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The Palestine Railways H class was a type of standard gauge mixed traffic steam locomotive on the Palestine Military Railway and its civilian successors Palestine Railways and Israel Railways. The PMR introduced the class in 1919 and Israel Railways withdrew the last ones in 1960. ==Background and delivery== The PMR, part of the British Army, was created during the First World War to operate all railways in the British and Allied Sinai and Palestine Campaign. It inherited a standard gauge locomotive fleet from the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Sinai Railway dominated by two classes of 19th-century 0-6-0 requisitioned from railways in Britain: the LNWR 17in Coal Engines and LSWR 395 class.〔Cotterell, 1984, p. 28.〕 In Palestine the Coal Engines proved unreliable and neither class was powerful enough for PMR traffic.〔 In 1918 the PMR sought a class of 50 more powerful mixed traffic locomotives to replace the Coal Engines and relegate the 395 class to lighter duties. However, British locomotive builders were so busy with War orders that none could supply a class of 50 locomotives quickly enough.〔 The UK War Department (WD) had already bought at least 70 4-6-0 locomotives from Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) in Eddystone, Pennsylvania in 1917. (They carried the WD numbers 801 – 870 of the same class, were transferred to Belgium at the end of the First World War,〔 and became SNCB/NMBS type 40 in 1946.) Therefore in 1918 the PMR ordered a batch of 50 of the same class of 4-6-0 from BLW.〔 The first 10 reached Palestine in 1919 and the remaining 40 followed in 1920. Following on from the batch sent to Europe, this batch received the WD numbers 871 – 920.〔 In 1920 the San Remo Conference mandated the United Kingdom to administer Palestine. The PMR was duly replaced by a civilian organisation, Palestine Railways, which designated the Baldwins class H. In the 1920s it found the class suitable for most work except shunting and powerful enough for most normal PR traffic. In service all members of the class were painted black.〔 From 1944 each had its number painted in very large numerals on the side of the tender or tank.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Palestine Railways H class」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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