Preserved steam in Bangladesh

My colleague and I came across this loco while exploring Old Dhaka. Although it looks British, it's a postwar Japanese build to an interwar British standard design (YD). Metre gauge 2-8-2 sounds modest but it looked big close up!

 

Thanks. Do you have the build details (mfr/date)?

 

I think this is one of the 25 Nippon built YD/5 2-8-2s of 1952/3. Numbered 715-739, many, but not all, of these were transferred to (West) Pakistan in 1962 and were active on the Mirpur Khas meter gauge system until the early 1990s. Open to correction if others know more about this.

Peter James

 

Thanks. Nippon Sharyo 1584-1608 (all with 1952 build dates).

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I suspect I was reading the delivery date rather than construction date.

The loco looks to be in a very good state of preservation, unlike many on the Indian subcontinent. The number is clearly visible in the photograph but as I do not read Hindi I cannot decipher it.

Peter

 

The painted number in bengali script in your photo is 718.

According to http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/bangladesh01.htm this is YD 718, one of 25 delivered to East Pakistan by Nippon in 1952, and withdrawn in 1983. This confirms Peter James post above.

When I went to Bangladesh in the early 80s there were lines of condemned locos at all the broad and narrow gauge depots, I'm glad that 1 or 2 survived.

Nick

 

They certainly seemed very proud of it, and it was in good condition. There are apparently some more at the main railway workshops in northern Bangladesh. Locals told me there are also some surviving steam locos ("old British engines") in the Khulna area and the Chittagong area, but that may be a bit out of date of course. The railway through Dhaka is dual broad and metre gauge which is fun. It seemed very heavily used.