Sri Lanka Railways Class M1 was a class of diesel-electric

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s used by

Sri Lanka Railways The Sri Lanka Railway Department (more commonly known as Sri Lanka Railways (SLR)) (Sinhala language, Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා දුම්රිය සේවය ''Śrī Laṃkā Dumriya Sēvaya''; Sri Lankan Tamil dialects, Tamil: ...

, imported from 1953 and manufactured by

Brush Bagnall Traction Brush Traction was a manufacturer and maintainer of Locomotive, railway locomotives in Loughborough, England whose operations have now been merged into the Wabtec company's Doncaster UK operations. History Hughes' Locomotive & Tramway E ...

. The locomotives weighed had a V12 Mirlees JS12VT four-stroke engine. Sri Lanka Railways had a fleet of 25 of these Class M1 locomotives which began introduction in 1953 and were removed from service from 1983. Locomotive number 560 was restored and is currently on display at the

National Railway Museum, Kadugannawa The National Railway Museum of Sri Lanka is located in Kadugannawa, west of Kandy. The museum is owned by Sri Lanka Railways. The museum was opened on 27 December 2014 in order to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the railways in Sri Lanka. Pr ...

History

Class M-1 Locomotive at Sri Lanka railway museum Kadugannawa 20150621 164402

In the 1950s Sri Lankan Railways was seeking replacements for old rolling stock, routine replacement of which had been delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Specifications were for 25 locomotives with power at the wheel, available from upwards, and up to an altitude of . The train was expected to be used for suburban trains centered on Colombo, as well as mail trains in the north of the country, and trains in hill areas: approximately requirements were for a vehicle capable of pulling at on a

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

of 1 in 44 (2.27%) on track with reverse curves; preferably within an locomotive weight on 6 axles (A1A-A1A). Several firms tendered for the contact; American suppliers were unable to enter a competitive bid due to the devaluation of both the rupee and British pound. Brush offered a locomotive with power, and a generator output of , capable of multiple working, and was awarded the contract. Five locomotives were supplied (deliveries beginning Jan. 1953) for operational testing – Brush had not been able to fully stress test the units in England due to an absence of a full scale test track. During testing engine overheating was found to be a serious problem on the steeply graded and curving mainline. Other issues requiring attention included fuel pump problems including air-locks, and bogie frame cracking. The electrical circuit for

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

control was also modified. The remaining twenty locomotives, with modifications required to resolve the issues found during testing were delivered from May 1954, at a rate of approximately 1 per month.

Gallery

File:National railway museum, Kadugannawa.JPG, Class M1 locomotive restored at National Railway Museum, Kadugannawa File:SLR Class M1 Cab.jpg, The driver's cab of an M1 locomotive File:SLR Class M1 Engine.jpg, The engine room of an M1 Locomotive File:Sri Lanka Railways Class M1 in 2025.jpg, M1 No. 560 at the National Railway Museum, Kadugannawa in 2025

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sri Lanka Railways M01 Railway locomotives introduced in 1953 M01 Brush Traction locomotives A1A-A1A locomotives 5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives Preserved locomotives of Sri Lanka

History

Gallery

See also

References

Sources

External links