WAGR U class

The WAGR U class was a class of 4-6-2 steam locomotives operated by the Western Australian Government Railways between 1946 and the late 1960s, one of which was rebuilt as a 4-6-4 tank locomotive. In 1942 the North British Locomotive Company built 55 locomotives for the British War Department, almost identical to the 220 class of the Sudan Railways. They were meant to be available for the 3 ft 6 in gauge railways of Sudan, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the Belgian Congo, French Ocean Congo and Rhodesia, depending on the course of the war in North Africa. Unlike the coal-burning 220 class they were equipped as oil burners. By 1957, with running costs three times those of coal power, they were stored.