DHR B Class
Class of narrow gauge steam locomotives built for Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The DHR B Class is a class of 2 ft (610 mm) gauge 0-4-0 ST saddle tank steam locomotives used on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in West Bengal, India.
01Service history
A total of 34 B Class locomotives have served on the DHR. Some are still on the working roster. One (DHR 778) was sold for private preservation, and four others were sold to Coal India, Assam. The remaining class members have been either plinthed in various locations in northern India or scrapped. Of the few in active service, the locomotives 788 'Tusker' and 'Victor' haul trains between Darjeeling to Ghum stations via Batasia loop, quite a few times a day. Another loco, DHR 780 is kept preserved with two narrow gauge coaches at Eco Park, Rajarhat, as an exhibit.
19B was re-imported to the UK c. 2000 and underwent restoration before spending two decades operating at the Beeches Light Railway.
02Livery
Initially, all members of the class were liveried in DHR green. For a short period after World War II, they were repainted black. Later, they ran in an unlined red colour. They were given their current Caledonian blue with white lining after coming into ownership of the Northeast Frontier Railway in 1958.
03Preserved examples
| DHR Nº | Manufacturer | Serial Nº | Built | IR Nº | Location | Current status | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | Sharp, Stewart & Co. | 4978 | 1903 | 785 | Dehradun railway station | Display | ||
| 32 | North British Locomotive Co. | 20143 | 1913 | 787 | Siliguri Junction station | Display | ||
| 33 | North British Locomotive Co. | 20144 | 1913 | 788 | Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, India | Operational | ||
| 41 | Sharp, Stewart & Co. | 44914 | 1917 | 794 | Neral shed | Display | ||
| 42 | 795 |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “DHR B Class”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- DHR 792 with School Train 05-02-23 02.jpeg by No machine-readable author provided. AHEMSLTD~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5
- Darjeeling train in shed. 1979.jpg by John Hill, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Preserved DHR 780 with 2 coaches.jpg by Anubhabkundu wiki, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Preserved B class steam loco -780 with NG coaches.jpg by Anubhabkundu wiki, CC BY-SA 4.0
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