928.

Farnsworth notes that this was a big Mikado for the metre gauge, a contention supported by comparing this sextet to the more than four dozen other classes available in Locobase. More to the point, he adds that this was the largest non-articulated design to operate on the EAR.

Firebox heating surface area included that from a combustion chamber. Ten-inch (254 mm) piston valves supplied steam to the cylinders.

Farnsworth claims the EA Class were "well-liked by drivers and firemen".Rolling on relatively tall drivers, the 28s initially worked the mail trains between Nairobi and Mombasa and compiled a million revenue iles by 1950. They proved somewhat underbuilt, however.

"Unfortunately," he wrote, "they were relegated to hauling goods trains at high speed and as this resulted in significant mechanical troubles." Fitting the trucks on each end with roller bearings, as described in the 1957 article, may have addressed the problems, but the engines were nonetheless withdrawn in the 1960s.