Locomotives of Bangladesh


In the rail transport system of Bangladesh, diesel locomotives are used by Bangladesh Railway. Among diesel locos, there are diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic locos. Besides diesel locos, steam locos were used in the past, but now they are no longer used. By gauge, there are narrow-gauge, meter-gauge and broad-gauge locos in Bangladesh. Among them, as no narrow-gauge railroads are active, so the narrow-gauge locos are not used anymore.
In 2013, the government allocated to import 20 units of diesel-electric multiple unit trains from China's CRRC Tangshan, intending to enhance short-distance train travel. However, these controversial trains quickly became inoperative due to inadequate maintenance stemming from insufficient facilities and expertise. While BR managed to repair one using local technologies, all 20 imported sets of DEMU trains have since been abandoned in various workshops due to waning interest among railway officials.

As of 2020, total 476 meter-gauge and broad-gauge diesel locos have been imported in Bangladesh. Most of them are diesel-electric, but 80 locos are diesel-hydraulic. Among the 476 locos, 349 are meter-gauge and 127 are broad-gauge. All diesel-hydraulic locos were produced by Ganz-MÁVAG of Hungary. Various companies produced the diesel-electric locos, notable among them are Progress Rail, Hyundai Rotem, DLW, GMD, ALCO and MLW.

Steam locomotives

A small number of steam locomotives are preserved in Bangladesh.
LocationClassBuilderWheel
arrangement
GaugeImage
Dhaka Railway HQYD 718Nippon Sharyo, Japan2-8-2Metre gauge
Saidpur WorksCS 15W. G. Bagnall, England2-4-0TNarrow Gauge
Saidpur WorksSGC-2 240Vulcan Foundry, England0-6-0Broad Gauge
Paksay Railway HQCB 8Vulcan Foundry, England2-4-0TNarrow Gauge
Pahartoli WorksCB 7Vulcan Foundry, England2-4-0TNarrow Gauge
Rajshahi Railway HQHPS 30Vulcan Foundry, England4-6-0Broad Gauge
National Scout Training Center, Mouchak, GazipurRC 233Kawasaki, Japan4-6-0Metre gauge

The gauge locomotives are from the Rupsa-Bagerhat railway which was the only gauge line in East Pakistan when colonial India was partitioned in 1947. It was re-gauged to gauge in 1970.