Sri Lanka Railways M8

Class M8 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that Banaras Locomotive Works at Varanasi, India, developed in 1996 for Sri Lanka Railways. It is the Sri Lankan version of the Indian WDM-2 design and carries a V16 ALCO 251-B power unit rated at 2,800 horsepower, with a top speed of 120 kilometres per hour. Eight locomotives numbered 841 to 848 were built, and they work both passenger and freight trains, mostly on the flat lines of the island such as the Northern, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Coastal lines, out of the diesel electric locomotive shed at Maradana. A hauling capacity of about twenty carriages is noted, with maintenance difficulty and corrosion recorded as the class problems. A sub-class, the M8A, was added in 2001 with two short-truck locomotives, numbers 877 and 878, built with 2,200 horsepower V12 power units; they could not be used on the Upcountry main line because of their bogie design.