KUR EC5 class explained

Powertype:Steam
Builddate:1945
Whytetype: (Garratt)
Uicclass:(2′D1′)(1′D2′) h4

The KUR EC5 class was a class of gauge Garratt-type articulated steam locomotives built during the latter stages of World War II by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in Gorton, Manchester, England, for the War Department of the United Kingdom. The two members of the class entered service on the Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR) in 1945. They were part of a batch of 20 locomotives, the rest of which were sent to either India or Burma.

The following year, 1946, four locomotives from that batch were acquired by the Tanganyika Railway (TR) from Burma. They entered service on the TR as the TR GB class.

In 1949, upon the merger of the KUR and the TR to form the East African Railways (EAR), the EC5 and GB classes were combined as the EAR 55 class. In 1952, the EAR acquired five more of the War Department batch of 20 from Burma, where they had been Burma Railways class GD; these five locomotives were then added to the EAR 55 class, bringing the total number of that class to 11 units.

Class list

The builders and fleet numbers of each member of the EAR 55 class were as follows:

Builders
number
WD
number
KUR
number
BAR
number
WD (India)
number
BR
number
TR
number
EAR
number
Notes
7158742421205501
7159742431215502
7150742346904228517505503
7151742356914238527515504
align=center style="background:#87cefa;"7157align=center style="background:#87cefa;"74241align=center style="background:#87cefa;"align=center style="background:#87cefa;"697align=center style="background:#87cefa;"align=center style="background:#87cefa;"853align=center style="background:#87cefa;"752align=center style="background:#87cefa;"5505Preserved at Nairobi Railway Museum.
7146742306868547535506
715574231687855/8655507
715474232688856/8665508
714974233689857/8675509
71??74238694858/8685510
714874239695859/8695511

See also