Indian locomotive class WDM-2

The Indian locomotive class WDM-2 is a diesel-electric locomotive that the American Locomotive Company, or ALCO, developed in 1962 for Indian Railways. The name stands for broad gauge, diesel, mixed traffic and second generation. Indian Railways chose the ALCO design over a General Motors Electro-Motive Division prototype because General Motors would not agree to the transfer of technology that would let the locomotives be built in India. After the Diesel Locomotive Works at Varanasi, now Banaras Locomotive Works, finished its factory, it assembled the first units from imported ALCO kits and then built the class from its own components. More than 2,700 were built at ALCO and Varanasi between 1962 and 1998, making it the most numerous mainline diesel class until its successor, the WDM-3A. It has a maximum speed of 120 km/h, and all units had been withdrawn from service by November 2023, although many live on as rebuilt WDM-3A locomotives.