The Burma Railways class As was built in 1916 by Beyer, Peacock & Co. for light suburban passenger traffic. These eight tank locomotives had the wheel arrangement 4-6-4T and a slender boiler. The Belpaire firebox was located between the second and third driving axle, but was concealed by the water tanks which went forward up to the smokebox. No. 144 is now on display at the main station in the former Capital Yangon. It now carries the letters “MR” instead of “BR”, since the country has been renamed to Myanmar.

In 1896, Neilson & Co. delivered two small 4-4-4T tank locomotives to the Burma Railways, which were designated class C. These had a axle load of less than eight tons and were fairly flexible with two two-axle bogies. They were oil-fired, but also had a small coal reserve. Their large firebox in relation to the tube heating surface indicates that they were well suited for commuter traffic with rapid acceleration and many stops.

Starting in 1904, Burma Railways received two classes of 4-6-0 locomotives with BESA standard boilers. While class J was built for mixed traffic, class K shown here was intended only for goods traffic. Up to 1914, a total of 75 class K locomotives were built by Nasmyth Wilson, North British and Stephenson. In World War I, 13 were sent to Mesopotamia and never returned to Burma.

From 1920, 34 superheated Ks have been built, of which seven were built in Germany by Rheinmetall. Also many locomotives of the original class K were superheated. With a total of 109, they were the second most numerous class of Burmese steam locomotives after class F. After World War II, around 30 were still in service.

The class N of the Burma Railways designated 17 Mallets built by North British in four batches between 1911 and 1921. With an 0-6-6-0 wheel arrangement, they had all weight available for traction. Nevertheless, they were not only intended for freight service, but also for passenger service.

Their area of operation was the Lashio branch and the Southern Shan states. Even though they had a huge pulling power, they had to be assisted by 2-6-2T locomotives on steeper sections. In 1924 Beardmore built five superheated Ns class locomotives and the 17 others were rebuilt in the same form. It didn't take long until they were superseded by the Garratts starting with the GA.I.

In 1900, Burma Railways received five meter-gauge Fairlie locomotives from Vulcan Foundry. They had two bogies, each consisting of three coupled axles with same-size cylinders. Their difference compared to earlier Double Fairlies was that they had two separate boilers which were not joined by a common firebox. This layout was sometimes called “modified Fairlie” in this time, but had nothing in common with the Modified Fairlies built for the South African Railways more than 20 years later.

Their fireboxes were of the Belpaire type and had Drummond cross water tubes which further increased their heating surface. Each firebox was fed by one fireman, so that three people worked in the cab. Most of the time, the locomotives took a separate water tender with them.

On the line from Mandalay to Lashio, Burma Railways not only had curve radii starting at 330 ft (100 m), but also a long gradient of four percent. For this purpose, four class GA.I Garratts were built in 1924 as Double Consolidation, i.e. with the wheel arrangement 2-8-0+0-8-2. At the time they were put into service, they were probably the most powerful meter-gauge locomotives in the world.

Due to the narrow curve radii, the innermost driving axle had a lateral displacement of 3/8 inches (9.5 mm) in both directions. On the four percent steep gradient, the GA.Is were able to reach 9 mph or 14.5 km/h with a 200-ton train.

In 1927, a single compound locomotive was ordered for comparison and was designated GA.II. This also only had two cylinders at each end, with the high-pressure cylinders located behind the cab and the low-pressure cylinders in front of the smoke box. Since the additional complexity apparently didn't pay off, the other locomotives were built with simple expansion.

Three GA.IIIs followed in 1927, which were largely similar to the GA.I, but had the smaller superheater of the GA.II. In 1929 Krupp delivered eight GA.IVs, which were similar to the previous locomotives but again had a larger superheater. According to A.E. Durrant, all four classes were retired due to damage during World War II.

From 1898 onwards, both the Selangor Government Railway and the Perak Government Railway in Malaysia received 13 and eight ten-wheelers respectively, which were built by various British manufacturers and hardly differed from each other. When the Federated Malay States Railways was founded, these became class G and were supplemented by eleven others. Two more came from the Malacca Railway, which only later joined the FMSR.

All but two locomotives were retired before World War II. These two were likely used by the British troops to form an armored train during the war. One of these is also said to have been brought to Siam and Burma by the Japanese.

The class H of the Federated Malay States Railway refers to a total of 60 light, meter-gauge Pacifics. The first seven were built by Kitson from November 1906. Others followed from Nasmyth, Wilson & Co., six of which went to the Johore State Railway. While the latter were also handed over to the FMSR, further series were created by Kitson and Robert Stephenson.

Since the later deliveries were somewhat heavier due to stronger frames and had further differences in details, the three series were subsequently named H¹, H² and H³. The H¹ were withdrawn between 1929 and 1934. Of the newer machines, many were classified as class 501 by the Malayan Railways in 1946.

To eliminate the need for double-heading express trains, the FMSR ordered 20 Pacifics from Kitson, which were delivered in 1921. They had a superheated boiler with Belpaire firebox and were among the more powerful meter gauge Pacifics.

During World War II, the Japanese brought five of the locomotives to Burma, but they returned after the war ended. They soon became class 531 and some remained in service until 1971. The 531.01 was the only one that was preserved and is now in front of the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur.

The classes K¹ and K² refer to a total of eleven Pacifics of the Federated Malay States Railways, which were built in 1927 and 1929. They were basically an improved version of the class L which had been delivered by Kitson in 1921. In 1927, Beyer, Peacock & Co. delivered seven and two years later Robert Stephenson & Co. delivered four more.

Since the letter K had been occupied by a single other locomotive until recently, the class was initially called “New K”. Later the two series became K¹ and K². During the Second World War, six were probably brought to Siam by the occupiers. The remaining Beyer locomotives were decommissioned in 1958 and 1959, the Stephenson ones only in the 1970s with the end of steam traction in Malaysia.