



Zitat:My understanding now is that the locomotive in Mesopotamia were built by Baldwin at Philadelphia in the USA for the Vologda - Archangel Railway in Russia. This was 3ft 6in gauge (1067mm). It was part of Baldwin order number 17065 dated 5th April 1917 for 53 locomotives of Whyte wheel arrangement 0-6-6-0. The Baldwin classification for the locomotives was 12-20/32DD. They had 44in diameter driving wheels and cylinders 13 x 22in and 19 x 22in. They were to have SZD running numbers 1 to 153.
The locomotives were not shipped to Russia because of the political situation there and former SZD numbers 111 to 150 were purchased 18th March 1918 by the British government and were changed to metre gauge. The Baldwin documents show the customer as 'His Britannic Majesty's Government for Mesopotamia'. The locomotives were shipped to Mesopotamia and kept their former SZD running numbers. They were re-numbered a few times, but we do not know the reason for this. For instance, number 111 also ran as 11, 1 and 401, but we do not know in what sequence these numbers were applied to the locomotive.
Baldwin allocated works numbers to each locomotive, the first was the locomotive in the photo I sent and this was 47286 of 1918. The last was 49361 of 1918.
The SZD number series was from 111 to 150, and the same numbers were initially used in Mesopotamia where these locomotives were their class M. In the same sequence they were renumbered from 11 to 50. Mesopotamian Railways became Iraqi State Railways on 1st April 1920.



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