his locomotive was built by William M Beardmore at Dalmuir near Glasgow in 1920 for the Oudh and Rohilkhund Railway which was merged with the East India Railway in July 1925.
Beardmore and Company was a British engineering and shipbuilding conglomerate based in Glasgow and the surrounding Clydeside area. It was active from 1886 to the mid-1930s and at its peak employed about 40,000 people. It was founded and owned by William Beardmore, later Lord
The Parkhead Forge, in the east end of Glasgow, became the core of the company. It was established by Reoch Brothers & Co in 1837 and was later acquired by Robert Napier in 1841 to make forgings and iron plates for his new shipyard in Govan
In 1900, Beardmore took over the shipyard of Robert Napier and Sons in Govan and began the construction of what would become The Naval Construction Yard, at Dalmuir in west Clydebank; this was the largest and most advanced shipyard in the United Kingdom at the time.
An attempt was made during the 1920s to diversify into the manufacture of railway locomotives at Dalmuir. The scale of the locomotive production was small compared with the established competitors.
The post war recession hit the firm hard, and the shipyard was forced to close in 1930 and the production of railway locomotives ceased.
The company built 35 of the XE class locomotives (works nos 100-134) for what became the East India Railway where they were numbered 1520-1554. They later became India Railways 26729-26763
The locomotive weighed 103 tonnes and was capable of achieving a speed of 56kmph.
At some stage it was modified by adding superheating and thus re-classified as HGS (Heavy Goods Superheated) class.
It was subsequently transferred to the Eastern railway where it was based for maintenance in the Madhupur Locomotive shed in Bihar. It was employed on hauling trains in the Asansol Division and continued in active service until 1985.
In 1999 the locomotive was restored to steam again and in September of that year it hauled a tourist train over the 40kms between Howrah and Bandel in West Bengal.
The locomotive is preserved inside the Regional Rail Museum at Howrah.
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Preserved British Steam Locomotives 