TR GA class
class of 3 East African 4-8-2+2-8-4 locomotives
The TR GA class, later known as the EAR 53 class, was a class of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge 4-8-2+2-8-4 Garratt-type articulated steam locomotives. The three members of the class were built in 1930 by Beyer, Peacock & Co. in Manchester, England, for the Tanganyika Railway (TR). They entered service in 1931, and, with one exception, were later operated by the TR's successor, the East African Railways (EAR).
Specifications
The design of the GA class locomotives was based upon that of the KUR EC2 class, which was built at about the same time by the North British Locomotive Company for the Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR). The main design difference was that the GAs had higher, narrower front tanks than the EC2s. With their reduced water capacity, the GAs also had a lower axle loading, which made them suitable for operation over the World War I-damaged bridges on the Central Line.
Service history
Upon entry into service in 1931, the GA class locomotives were allocated numbers 300–302. Each of them was also given a name: the first two carried the names Arusha and Iringa, respectively, after the locations of the TR's big road depots, and no. 302 was named Bukoba, as that town had a jetty for marine services.
The public source identifies “TR GA class” as class of 3 East African 4-8-2+2-8-4 locomotives. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around class, East and African.
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This entry incorporates text from “TR GA class” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.