Locomotives of India

As of 2023[update], it maintains over 108,706 km (67,547 mi) of tracks and operates over 13,000 trains daily with a fleet of 14,800 locomotives.

[3] In 1853, the first passenger train ran between Bombay and Thane which had 14-carriages hauled by three steam locomotives: the Sahib, Sindh and Sultan.

[9] In the 1960s, Integral Coach Factory-Chennai (ICF) started developing self-propelled Electric multiple units for short-haul and local routes.

[14][15] As of 2023[update], Indian Railways maintains over 108,706 km (67,547 mi) of tracks and operates over 13,000 trains daily with a fleet of over 14,800 locomotives.

[21] and so on In 1925, the first electric train ran between Bombay and Kurla, hauled by a imported SLM locomotive on a DC traction.

[6] In 1957, Indian Railways adopted 25 kV 50 Hz AC traction with the first runs beginning in December 1959 with the WAM-1 locomotives.

BHEL developed AC-DC dual use EMUs which can run on 25kV AC and 1.5kV DC traction lines.

[29] In 1958, the Commonwealth Engineering of Australia supplied an unknown number of 400 hp (300 kW), 83-seat broad-gauge diesel-mechanical railcars to Indian Railways, classified as WRD-1.

During the 1890s, Indian railway companies imported locomotives from Germany and the United States when British manufacturers were suffering from work outages.

[35] After World War I, larger and more-powerful locomotives were designed by British consulting engineers for the Indian government.

They began to operate from 1927:[36] During World War II, large numbers of 2-8-2 locomotives were acquired from the United States and Canada and classified AWD and CWD.

In addition to modified frame spreaders, axles, cylinders, and cab, the Indian locomotives had a turbo generator and electric lighting (not included in the standard European design).