The last steam locomotive built in America rolled out of the factory in 1952. We recently got tipped off to a news story from an Indian paper that tells about four brand new steam locomotives being built at a factory in that country. These engines will be diesel and furnace oil fired, are destined to haul freight and will travel at the blazing speed of 18mph on flat ground and 9mph up hills.
The fuel appears to be carried in a “saddle back” style tank that lays over the top of the boiler. As you can see in the photo, there’s still some work to be done, but the engine is on the wheels and will soon be chuffing away down the tracks. We bet that this baby will be a real looker wearing a coat of black paint, especially with the polished brass smoke stack up in the front.
The works constructing the locomotives has been trusted to build four copies at a cost of just under $9,000,000 (US). We’re thinking that the nine-mill includes everything from designing the thing, casting all the pieces, assembling it, and making sure it works. Here we’d guess that the job would run into the 10s of millions for that much work.
These newly built Indian locomotives are replacing pieces constructed in Switzerland ages ago. Is it ironic that they are “updating” the fleet with a steam locomotive? Maybe just a little.
Thanks for the tip Bob!
(The Hindu – Locomotive story)
