Western Railway - Broad Gauge

The Western Railway had very little by way of strategically important broad gauge lines save maybe the route between Bombay and Dehi via Ratlam and Kota and wasn't particularly proud of its steam locomotives. Of these only the H 4-6-0s (Vadodara), AWE 2-8-2 (Ratlam) and XE 2-8-2 (Kota) could be considered non-standard. 

Compared to the amazing variety that survived on the Railway's metre and narrow gauge, their broad gauge steam locomotives were small beer indeed and often only recorded in passing. Not surprisingly few visitors went out of their way to record the 'rare birds', to the extent that I have so far failed to track down any photographs from Kota including their XEs. 

Of the contributors to this project only Mark Carter seems to have passed through Kota and that was in the middle of the night!

I have now (11th April 2026) added Jan Willem van Dorp's pictures which include rare (but not beautiful) pictures of WPs working between Bhusaval and Surat in the 1980s.