David Argent has built an O-scale model of one of the three PC class streamlined pacific locomotives supplied to Iraq by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns in 1941. There was a fourth, 504 Kirkuk, but the ship was sunk en route.
Wikipedia has a lot of information on them. A very detailed article on the locos appeared in Railway Gazette in 1941.
The September 2007 issue of Railway Magazine has an article entitled “Locos Lost At Sea” by Mike Hudson and Philip Atkins, which attempts to list all the locomotives which have been lost beneath the waves through ship wrecks and the like. It mentions in passing “an Iraqi streamlined Pacific”, and a table of sunken locos lists it as lost “1940(?)”.
This is the Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns loco which was to have been Iraqi railways PC class number 504 Kirkuk, similar to this one.
A postcard found by Rainer Fuchs which shows one of the streamlined pacific steam locomotives built for Iraq by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns in 1940. Locos 501 Baghdad, 502 El Mosul and 503 El Basrah entered service in 1941, but 504 Kirkuk didn’t make it and is now on the seabed somewhere…
There is a high-resolution works photo of one of the 4-6-2 locos on this Vulcan Foundary website. Comparing the shapes of the letters on the nameplate with written versions of the four possible names, and the photo in Hugh Hughes’s book Middle East Railways, I think both photos show No.502 El Mosul, but I’ll defer to any Arabic speakers on the matter!
The Vulcan Foundary website has scans of a magazine article describing 10 oil-fired metre-gauge 2-8-2 locos built for Iraq. Plus a photo.
Rainer Fuchs e-mailed with links to two YouTube movies showing a British Pathe film of Iraq in 1954.
Part 1 shows one of the Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns streamlined pacific locomotives in action, along with a steam loco shunting in Basra, assorted buses and some BOAC aeroplanes.
Part 2 is more about the history. No railway content, but still worth a watch. They don’t film ‘em like that anymore.
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