Sudan Railway 4-6-0 Locomotives in Sudan

Class Darfur (Locobase 10341)

Data from "Rebuilt in the Soudan [sic]," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol VIII (13 June 1903), pp. 412. Boiler pressure is an estimate.

This locomotive was delivered the Sudan in 1897 as a 2-6-2 but its weight distribution proved unsatisfactory and the axles were rearranged to place all three drivers on each side behind a bogie. Darfur (a name that would gain a chilling cast a century later) had the usual marks of a British-built goods engine: straight, low running board, polished-brass dome over the center driver, outside cylinder supplied by inside Stephenson link motion.

In 1903, the author noted that the SR was an important part of the Cape-to-Cairo scheme and was to link up to the South African Railways for through running. Break of gauge from the Egyptian Railway's standard width occurred at Luxor, at which point steamers brought passengers and goods to Wady Halfa. Distance from the latter to Khartoum amounted to 575 miles - as good an indicator as any of just how ambitious was Cecil Rhodes' grand plan.