THE INDUSTRIAL RAILWAY RECORD

No.29 - p206-207

© FEBRUARY 1970

PICTURE   PARADE

FRANK JONES

    I have chosen three Indian subjects for this issue. 25H, a 5ft 6in gauge 2‑10‑2 tank, was built by Nasmyth Wilson, works number 1357 (although the plate now carried reads 1358), in 1922 for hump shunting at Bombay Docks. With the U.S.A. industrials gone, would it be safe to say that 25H is now the most powerful industrial loco working? Anyway, look at that lovely fat boiler!

    18 is a 2ft 6in gauge Barclay 0‑4‑2 tank (1675 of 1920), owned by the India Iron & Steel Co Ltd at Manoharpur, where she and her nine sisters work an iron‑ore branch. I had an hour between trains to visit the shed, which was half a mile from the station. Although it rained the whole hour, being the monsoon season, a bearer carried my rucksack back to the station and an umbrella was provided.

    No.3, a 2ft 6in gauge ex‑War Department 4‑6‑0 tank (Baldwin 44728 of 1917) will not work again at the Dehri complex. This system, together with the 2ft 6in gauge Dehri-Rohtas Light Railway which serves the works with raw materials, had a most varied stock of locos in 1968, ranging from a very early Sentinel conversion, D3906, to Hudswell Clarke 2‑8‑2 side tanks. The most intriguing was No.19, a 0‑6‑0 side tank now running as a 0‑4‑2 side tank. The works records give her as built by Ruston Proctor, but they may only have supplied a replacement boiler. Also here, on the 5ft 6in gauge, was a Kerr Stuart "Moss Bay" 0‑4‑0 saddle tank (4173 of 1921). I found India a remarkable country with many industrial sites unvisited. But if you decide to go, be prepared to lose weight.