Issue No.: XIV Rs. 50/- Winter 2015

INDIAN STEAM RAILWAYS MAGAZINE

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About ISRSThe Indian Steam Railway Society is a non-profit organisation formed on23rd October, 1999, by railway enthusiasts committed to the preservation ofsteam and other railway heritage.

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ISRS Executive CommitteeChief Patron: Member (Mechanical), Railway Board & Ex-Officio

Secy. to the Govt. of India

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President: Mr. L. K. Sinha 9810088132

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The Indian Steam Railways Magazine encourages readers tocontribute to the magazine about issues related to preservation ofsteam and other railway heritage. Such contributions may includetechnical papers, humorous articles, information about forthcomingevents, memoirs or photographs. All published contributions shallbe suitably acknowledged. Please send your contributions to:

EditorIndian Steam Railway Society

National Rail MuseumChanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021, India

Email: jlsingh@yahoo.com

Cover photo: NMR steam locomotive converted from coal-fired to oil-fired byGolden Rock Workshop of Southern Railway (Courtesy: Salem Division)

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List of Contents

XII National Steam Congress-by L. K. Sinha .................................................................................................. 5

Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR)World Heritage Site-by Rajesh Agrawal .................................................................................................. 7

The Bluebell And Severn Valley Railways-by Paul Whittle .................................................................................................. 16

Classification of Steam Locomotives-by Ranjit Mathur .................................................................................................. 19

Steam locomotives in the North East-by J. L. Singh .................................................................................................. 22

Chittaranjan Loco WorksSteam Locomotive Days-by L. K. Sinha .................................................................................................. 25

The Satpura Narrow Gauge Railway-by Ravindra Bhalerao .................................................................................................. 27

APHTRO Conference 2015-by J. L. Singh .................................................................................................. 33

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MESSAGE

ISRS extends a warm welcome to the Steam locomotive enthusiasts to the XIII National Steam Congress.

The theme of this year’s Congress is the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway,where we have India’s only Rack & Pinion Railway. A team from Southern Railway led by the DRM/Salem, Shri Shubranshu, will be giving a presentation on the Railway.

The Railway earlier had vintage Rack & Pinion Steam locomotives built by Schweizerische Lokomotiv-und Maschinenfabrik, Winterthur, Switzerland, now known as Stadler. Recently Golden Rock Workshopof Southern Railway has produced 4 Oil fired Steam locomotives which are in service. We will hear moreabout this from Shri Shubranshu and his team.

We welcome Mr. Alexander Karnes, our keynote speaker. It is for the first time we have a speaker fromthe USA. Alexander is also fond of making pencil sketches and our calendar this year will have his sketchesof Indian Steam locomotives.

DHRS will be represented by Mr. David Mead. He has been visiting Tindharia Workshop lately and wewill benefit from his observations.

We will also have the pleasure of hearing Shri K.Natrajan. He is a resident of the Nilgiris and not arailwayman. We look forward to his presentation.

I am sure you will all enjoy and benefit from the Congress.

(L.K.Sinha)

14, Poorvi Marg,Vasant Vihar,

New Delhi-110057

Tel.: +91-11-26148844

L. K. Sinha

President, ISRS

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1. The XII NationalSteam Congress washeld at the NationalRail Museum, NewDelhi on the 8th ofFebruary 2015,under the auspices ofthe Indian SteamRailway Society(ISRS). The theme this year was the DarjeelingHimalayan Railway. Member (Mech), IndianRailway Board, Shri Hemant Kumar, was theChief Guest.

1.1. The Congress this year perhaps had the bestpresentations ever.

1.2. The venue had a festive appearance on abright sunny winter morning, where aphotographic exhibition and stalls sellingSteam Railway memorabilia were displayed.

2. The Congress was very ably compèred by theOrganising Secretary, Vikas Arya, who welcomedall the participants.

3. Ashwani Lohani, Working President of ISRS, gavea brief introduction to the activities of the Societyduring the year and plans for the future. He alsoappealed for a Steam train to be run regularly ona time table which can be advertised so thattourists can plan their visits.

4. The President, Lalit Sinha, said that maintainingSteam Heritage can be a commercially viableactivity as is evident from hundreds of SteamRailways running in the world and as will bebrought out by the day’s presentations.

5. The Keynote speaker was Adrian Shooter from UK.Adrian is a steam enthusiast and the only personwho owns a working Darjeeling HimalayanRailway locomotive outside India; This runs inhis garden at Oxfordshire with two replicas of DHRcoaches.

5.1. Adrian’s presentation was on the TyseleySteam Depot and Workshop nearBirmingham, of which he is a trustee. It wasgood to see the type of heavy repairs being

carried out there,including weldingpatches on boiler. Adriantalked about exactingstandards required forSteam locomotives torun on the Main Line atspeeds of 100 mph+;something Tyseley

specialises in. Mandatory modern safetysignalling systems provided on the mainlinelocomotives presented a strange contrast tothe vintage fittings.

5.2. It was also good to see how this shed hasalso become a major tourist attraction.

6. The theme presentation on the DarjeelingHimalayan Railway (DHR) was given byR.S.Virdi, General Manager, NF Railway. Theseries of landslides which led to major breaches tothe Railway and interrupted through runningduring the last 4½ years were vividly shown bythe pictures in his presentation. The good newswas that the breaches had been restored and trialthrough runs are going on; the line should beformally opened in Feb. 2015.

6.1. In the statistics presented by him, it wasinteresting to note that 90% of the earningof the Railway was from Joy Rides. This goesto show how organised running of HeritageSteam trains can be a profitable venture.

7. Tarun Thakral spoke about the Heritage TransportMuseum he has set up near Gurgaon. He has aremarkable collection of aircrafts, automobiles,railways and other modes of transport in hisrecently set up air conditioned, 3-storey museum.

8. Adesh Grover gave a presentation of the beautifulModel Railway in his farm, also near Gurgaon.The stations, signalling, landscaped track withtunnels and bridges and, of course, the rollingstock all looked so realistic.

9. Thereafter, there was a brief ceremony duringwhich there was:

9.1. Presentation of Steam Award to the Delhi

Report

XII NATIONAL STEAM CONGRESSNew Delhi, February 8, 2015

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Division Team;

9.2. Conferring of lifetime membership toMrs. Nidhi Singh;

9.3. Book release, ‘Earth to Sky’ byDr. Shivmohan and Dr. Sanjay Kaushal. Thisbook covers the Kalka-Shimla Railway inpictures;

9.4. Release of ISRS calendar;

9.5. Release of the latest edition of the ISRSmagazine.

10. Chief Guest, Shri Hemant Kumar, in his addresslauded the ISRS efforts to maintain the heritageof Steam Locomotives and spoke about hisexperience of the days when Steam ruled theIndian Railway.

11. It was a pity that Karen and Mike Maher ofLakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, UK could notbe present for their presentation as they had leftthe previous day; the Congress had to bepostponed by a day as elections in Delhi wereannounced for the original date of Feb. 7th, 2015.They, however, left an excellent video of theirpresentation, which was received very well withapplauses.

11.1. It was remarkable to hear how they havemade this 3½ mile Railway a profitableventure by running steam trains, coupledwith goodmarketing, add-ons like StationRestaurant, GiftShop, visits tothe Steam Depotand Specials forchildren. Theyarrange for groupexcursions forschool children,picnics andbirthday parties.

11.2. They have 8steam locomotives, including a Thomas, theTank Engine.

11.3. The key to profitability is their lean staffstrength; 11 permanent staff which goes upto 40 during the peak season.

12. The Congress had representation from the StateRailway of Thailand (SRT) for the first time. Ms.Kanrawee Thongpull represented SRT and gavean excellent presentation on preservation of SteamHeritage.

12.1. Steam locomotives were phased out inThailand in early 1970s. Their revivalresulted in the first Steam run from Bangkokto Ayudhaya on 23rd Oct. 1986, theRailway Day. Thonburi Depot is thenominated depot for maintaining steamlocomotives.

12.2. The Railway has scheduled steam train runsfrom Bangkok to Ayudhaya, which are welladvertised and, therefore, well attended.Again, their excellent marketing wasevident. They have made one of the steamdrivers a celebrity; he is a hero in Thailandand children line up to shake hands withhim! Food fairs are held on the stations withthe background of Steam Locomotives,Comics are available for children depictingengine staff as heroes and, of course, the JoyRides.

13. Secretary ISRS, G Shanker, gave the vote of thanks.The main sponsors were Madhya PradeshTourism, Prag Industries and IRCTC. Of course,thanks were also due to scores of others who madethe Congress such a success.

14. The Congress concluded with a round of therecently renovated National Rail Museum. Agroup photograph with the steaming Fairy Queen,the Guinness record holder for the oldest workingsteam locomotive in the world, was the highlight.

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NILGIRI MOUNTAIN RAILWAY (NMR)WORLD HERITAGE SITE

- by Rajesh Agrawal

UNESCO’s Inscription

UNESCO inscribed NMR as a World Heritage Sitein the 29th session of its Committee meeting, held inSouth Africa in July 2005, as a serial inscription tothe Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), andbranded both as “Mountain Railways of India” inaccordance with the proposal of the Indian Railways.Indian Railways was represented there by me asExecutive Director (Heritage) and by the HeritageOfficer of Southern Railway. The evaluations hadbeen completed by UNESCO in 2004. The newlyestablished brand of “Mountain Railways of India”has been described by UNESCO as follows:

Still operational today, these hill railways crossingregions of great beauty, are outstanding examples ofbold, ingenious engineering solutions for the problemof establishing an effective rail link through a rugged,mountainous terrain. The Darjeeling HimalayanRailway opened in 1881, while the NMR, thoughproposed in 1854, was begun in 1891 and completedin 1908 due to the difficulty of the mountainous

location, which scales an elevation from 326m to2203m. It was highly significant in facilitatingpopulation movement and the social-economicdevelopment in the British colonial era.

The NMR has unusually high cultural values,reflecting successive population movement into theNilgiri Mountains, after the British began to use thearea as a resort. The NMR transformed the Nilgirisfrom a remote area inhabited by tribal people into animportant region. It brought the Nilgiri district intothe mainstream and monetised the traditional bartereconomy. The Toda people, one of the five main tribalgroups, celebrated the coming of the railway in atleast two songs dating from the early 20th century.The district is now fully integrated in the mainstreamof Indian social, cultural and political life.

The NMR is still operational and easily the mostauthentic and original rack and adhesion railway inthe world. It remains much as it was at the time ofits completion in September 1908: stations, signals,

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rural environment, locomotives and rolling stock; allare much as they were in the first decade after itscompletion. Such railways are rare. This is the onlysuch intact railway in the Asia-Pacific region.

UNESCO’s decision was formally conveyed on25.07.2005 (29 COM 8B.31) as follows:

The World Heritage Committee,

a) Having examined documents WHC-05/29COM/8B, WHC-05/29.COM/8B.Add andWHC-05/29.COM/INF.8B.1

b) Approves extension of the DarjeelingHimalayan Railway (India) to include NilgiriMountain Railway, on the basis of the culturalcriteria (ii) and (iv) and renames the extendedproperty as Mountain Railways of India;

Criterion (ii): The mountain railways of India areoutstanding examples of the interchange of values ondevelopment in technology, and impact of innovativetransport system on the social and economicdevelopment of a multicultural region, which was toserve as a model for similar development in many partsof the world.

Criterion (iv): The development of railways in the19th century had a profound influence on social andeconomic developments in many parts of the world.The Mountain Railways of India are outstandingexamples of a technological ensemble, representingdifferent phases of the development in high mountainareas.

HistoryProtected by wild escarpments and at an elevation ofabout 2000m, the Nilgiri or Blue Mountains arelocated at the tri-junction of the Indian states of Tamil

Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Nilgiri is derived fromtwo Sanskrit words “Nilam” and “Giri” that mean“Blue” and “Hill” respectively. This is apparent whenthe hills are viewed from a distance enveloped in ablue haze that usually shrouds them.

Nilgiris were isolated until the 19th century. TheTodas believe that they have always lived on the Nilgirissince time immemorial. Legend has it that ‘Goddropped a pearl on a mand and out of this pearl cametheir God, Thakkirsi, who beat the earth with a caneto create rising dust and from whence came the firstToda. Ootacamund is a corruption of the word Utaka-Mand, meaning a mand or a collection of quaint hutsof the original Todas.

British settlement of the hills began in 1820. By1830, there was a military commandant there andBritish families from Madras had begun buildingsummer houses, especially at Ootacamund. By 1870,the Madras Government as a whole was moving therefor the summer, in imitation of the annual migrationof the Viceroy’s Government from Calcutta to Simla.

The history of NMR dates back to 1854, whenproposals were first mooted by the British to build arailway up the hills from Mettupalaiyam. Work beganon the Madras-Coimbatore line in 1853, the linefinally opening in 1862. The branch toMettupalaiyam opened in 1873. The problem thenwas how to replace the tedious ascent by bullock-cartor pony to Coonoor. The then District Engineer ofthe Nilgiris, J.L.L. Morant, just a year after the lineopened to Mettupaliayam, proposed a rack railwayto conquer the escarpment, similar to the LisbonSteam Tramways. He was aware of the then new Mt.Washington and Rigi Rack Railways and could seethe potential of applying this technology to the ascentof the Nilgiris. Niklaus Riggenbach, the inventor ofthe rack system named after him, which was used onthe Rigi Railway in Switzerland, offered to build arailway in 1876, but on such terms that the MadrasGovernment declined the offer. He visited India in1882, submitted another proposal which foundacceptance, and the Nilgiri Rigi Railway CompanyLtd. was formed. However, the insistence on a 4%Government guarantee by him and his partner,Morant, stymied the scheme.

Improving technology appeared to offer betterprospects by the mid-1880s. In 1885, the NilgiriCompany was formed with a capital of 2.5 million to

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undertake the construction of the Mettupalaiyam-Coonoor railway line. The first rack and adhesionrailway in the world was opened from Blankenburgto Tanne in the Harz Mountains of Germany in 1886.Its rack system, designed by Roman Abt, was superiorto the earlier Riggenbach system. Sir GuildfordMolesworth, the former Engineer in Chief of theCeylon Government Railway and a talented builderof mountain railways there, visited the Harz in 1886.In his role as the consulting engineer to theGovernment of India, he advised a rack and adhesionline on the Abt system for the Nilgiris. Lord Wenlock,the then Governor of Madras Presidency, inauguratedwork on this line in August 1891 but the company’scapital was exhausted in 3 years. A new companywas formed in 1896 and completed the line toCoonoor two years later. The line was opened by theGovernor of Madras on August 11, 1898. The linehad already changed hands thrice, each time a newcompany being formed owing to the liquidation ofthe earlier one. A shortage of capital delayed theopening for the best part of a year and the companywas unable to contemplate further construction onto Ootacamund (now Udagamandalam). It wasrelieved to be able to sell its assets to the Governmentin 1903. Thus, the railway was completed by theGovernment only by 1908. It was worked as aconcession of the Broad Gauge Railways on the plains,initially by the Madras Railway Company till 1908,and thereafter by the South Indian Railway. Directgovernment control resumed in 1944. In 1951, theNMR was incorporated into the new SouthernRailway zone of the Indian Railways and has beenpart of this zone ever since.

Thus, the building of these 46 kms. took no less than32 years from the time of Riggenbach’s first concreteproposal until the railway’s completion. Thedifficulties of terrain were extreme and the technology

experimental. It was only the success of the Abt’sRailway in the Harz which made NMR possible. Thehistory of NMR’s construction illustrates both, therailway’s outstanding qualities in terms of itsachievement, and its significance as an example oftechnology transfer from Central Europe intoSouthern India.

Description of NMRNMR is a meter gauge, single track railway, about46 kms. long, from Mettupalaiyam toUdagamandalam, with about 250 bridges (32 major)and 16 tunnels. It is located in the state of TamilNadu, India. Mettupalaiyam is the terminus of theBroad Gauge branch line from the large city ofCoimbatore. Trains run through to Mettupalaiyamfrom Chennai, including the overnight Nilgiri Expresswith its connection to the Meter Gauge service toUdagamandalam. Mettupalaiyam is at an elevationof 326m, while Udagamandalam is at an elevation of2203.

NMR can be divided into three sections as follows:

i) Mettupalaiyam to Kallar (405m), about 7 kms.is in the plains, running through beetel-nut palmand other plantations. This is in Coimbatoredistrict whereas the rest of NMR is in Nilgiridistrict. Maximum speed is 30 kmph.Mettupalaiyam was a small village in the 1850s.It gained importance only after the British laid aBroad Gauge line in 1873. Mettupalaiyam nowhas the carriage and wagon depot of NMR.

ii) Kallar to just short of Coonoor (1712m) is therack section which climbs 1330m in 19 kms. Theaverage grade is 1 in 15 and the steepest is 1 in12. There are 208 curves (sharpest 17½0) and 13tunnels. There are 27 viaducts, most of compositesteel and stone construction, featuring spans of60 feet (NMR was constructed to imperialmeasurements, although its track was metergauge), supported by stone abutments and piers.The Kallar Bridge over the River Bhawani, theAdderley viaduct and the Burliar Bridge arenotable examples of such composite bridges. Herethe railway climbs through almost uninhabitedjungle. So steep are the hillsides that commercialexploitation of the forests has never occurred andagriculture is impossible.

Heavy rainfall and the rich soil means that these

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jungles are luxuriant and tropical. The last fivekilometres feature fine views over the escarpment,which the train has just ascended and the countryopens up as tea estates start to line the railway.Maximum speed is 13 kmph. Coonoor is builton one of the best geographical locations in theNilgiri Mountains. Surrounded by hills, Coonoorpossesses a cool and equitable climate. After beinga terminus for the NMR for 9 years, Coonoor stillremains as one of the best stations on the line.The gabled structure of Coonoor station has beenretained.

iii) The third section, 18 kms. long, is a contrast towhat precedes it. The landscape is neat,manicured and the dominant eucalyptus andacacia forestsuggests to apassenger ajourney in SouthEastern Australiarather thanSouthern India.Now, only byadhesion, NMRcontinues toclimb theNilgiris, till itreaches itssummit justbefore theterminus atUdagamandalam at 2203m. The ruling grade onthis section of 1 in 23 is still very steep. There arealso three tunnels including the longest on theline (282m). Maximum speed is 30 kmph.Udagamandalam, being the highest point of theline, is a much sought after tourist destination.

Rack rails are toothed steel bars, in a double row, sothat the tooth of one rail is directly opposite to thegap of the other, to ensure that the engine pinions donot work off the racks while negotiating curves. Theentry to the rack is made through tongues laid inspecial channel sleepers fitted with bow springs andconnecting links connected finally to the rigid bars.

Due to the steep gradient, the following two differentbraking systems are used:

i) Adhesion braking between the wheel and the railthrough friction, by vacuum and brake gear;

ii) Brake application through the locomotive pinionsthat are made to drive the pistons, causing dynamicbraking. Clasp brakes, actuated by hand wheelson the brake drum and mounted on the pinionscan also be used to apply braking on the cog wheel.

The coaches and wagons are all provided withbrakesmen who independently operate friction brakesand rack brakes based on whistle codes from the driver.

NMR’s stations are well maintained and are alloriginal, except Udagamandalam that was extendedin the 1980s and its locomotive depot demolishedsoon after. All the original structures are still in use.Maintenance standards on the NMR are high, as therailway is used fairly intensively (five passenger trainsare scheduled each day, including a tourist special) as

much as it wasdesigned to be used.The signallingsystem is original.The locomotives androlling stock are ofheritage valuethough they are notfrom the date of theopening of therailway. The steamlocomotives whichwork all traffic onthe rack section arethe X class designedin 1911 and built

by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM)in Winterthur between 1913 and 1952. YDM4 classdiesel locos work the train on the adhesion sections.(New steam locos have now been built by the GoldenRock workshop of the Southern Railway and some locosconverted from coal firing to oil firing - Editor). Thecarriages date from the inter-war period. Modernpassenger cars are operated to meet the needs of today’sclientele but there is a lot of old equipment on theline for it to have much the same ambience as it didin the 1920s. The Indian Railways lays great emphasison the preservation of the NMR including the line,rolling stock and all associated buildings in theiroriginal shape to the extent possible. The countrysideserved by the railway also retains its charm over time.The natives look upon the railway as a friendly symbolof the mountains rather than as a harbinger of change.Overall, the NMR is authentic, well preserved andplays an important economic/social role for its

Coonoor Station

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neighbourhood. Trains on the NMR offer a rich andscenic expanse of the entire Nilgiri Mountain area,chugging always with the locomotives at the lower(Mettupalaiyam) end.

Cultural significanceThis Railway is a living example of the engineeringenterprise of the 19th century. Its constructionprovided an access to this hill station and also provedto be a boon for the tea growing industry. This lineprovides one of the most panoramic views to itstravelers. Use of innovative measures like rack &pinion to follow an incline steeper than thatpermissible by normal adhesion is another verysignificant feature of this line. It is also noteworthythat this line besides being a tourist attraction is alsoa regular mode of transportfor the local population. TheNMR retains its originalfeatures of 1899 when thefirst section was opened tillCoonoor.

Few Railways have led to thecreation of such works, whichreflect its culturals i g n i f i c a n c e . T h i ssignificance is highlyrepresentative, and it is alsounusually striking and welldocumented. As such, theNMR has claims to universalsignificance on cultural grounds. The railway was aproduct of the colonial era, and it was built primarilyto serve the colonial masters – their tea gardens, theirsummer capital, their cordite factory – but Indians,both the tribal people who had been there for centuriesand the numerous migrants who came with the Britishfrom the plains, have made it their own, culturally asmuch as economically.

Thus, the cultural significance of the Nilgiri MountainRailway extends beyond its significance as a builtstructure in a landscape, although it is notable in thisregard alone. The landscape through which it passesis beautiful but challenging, and the technicalsolutions the railway’s builders used to meet thechallenges are a testimony to their creativity andingenuity. But the NMR is also a railway, which hada crucial role in causing changes in population,economic patterns and culture. It is a tangibleexpression of those changes, which it occasioned.

Considering interchange of human values {UNESCO’scultural criteria C(ii)}, the NMR has dual significance.

i) First, it is an example of a colonial railway. Part ofthat process was technology transfer (NMR is aspectacular example although not a unique one) andEuropean patterns of organization. The area acrosswhich the NMR runs was transformed by humanintervention including tea-growing between Coonoorand Udagamandalam. The dominant tree cover onthe Nilgiris is eucalyptus, imported from Australiaby the British, while the dominant commercial cropis tea, similarly imported from China. This Railwayalso bears a unique testimony to the cultural traditionof tea plantation, which still remains a source oflivelihood of the populace of that region. Thus, the

landscape has been givenunique qualities as a resultof Railway construction.Socially, the Nilgiris havebeen a location forinteraction British andSouth Indian communities.The social effects of thisinteraction remainprominent to this day.

ii) The second way in whichtechnological and socialinterchange is evident isthrough the application ofrack technology of the west,to establish a rail link in the

east. Switzerland never had colonies and mostapplications of Swiss rack Railway technology outsideEurope were the work of the British or Dutch. TheSwiss steam locomotives still work all traffic on therack section and the tourist special on the adhesionsection. This export of technology has contributed tothe unusual if not quite unique features of the NMR.

As an outstanding example of a technological ensembleillustrating a significant stage in human history,{UNESCO’s cultural criteria C(iv)}, this Railway is aunique example of construction genius employed byRailway engineers in the latter part of 19th century.When the Railway was being built, people went upthe hills on horseback and on foot which took themmore than 10 days to reach Udagamandalam, bravinginsects and wild animals. With the introduction ofthe Railway, the 45 km. journey took only 4½ hours.The manner in which height is gained in this Railway

The Rack

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by rack and pinion mechanism is amazing. The NMRbecame a part of the life of the local population andhas remained as such. Various facets of the Railwayline, viz. the rack & pinion mechanism to gain height,the steam engines, coaches, the station buildingspreserved in their original shape, all bear testimonyto the technological skills of the bygone era are anoutstanding demonstration of their function andillustrate a significant stage in human history. Whilethe NMR is not quite unique as an example of thetransfer of rack Railway technology to remote locationsoutside Europe, it is certainly the outstandingremaining example in the world, in terms of its scale,authenticity, continuity and presentation; adevelopment of the 19th century that is preservedover time. Thus, it is clearly and spectacularlyillustrative of a significant stage in human history.Today, the NMR stands out as a heritage symbol ofthe region. As an ensemble, with its impeccablymaintained permanent way; its elegant, originalstations and associated buildings, and its largeproportion of old rolling stock and locomotives, it isgenuinely outstanding, even unique.

Comparative AnalysisRailways came to India in the 1850’s. Hill Railwaysbegan with the construction of the DHR in 1889.The NMR, opened next in 1899. The Kalka-ShimlaRailway, Matheran Light Railway and Kangra ValleyRailway, followed thereafter. These Railways are allliving examples of the engineering enterprise of the19th century. Their construction provided an accessto the area and its hill stations. This also proved to bea boon for the local population. They providepanoramic views to travelers. They use innovativemeasures to overcome the challenges of the terrain in

distinctive ways. The DHR used Zig-Zags & Spirals.The NMR used rack & pinion to follow an inclinesteeper than that permissible by normal adhesion. TheMatheran Light Railway used curves that areincredibly sharp and unique floating axles on thelocomotives to go around the hillside. The Kalka-Shimla Railway and Kangara Valley Railway use veryheavy engineering at a very early stage of Railwaydevelopment. These are all outstanding examples ofthe earliest Hill Passenger Railways that are fullyoperational with most of their original features intact,as tourist attractions as well as a regular mode oftransport for the local population. Following theinscription of the DHR, the NMR has now beeninscribed as a World Heritage Site and the otherMountain Railways can also be proposed. (Today, theKalka-Shimla Railway is also a UNESCO World HeritageSite - Editor)

The NMR is both a rack and an adhesion Railwayi.e. mixed technology. It combines traction throughpinions (to prevent slipping) where the gradient istoo steep and adhesion as in conventional railways.Rack Railways were built to enable Railways topenetrate extremely inhospitable and steep terrain(steeper than about 1 in 20), which would not beaccessible to conventional adhesion Railways. Mostrack and adhesion Railways were built in last decadeof the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, andthe NMR is no exception. By the time rack andadhesion technology was mature, the motor age ledto roads becoming the normal means of access to suchlocations. With very few exceptions, rack and adhesionRailways have been built to a gauge of either one meteror 3’6”. The European, South American andVietnamese lines were built to the former gauge, theAfrican, Indonesian, Japanese, Australian and NewZealand lines to the latter. The NMR is a meter-gaugeRailway. There are also a couple of modern rack andadhesion Railways in the Asia-Pacific region, notablyin Japan (the Oigawa-Ikawa line) and Australia (thestandard-gauge Skitube, just 10 years old), but theyhave no heritage value.

The first rack Railways for tourist purposes date fromthe late 1860s and early 1870s (Mt Washington, USAand Rigi, Switzerland). Most rack and pinion linesuse conventional flat floor (as opposed to stepped-floor) carriages and keep their maximum grade toaround 1 in 8, so passengers don’t slide off their seats.Rack Railways exist in various parts of the world,mostly in Europe. These are, for the most part, tourist

Well-maintained Signal Cabin

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Railways, whose aim is to take tourists to a mountainpeak. Most examples of such Railways are inSwitzerland, where there are about sixteen of them,the longest a little over ten Kilometers in length. Racksections are a relatively small proportion of the totalroute, and, compared with the NMR elevationsgained, are also relatively modest. Applications of thistechnology outside Switzerland are rare. There aresimilar Railways in Austria and Hungary. A remainingexample in Asia and the only real rival to the NMR isthe nine Kilometers of Railway between Ambarawaand Bedono, the last surviving fragment of the 3’6”gauge line between Semarang and Yogyakarta in Java.Climbing by rack to an elevation of 711 m at Bedono,this line is maintained in original condition and withoriginal locomotives for heritage and tourism purposesby the Indonesian Railway administration. However,although what remains is very authentic, it is only afragment of original route and it is no longer acommercially operating Railway.

There were other examples of rack and adhesionRailways in South America. Africa, Australia and NewZealand, but they have been closed, while elsewherein Asia, the Da Lat line in Vietnam has been closed,the Usui-Toge section of the Japanese transalpine linebypassed by a tunnel, and the Bukkitinggi line inSumatra has been both degraded and partiallymodernized. The finest example in some ways wasthe Transandino Railway, linking Chile and Argentina.This retained some of its steam locomotives foremergency use until its closure and regrettably it nolonger exists to be nominated for World HeritageStatus. In just 36.5 km. between Rio Blanco (Chile)and Las Cuevas (Argentina) this line climbed 1730m (5676 feet) to a summit of about 3200 m (10500feet) in the Uspallata Tunnel (itself over threekilometers long) that was bored beneath the frontier.

NMR is easily the finest rack and adhesion Railwayand the most original example of the phenomenon inthe world.

To compare the NMR as a technical feat with otherrack Railways, it is probably best to examine thealtitude gained over the length of the line. In the caseof the NMR the rack section of the line from Kallarto Coonoor climbs a total of 1330m in 19 km. Sincethe closure of the Chilean Transandino and the openingof the new Furka tunnel on the Swiss Furko-Oberalpline, the NMR‘s ascent by rack is easily the greatestof any surviving rack and adhesion line. Over its entirelength of 46 km, the NMR climbs 1877m by amixture of rack and adhesion. This exceeds by aconsiderable margin the ascents on both the old Furka-Oberlap and the closed Transandino lines. Also, thesteepest sections of the NMR continue to be workedby steam locomotives of a class introduced a few yearsafter the Railway opened. By world standards then,and by any criterion, the NMR is an outstanding rackand adhesion Railway.

The Way ForwardConservation of NMR should broadly covers thefollowing:-

i) Conservation of NMR’s Cultural / NaturalHeritage;

ii) Improving the surroundings / environment;

iii) Sustainability.

This, to a great extent, can be met by action as follows:-

i) A separate management structure in the NMRwith an independent Director /NMR as in-chargelike in the DHR;

ii) An institutional framework for enablingintervention, coordination and facilitation;

iii) A Multidisciplinary Conservation ManagementPlan;

iv) Ground work for specific interventions in terms ofconservation, management, environment, tourism,community-development and sustainability.

Selected references for this purpose are as follows: -

• Coulls, A. (with contributions by Colin Divali andRobert Lee), (1998), Railways as Heritage Sites,a study for World Heritage Convention’, YorkInstitute of Railway Studies.

• UNESCO (1999), GIS and Cultural ResourceManagement

– A Manual for Heritage Managers

14

• Bhandari, R. R. (2002), Nilgiri Railway, NRMNew Delhi.

• World Conservation Union (IUCN) and WorldCommission on Potected Areas (WCPA). http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/index.html

• UN Department of Economic and Social AffairsDivision for Sustainable Development – Agenda21. http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm

• UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention and itsOperational Guidelines. http://www.unesco.org/whc

• National Rail Museum (2004), DHR’sInternational Stakeholder Workshop Report

Selected Laws / Guidelines relevant for NMR are asfollows: -

• The Railways Act, 1989

• Public Premises (Eviction of UnauthorisedOccupants) Act, 1971

• The Ancient Monuments & Archaeological Sites& Remains Act, 1958

• The Antiquities & Art Treasures Act, 1972

• Environment (Protection) Act, 1986;

• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980;

• Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act,1974;

• Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981;

• Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002;

• Biological Diversity Act, 2002;

• Guidelines of Indian Mountaineering Federation,Mountain protection, International MountainDay and International Partnership for SustainableDevelopment;

• Bio-Medical Waste (Management & Handling)

Rules 1998;

• Hazardous Wastes (Management & Handling)Amendment Rules, 2002;

• UNESCO’s Convention on the Means ofProhibiting the Illicit Import, Export and Transferof Ownership of Cultural Property, 1970 and asratified from time to time;

• ICOM’s Code of Ethics, 1986

Selected links for best practice are as follows: -

• Asia Pacific Heritage Rail & Tourist Organisation(APHTRO), http://www.aphtro.org

• The Rheilffordd Ffestiniog Railway UK http://festrail.co.uk ;

• The Indian Steam Railway Society

http://www.indiansteamrailwaysociety.org ;

• The Semmering Railway Austria http://www.semmering.at ;

• Heritage Railway Association (HRA) UK

http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk ;

• Europäische Föderation der Museums- undTouristikbahnen (FEDECRAIL) http://www.fedecrail.org

Assessment by APHTROIn March 2014, APHTRO President accompaniedme & Dir/DHR in a visit to NMR. After substantivereview of the entire section & its steam shed as well asdiscussions with CME, DRM & Stakeholders; thefollowing was proposed to General Manager, SR:-

• More Trains (optimize use of available RollingStock:-

15

• Appropriate Conservation & Development ofStations:-

• Building: Tiles, Gable, Barge Boards, Ridge,Facade, Doors, Windows, Pillars, Balustrade, Bell,Furniture, Archives, Pictures;

• Platform: Floor, Fence, Benches, WaterColumn,

With Best Compliments:

SHAHI MD. KARIM

CONTRACTOR N. F. Railway

GOALPARA

Phone: No.:99647-09594 (M)

03663-246074 (O)

Lamps, Bins, Toilets, Signage, Snacks/Drinks/Book/Gift/Help etc.

• Misc: Plants, Trees, Waterways, Signage, Artefacts,Photoops from all sides, Posters, Murals, Characteretc.

• Heritage Steam Shed including C&W & Visitorwalkway.

• Re-location of C&W shed at MTP to ONR inthe oil siding in order to aggregate NMR’ssupervision & cadre/services management (75%services are in ONR-UAM).

• Road entry extension by dismantling a bay in oilsiding with visitor walkway in valley-side.

• Expansion with 2 lines by side of shed and newFOB skyway on MTP side to platforms, cabin &path to visitor walkway.

• Special RRB recruitment for willing to work withHQ at ONR.

16

Asked to name theirfavourite steamheritage railway, mostUK enthusiasts –regardless of anyspecial loyalties –would readily admitthat these two areamongst the very beststandard gauge lines.

So when Vikas Arya(of the Indian SteamRailway Society)came to the UKearlier this year(2015) to representthe ISRS at ourDHRS AGM it wasno hardship at all for me to accompany him and toshow him what makes these two railways so veryspecial.

The Bluebell RailwayOpened in 1882 by the London, Brighton and SouthCoast Railway this was part of a long cross-countryline in Southern England that ran from East Grinsteadto Lewes. In the 1920s, increasing competition fromroad lorries took away much of the staple goods trafficand the line was closed by British Railways in 1958 –some years before the extensive ‘Beeching Report’cutbacks of the 1960s. Using privately raised funds,the first stretch of track was re-opened in 1961,becoming the World’s very first railway to run a regularpassenger service with unpaid volunteer staff.

Over the next half century the Bluebell has made hugeprogress, re-opening the line slowly northwards to amainline connection with the national network at EastGrinstead and developing extensive facilities for therepair and overhaul of its large fleet of vintagelocomotives, carriages and wagons. Along the 11 miletrack each station is carefully themed to a specificperiod in the line’s history; this authenticity makes ita prime location for filming purposes (such as thehugely popular ‘Downton Abbey’ series) bringing inmuch useful revenue and widespread publicity. Therecent re-connection with the national network is also

THE BLUEBELL AND SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAYSby Paul Whittle

proving a big success– excursion trains cannow visit the railwayfrom anywhere in theUK. The Pullmandining car train is agreat venue for anyspecial occasion.Whilst at SheffieldPark, an excellentmuseum covers allaspects of therailway’s history.

The web site is atw w w . b l u e b e l l -railway.co.uk

Q Class 0-6-0 No 30541 b.1939 leaves West Hoathly tunnel and headsnorth towards East Grinstead. It was on this locomotive that Vikas Arya

enjoyed a footplate ride

The well-equipped carriage and wagon workshop at HorstedKeynes has a high reputation for restoring old Victorian-age

wooden bodied carriages. A viewing gallery enable visitors to seethe volunteers at work

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Severn Valley RailwayFor much of its sixteen miles the railway runs parallelwith the meandering river from which it takes its name;a highlight of the trip is the crossing of the river onthe Victoria Bridge – a massive 200 ft. single spanhigh above the water. As there are few roads in thevalley, some of the views are only visible from the train;

the scenery is varied and unspoilt with immaculatelymaintained stations giving access to local villages andriverside walks.

Running between the West Midlands towns ofBridgnorth and Kidderminster, where there is a mainline connection, the line opened fully in 1878 andgradually closed by 1970. Its preservation dates from1965 and five years later an initial five mile stretch oftrack was re-opened. Steady progress followed and the

Enjoy gardening? Keeping the station flower beds lookingimmaculate is another job for which willing hands are always

needed

The HQ of the railway is at Sheffield Park where the station,opened in 1882, has been restored in the livery of the London,

Brighton and South Coast Railway

The immaculately kept signal box at Horsted Keynes. One of thevolunteer signalmen here used to work the box before the line closed

under British Railways over 60 years ago!

E4 Class 0-6-2T No 473 b.1898 at Sheffield Park. The locoretains its original boiler and is the sole survivor of a class of 75

locos built at nearby Brighton for the London Brighton andSouth Coast Railway

Great Western Railway Manor Class 4-6-0 No 7812 EarlstokeManor b. 1939 heads north past Highley towards Bridgnorth. Of

a class of 30 locos no less than 8 have survived on heritagerailways

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final section into a brand new station at KidderminsterTown was re-opened in 1984. Over sixty full timestaff are supported by several hundred activevolunteers.

On a typical day the railway has eight steamlocomotives available for traffic, whilst an operational

fleet of over sixty carriages has impressive coveredaccommodation complete with a mechanical washingplant. There is also an extensive fleet of wagons bothfor maintenance use and for photographic charters,enabling authentic photography and filming of period-perfect goods trains. At Bridgnorth, the mainlocomotive depot, there is also a well-equipped boiler

The main locomotive depot at Bridgnorth, northern terminusof the line. In the right far background is the boiler workshop

workshop that does work on a contract basis for otherheritage railways as well. Almost any job can betackled.

There is just one connection with India. The line runspast the West Midlands Safari Park; so from the trainyou can spot elephants and tigers!

The web site is at www.svr.co.uk

About the author:

The author, Paul Whittle, is Vice Chairman of TheDarjeeling Himalayan Railway Society in the UK.

Diesel electric 08 Class No D3586 on shed at Bridgnorth. Thiswas the standard general purpose diesel shunter. With an 850 HPengine no less than 996 were built by British Railways between1952 and 1962. The number of heritage diesels of all types on

UK heritage railways is almost 700, most in working order andall with their own enthusiast supporters

Interior of the special carriage built during World War 2 in 1941by the London Midland and Scottish Railway for His MajestyKing George IV. For protection against enemy air action the

carriage was armour-plated and had removable steel shutters overthe windows. The carriage was used by the King for his wartime

travels across the UK for important military meetings and morale-boosting visits. There was a second similar carriage for the use of

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth

Exterior of the Royal carriage. Part of the impressive ‘EngineHouse’ at Highley where locomotives awaiting overhaul are put

on display

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The earliest steam locomotives, like Stephenson’sRocket, had a single pair of driving wheels. Whentrailing loads became heavier, it became necessary forthe locomotive to obtain a better “grip” on the rails.Accordingly, the use of a single pair of driving wheelswas soon superseded by additional wheels coupledtogether. This gave the desired result.

In front, smaller leading wheels more easily took thecurves, and then, to help bear longer engine frames,rear wheels were added under the firebox and driver’scab. The extra axles also took some weight off thedriving wheels.

Locomotives were required for different trailing loads,different speeds, different terrain characteristics etc.Wheel arrangements were designed to suit theserequirements and avariety of differentcombinations ofwheels weredeveloped. Builtfor a US Railroadin 1832 thel o c o m o t i v e“Experiment” wasgiven a pivoted“Bogey” in front totake curves even better. By and large, freightlocomotives needed more driving wheels but fewerleading wheels; fast passenger locomotives needed abogey for its leading or pony wheels and larger butfewer driving wheels. Small shunters moving lesshurriedly often needed neither leading nor trailingwheels.

Steam locomotives having the same combination ofwheels got classified together. Some acquired nameswhich survived, based upon some characteristic, suchas place of manufacture, home-shed, jurisdiction etc.For example, early freight locomotives with a pair ofleading wheels, four coupled driving wheels and a pairof bogey trailing wheels were locally called“Berkshires” after this locomotive type hauled freighttrains over the Berkshire Hills in north east USA betterthan the earlier available locomotives so engaged. Thiscombination of wheels was first depicted asoOOOOoo (with a line across the driving wheels toshow they are joined together).

CLASSIFICATION OF STEAM LOCOMOTIVES-by Ranjit Mathur

In 1900, Frederick Methvan Whyte, a mechanicalengineer of Dutch background who worked for theNew York Central Railway, devised a way of describingwheel arrangements. This system, which has come tobe known as the “Whyte Notation”, counts thenumber of wheels from left to right and separates theleading (or pony or pilot) wheels, the driving and thetrailing (or rear) wheels by dashes. The Berkshire class(one such shown on this page but facing right) wouldget written 2-8-4, indicating that the locomotive hasa pair of leading wheels in front, eight driving wheels(four on each side) and four trailing wheels.

The French system (now adopted by the UIC) countsthe axles – not the wheels – so the Berkshires wouldget written 1-4-2.

India became hometo a great fleet ofsteam locomotives.The network wasbuilt by differenttypes of railwayc o m p a n i e s :Company-owned,privately-owned,owned byi n d e p e n d e n t

“Native” States, by sugar mills, by other private userswith captive lines. They operated in various gaugesand acquired their own rolling stock. Havingpioneered railway business, Britain had a head startover all others. It was thus their locomotivemanufacturing companies that provided thesemachines to India and all over the world. But as Britishsources began getting over-booked, India’s growingneeds had to be met from different parts of the worldand from its own manufacturing units. BB&CI’sAjmer works began manufacture of P class MGlocomotives as early as 1895 and EIR’s Jamalpur shopsturned out its first loco in 1899. By the end of the19th century, the variety of steam locomotives whichplied in India must have been the largest assortmentof different types found anywhere in the world.

Feeling urgent need for some standardization, acommittee, which included our railway advisers(Rendel, Palmer, Triton – RDSO is its successor), setup the British Engineering Standards Association

20

(BESA) to evolve and suggest some designs. The firstBESA designs emerged in 1903: 4-4-0 standardpassenger (SP) and 0-6-0 goods (SG). Designs wererevised in 1905-06 with more powerful locomotives,including the 4-6-2 heavy passenger (HP), the 4-4-2Atlantic passenger (AP), the 2-8-0 heavy goods (HG)and two tank locos. Superheated versions (giving betterfuel economy) were classified SPS, SGS, etc. and thoseconverted from saturated to superheated SPC, SGC,etc. The SPS had driving wheels of 6ft 2in diameter –perhaps the largest in India. This is also how we gotthe HPS – to my mind the most elegant of all on oursystem, even though the WP that came later becamean icon.

Within twenty years, the need for still more powerfullocomotives was felt. The consultants designed themto a new Indian Railways Standard (IRS). IRS locosstarted coming from 1926-27. These were the X class

locos: 4-6-2 XA, XB and XC (with increasing axleloads) for passenger trains; 2-8-2 XD and XE for goodsand a 0-4-2 XT tank engine. But almost immediatelysome of these, particularly the XB, were suspected ofcausing track distortions and accidents which wereattributed to their ‘hunting’ – lateral oscillation ofthe engine front to an extent to cause instability. Thederailment of the Punjab Mail on July 17 1937 atBihta when 119 persons died was attributed to such‘hunting’ and these passenger locos were graduallydowngraded.

In the 1930s NG locomotives in India acquired theprefix “Z” for 2 ft 6 in gauge (“N” for 2 ft gauge),MG the prefix “Y” and BG the prefix “X”. With theintroduction of IRS locos X was changed to “W”. Priorto that, locomotive types sported their own personal

lettering and numbering. The suffix “T” denotes atank locomotive, that is, one which carried its ownwater tank and needed no tender for water or coal.

World War II caught the Indian Railways short ofpower. As British builders were again over-booked,orders were placed with North Americanmanufacturers for the nearest equivalent to the XDand XEs which were serving well. About 225 AWDs,CWDs and the classic AWCs came from US andCanadian sources and proved to be so effective thatnot only were fresh orders placed after the war butone of the manufactures, the Baldwin LocomotiveWorks of Philadelphia, was given an order for a newprototype: 16 XPs were received in 1947. Thesebecame the first WPs1.

In 1950 came the WGs, of which the first hundredunits (Nos. 8301 to 8400) were built by North British

(ten subcontracted to Vulcan Foundry) and some werealso sourced from France, Austria and Japan2.Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, set up in 1950, thentook over. Initially CLW manufactured locomotivesfrom imported parts. By 1953, 70% of the locomotiveswere domestically produced, and by 1956 CLW wasable to entirely satisfy the domestic production needfor WG locomotives: its 100th WG was driven out byLal Bahadur Shastri, who was later our Prime Minister,on January 6, 1954, and in February 1963,“Vivekanand”, the first of 259 WPs was turned outby CLW. Steam production ceased on February 5 1972when CLW turned out its last steam loco, YG No3573, completing orders earlier placed on TELCO,set up in 1947 for production of boilers and later oflocomotives. (It was only after Partition thatChittaranjan was chosen as the site for manufacture

HPS and WP seen side by side

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of locomotives. Initially the decision was to up-gradethe Kanchrapara loco workshop into a manufacturingunit3.)

By 1968-69, when steam traction was getting phasedout, there were over 10,500 steam locomotives on therolls of Indian Railways (about 6,600 BG, 3,600 MGand 400 NG).

Among these locomotives, the largest we had in Indiawere the Garratts. They are articulated and areeffectively two engines joined by a common boiler.These are shown with a + sign between thearrangement of each engine. The notation for a “doublePacific” type Garratt is 4-6-2+2-6-4 (of this type, Indiahad just one.) The heavily-graded BNR had 32Garratts, which were like a pair of HGS class 2-8-0+0-8-2 locomotives (built 1925), 16 N class and10 massive NM class 4-8-0+0-8-4 (built 1930–31,of which one, No 6594, stands in its green livery inthe National Rail Museum) and four P class 4-8-2+2-8-4 (built in1939). The metre gauge Assam-BengalRailway had six T class 2-6-2+2-6-2 (built in 1927).Three types were supplied when it became the BengalAssam Railway: 10 MWGL class 2-8-0+0-8-2; 12MWGH class 2-8-2+2-8-2; and 18 MWGX class 4-8-2+2-8-4. Of these last named, only 9 MWGX stayedin India. The others went to Burma; of which fourwere returned to the Assam Railway after the war.One MWGX is preserved at the Rail Heritage Park atTinsukhia on the North East Frontier Railway.

Not counting the Garratts, the largest locomotives inIndia were the X class 2-8-2. All of 198 tons inweight, standing 14 ft 8 inches, with driving wheelsof 5 ft 1½ in diameter, 93 XEs came to India between1928 and 1930 (44 manufactured in England byWilliam Beardmore & Co, 49 by the Vulcan Foundry).35 for NWR remained in Pakistan. Several of the restwere homed on Asansol Division. Daily, these superblocomotives hauled coal and steel trains with grosstrailing loads of 3500 tons from Andal to Jhajha,tirelessly taking all the gradients en route. Later, XENo 3634, was sold to the Madhya Pradesh ElectricityBoard for their Korba unit. I helped to retrieve it forour Museum. It has now been restored to service andcan be seen in Rewari shed.

Another of our 8-driving wheel locos was the HGS 2-8-0. A beautiful locomotive, one such won the firstever Black Beauty contest in Asansol. Acquired in 1922from the same William Beardmore & Co., HGS 26761came to the division from its parent Oudh &Rohilkhand Railway, when control of that railway wasvested with the EIR. Homed in Madhupur shed, sheserved in the undulating Giridih coal pilot sections.Before retiring and until 1985, she did duty as ashunter and may well be among one of our longestserving locomotives. Restored in September 1999, shenow runs the heritage train between Howrah andBandel.

The true Indian freight work horse of which IR ownedover 2000 was undoubtedly the WG. A Mikado class2-8-2, it utilised identical equipment (boiler,motion, springs, tender bogies, and rear truck) as inthe iconic pin-up girl of locomotives, the Pacific class4-6-2 WP passenger locomotive with its distinguishedbullet head. (The WP, designed for speed, had drivingwheels of larger diameter than those of the WG, whichwas designed for its tractive effort and hauling capacity)Production of WGs ceased in 1970; the final unit,named Antim Sitara (Last Star) stands on a pedestalat CLW.

Except where nostalgic loco men have lovingly takenthe trouble of restoring them, these beautiful stalwartsof a by-gone era will never be seen in service again.They will fast fade into memories only.

(Footnotes)

1 After the prototype WP was built by Baldwin in 1947, a further 300were built in USA and Canada in 1949. In the late 1950s another 180came from Chrzanow, Vienna. Finally CLW built 259 between 1963and 1967 to complete a total of 755.

2 As mentioned, the first 100 came from North British and VulcanFoundries in 1950. Then there were about 350 from Europe, NorthAmerica and Japan. Finally, CLW built almost 2000, reaching a totalfleet of 2450.

3 From The Statesman dated March 30 1910:”The workshop of theEastern Bengal State Railway at Kanchrapara is now quite unequal tomeeting all demands made upon it. It has been determined, therefore, toturn it into a Locomotive Works and to build new Carriage and WagonShops, additional land being acquired for this purpose at Kanchrapara.The total expenditure will be about 30 lakhs of which half will becharged to capital. Five lakhs will be spent in the financial year 1910-11.”

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I had occasion to travel to the easternmost part of ourcountry earlier this year (2015) in February. I wasamazed and impressed by what I saw, what Iexperienced and the museums I was able to visit.However, I will limit this write up to the steamlocomotives that I encountered in this corner of ourland.

The most impressive, by far, was the Meter GaugeGarratt locomotive that I came across in the smallwell-laid and well maintained rail museum atTinsukhia. Set up by one of its erstwhile DRMs, S.Mookerjee, in 2010, the museum has been named“Rail Heritage Park” and is a must visit for the steamenthusiast. The Garratt on display is the only MeterGauge Garratt locomotive known to exist in India.Other than this, the only other known MG Garratt isone preserved by the State Railway of Thailand.

Over 27 meters long, this MWGX class locomotiveweighed an impressive 104.24 tonnes when loaded.On its 4-8-2+2-8-4 wheel arrangement, it could reachspeeds of 50 kmph and haul a load of 300 tonnes.Built in 1945 by M/s Beyer Peacock Company Ltd.of Machester, UK, for use during the Second WorldWar in Myanmar by the British War Department, atthe end of the war it was transferred to the AssamBengal Railway which later became the North EastFrontier Railway. It was retired in December 1975.It was re-numbered a few times and at the time of itscondemnation, it bore the number 32086 MWGX.

Another prominently displayed locomotive at the parkis the B-class No. 781. This is one of the oldestlocomotives of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway andhad been sold to the North Eastern Coal Fields in1969. By the beginning of this century, it had become

STEAM LOCOMOTIVES IN THE NORTH EAST-by J. L. Singh

unserviceable. Thus, when NF Railway set up thisheritage park, it was gifted back to the railway on thelatter’s request.

There are other B class locos on display at variouslocations. For example, there is one in the NationalRail Museum and another in front of the Ministry ofRailways, both in New Delhi. The uniqueness of thisloco is its presentation. It has been placed atop abridge pillar in the middle of a well-manicured lawn.The pillar itself is part of NF Railway heritage as itwas one of the pillars of Meter Gauge railway bridgeNo. 556 between Naharkatia and Namrup stations.This bridge had been built around 1898 and justmissed a century of life when the line was convertedto Broad Gauge in 1997. The designers of the RailHeritage Park were able to salvage this pillar and useit to display Loco No. B 781.

A third steam loco is on display in the Park. This isloco No. YP 2618, kept in a separate shed. The loco,of 1957 vintage, had been built by Tata Engineeringand Locomotive Company Ltd. (TELCO). In itsheydays, it worked all the important trains of the NFRailway including the Kamrup Express, Assam Mailand Tinsukhia Mail. The conversion of major sectionsof the railway to Broad Gauge and the ongoingdieselisation and electrification spelt its death knelland it was retired from service in January 1997 afterworking its last train, 252 DN, ex Ledo to Tinsukhia.With a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, the YPs were thecounterpart of the WPs of Broad Gauge.

My next stop was the museum of the North EastCoalfields at Margherita. As you enter the Museumlocated right in front of the Margherita railway station,you see a string of three steam locomotives on your

Meter Gauge Garratt locomotive -Rail Heritage Park

23

left. Painted in various hues of green, yellow, blueand pink, they certainly do not appear to have theiroriginal colours but are definitely very pleasing to seenow. They are neatly displayed and even havemannequins posing as drivers. Named Hassang, Johnand Shelley, they had been built by WG Bagnall Ltd.of Stafford, England in 1897, 1924 and 1930respectively. All three have saddle-top water tanksand a 0-2-0 wheel arrangement.

A visit to the Tipong coal field not far from Margherita,I found a fourth example of the same WG Bagnall-built locos. This one has been named David and isagain well-kept and preserved. In the same shed wasalso a B class loco, No. 796. One of the staff of thecolliery who was present at the shed claimed that boththese locos were in working condition. David wastoo well painted and clean to have worked recently,although it could well be in working condition. TheB class loco, although not as spic and span as theBagnall, did give the impression that it could work.However, I am giving the benefit of doubt to thecolliery and assuming that the locos are in workingorder. There was one SAN diesel as well and in alllikelihood bulk of the work is done by it and these

locos used occasionally as and when required.

These are not the only steam locos one gets to see inthis area. There is one more on a plinth outside Marianistation. This is a YG 3213. Built by TELCO in 1960,it worked extensively on the Lumbding and TinsukhiaDivisions of NF Railway before it was retired inFebruary 1997. YG locos were the counterparts ofthe YPs for working goods trains. As a result they hada 2-8-2 wheel arrangement with smaller diameterdriving wheels than the YP, which had a 4-6-2 wheelarrangement. Till diesels and conversion to BG sweptthe steams before them, the YG was the main goodsloco of the MG system of the Indian Railways. Smallerand lighter locos were used only where the track orthe bridges could not sustain the size and weight ofthe YG. At the time of its retirement, Loco 3213 washomed at Mariani steam shed.

I was sure that this Eastern area had more surpriseswhen it comes to heritage steam locos. One of thesurprises I got was at the Digboi Centenary Museumat Digboi. This is a museum of India’s pioneeringOil Company and its prime exhibit is the first oilwell of the country, preserved in its original state.However, in one of the disused alleys at the rear of the

Locomotive 'David' at Tipong coalfield

B class loco atop heritage bridge pillars at Rail Heritage Park

24

museum, I noticed whatlooked like a steamlocomotive and closerexamination showed that itwas indeed a steamlocomotive. It looked likeone of the WG Bagnalllocos that were on displayat the Margherita museumbut this one had nomarkings of any kindalthough I looked at it fromevery direction. It was thesame size as the Bagnallswith the same wheelarrangement and saddle-top water tank. The lengthof the chimney and someof the other fittings alsocorresponded. The staff atthe museum could not giveme any details of thelocomotive. There was an open wagon and somecoaches also on this 2-foot gauge disused line. Theonly information that I was able to extract was thatthe steam loco used to carry trains of crude oil to theMargherita refinery between 1891 and 1901. TheMargherita refinery was closed in the latter year.

I strongly recommend that all rail enthusiasts visitthe North East to not only see the steam and otherrailway heritage that has been preserved but also itstea gardens, animal and bird life, oil and coal fields,etc. This is also the area where you will find relics ofthe 2nd World War, such as the cemetery nearJairampur in Arunachal Pradesh. You may also be

able to see remnants of thefamous Stilwell road fromLedo across the presentMyanmar into China.Last but not the least, thereis the powerful and massiveBrahmaputra, certainlyIndia’s mightiest river, thatwill make our other riversappear to be mere drains orstreams when they are attheir best.

Steam locos on display at the North East Coalfields museum

YG loco plinthed outside Mariani station

25

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) was set up bythe Indian Railways soon after India attainedindependence in 1947 at a green field site in theindustrialised belt of West Bengal that borders Bihar.The transfer of technology was from North BritishLocomotive Company of UK and, if I remembercorrectly, the investment was a princely sum of Rs. 5crores. The first steam locomotive, a 2-8-2 WG class,was turned out in1950. Thesel o c o m o t i v e sultimately becamethe workhorse offreight traffic onthe IndianRailways. It willnot be out of placeto mention thatC h i t t a r a n j a nLocomotive Workswas the firstProduction Unit setup by independentIndia.

Apart from awonderful layoutand equipped withthe best state of art machinery and plant, the workshophad a beautifully laid out colony. Undulating spaciousgreen landscape with 7 lakes and well maintainedroads made this colony very different from thecramped high rise cities one sees now. The onlyproblem was that it was located in the wilderness andwas totally cut off from the larger cities. The plannersof the workshop and colony made up for this byproviding, as in all such Railway Colonies, its own200-bed Hospital, Clubs and Institutes, Schools andCollege up to Graduate level, Sport facilities with aStadium and reasonably good Shopping Centres.There were Lawn Tennis courts, beautifullymaintained, which are becoming rare now.

I was transferred to CLW in 1965. I was then a newlymarried young officer with hardly 1½ years workingexperience. This turned out to be the best thing thatcould happen in my professional career. CLW was inher heydays then, turning out 15 steam locomotives

CHITTARANJAN LOCO WORKS

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE DAYS- by L. K. Sinha

a month. There was an excellent Production ControlOrganisation which, without any computers, ensuredin time availability of raw material, components andsub-assemblies. The layout of the Worksop and a well-positioned Store for raw material and bought-outcomponents ensured smooth material flow.

Industry in India, particularly heavy industry, was inits infancy; the country was largely dependent on

imports. CLW hadto be self-sufficientand had verys p e c i a l i s e dmachines formaking Bar Framesand Boilers. TheWG class oflocomotives wasbasically ofAmerican designwith Bar Framesand Steel-weldedFireboxes; ourBritish locos hadplate frames andCopper fireboxes.CLW developedexcellent skills in

welding to meet these requirements. This welding skillwas later established when the neighbouringHindustan Cables Factory needed our assistance inrepairing their Lead Press which had developed a crack.We did round the clock welding to deposit one ton ofwelded material and got it going.

CLW also had very good Foundries, both Cast Ironand Bronze/White metal. There are not many steelcastings in Steam Locomotives, but later, CLW alsoset up a large Steel Foundry.

I started my career at CLW as Assistant ProductionEngineer (Hot), which meant in-charge of the HotShops. After assignments in other areas, in 1968, fiveof us were selected to go to Germany for training inmanufacture of Diesel Engines, since CLW had signedan agreement with MaK of Germany to make Enginesfor Diesel Shunters. In one of the best organisedTraining Programmes I have seen on Indian Railways,

WP locomotive No. 6171 manufactured by CLW

26

we went through a 2-month German language coursein Pune and then another two months in Saarbrueken,Germany. At MaK, our assignment was very clear. Wehad one year in which two of us were trained for themanufacturing part, while two got training inassembly, erection and testing. The fifth had totranslate alldrawings intoEnglish. Ofcourse, we wereall helped. Onour return, wereasked to set upthe DieselEngine Shop,which we did.

Though CLWhad been makingE l e c t r i cLocomotives forsome time, thecoming up of theD i e s e lL o c o m o t i v e sreally amountedto closure of Steam Loco building. The area allocatedwas where Steam Locos were built, so gradually wesaw tapering off of the Golden Era of Steam

A WDS4D class locomotive

A view of CLW in its early years

Locomotives at CLW. In 1973, CLW turned out itslast Steam Locomotive and we bade a sad good bye tothis wonderful Iron Horse.

Chittaranjan was a rather isolated place; this resultedin friendship developing there amongst the families,which is something which does not exist in big cities,

where one doesnot even knowone’s ownneighbour. Ourchildren gettogether evennow, even whenthey are livingand working infar flung cornersof the world.When there is nodistraction andthere are goodsports facilitates,everyone took upsports. The Clubwas very activeand we had our

own Bowling Lawns, a sport which is now practicallyextinct.

27

There is something about a Satpura narrow gauge trainthat sets apart the experience as exotic — anunforgettable ride that leaves behind a pleasurablesensation, a raw taste of what the ‘real’ India is like.Here you are surrounded by colourful tribal folk—the Gonds and the Bhils, the Adivasis and other tribesthat the anthropologist is at pains to discover andunearth – and, albeit for a short while, a curtain isdrawn aside revealing a rich tapestry of tribal life whichthe city dweller has never glimpsed before. The trainrattles on bumpily over the points, the carriages heaveand sway, the clunk-thud seems to blend in with theunfolding landscape; but the old man wearing a turbanand his wife seated opposite gaze out of the window,lost in a world of their own. Their contact with thismarvel of miniature railway engineering is but

transient. An hour later they will have got off at astation set amidst the open countryside. The trainhoots and begins to move. The man and his wife havebegun their trek along a dirt road leading to a clusterof huts hidden from view by jungle and bush.

The origin of the Satpura lines can be traced to theearly part of the twentieth century. Some ten yearsafter the Bengal Nagpur Railway Company wasformed, engineering surveys were carried out in thethen Central Provinces with a view to open a low-costrailway that would unite the region into a whole. Theobject of the railway was two-fold. First, to open upthe agricultural and mineral resources of the region;and second, to safeguard the inhabitants of the areashould a famine arise. The gauge selected for the

THE SATPURA NARROW GAUGE RAILWAY-by Ravindra Bhalerao

purpose was 2 feet 6 inches (762 mm) and the firstlink from Gondia to Nainpur was opened in 1903.In the years that followed, construction progressed,till by 1913 Nagpur was connected with Chhindwaraby narrow gauge. The ‘Satpura Lines,’ as they hadcome to be known, were the largest narrow gaugesystem in the country. With over a thousandkilometers of track mileage, the railway linked togetherJabalpur, Gondia, Nagpur and Chhindwara withextensions going as far as Nagbhir and Chanda Fortin the south.

The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum of Nagpur

The present trend on the Indian Railways is a futuristicone that looks to modernization and adopting auniform gauge countrywide. Anything that is old and

unserviceable faces the threat of extinction. Thankfullythough, the DHR, the Nilgiri and the Kalka-Shimlalines have been exempt from this view. These tinyunremunerative lines meandering through hills andvalleys are now a protected species; their survivalcontinues owing to UNESCO world heritage status.

Could not something of a similar kind be done forthe Satpura lines of Central India1? Having served theregion for nearly a century, this legendary railway isnow slowly passing into history. Here is a diminutiverailway enterprise tailor-made to suit the needs of tribalfolk in the heart of India, a miniature rail miracle thathas been around for so long that it would be a shameto pull it apart summarily without giving a thoughtto the heritage value of the system.

Another view of the NG MuseumA view of the NG museum at Nagpur

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The railways, it seems, were aware of this, and sincethey could not continue with a system that hadoutlived its usefulness they did the next best thing;they came up with a museum. For more than a decadenow, the Narrow gauge railway museum of Nagpurhas offered the visitor a rare peek into the past of India’sfamed Satpura railway, besides being a much-lovedamusement park where families may be seen tocongregate in large numbers in the evenings. With itssprawling gardens spread over an area of over fouracres, the museum is built over the site of the formerSouth Eastern Railway’s Broad Gauge steamlocomotive shed, and is a vast repository of vintageand antique objects that sets out to document thetechnology used on the Satpura and other narrowgauge railways since earliest times.

So, does the Nagpur railway museum succeed inconveying the true flavor of the Satpura railway? Thecasual visitor who drops in hoping to find a dozen ormore steam locomotives in the yard waiting to bestroked on their backs is going to be disappointed,

for he will find only three engines here, two of themhoused indoors making good photography nearlyimpossible. But if we accept the view that a railmuseum exists to depict the sum total of what arailway was like since earliest times, then the place atonce takes on a new meaning.

Indoor exhibits at the museum include a largeassortment of artifacts from a bygone age, kept in glassshowcases. There are static models of locomotives andcarriages on display, builder’s plates, signaling andpermanent way equipment, hand-lamps and oldtelephone sets, locomotive fittings, and various otherobjects of interest. The archive houses a collection ofrare stamps as well as old documents, locomotivespecifications and diagrams and railway manuals.

Amongst the most delightful pieces on show indoorsis a platform weighing scale made in 1897 by W & TAvery Limited of London and Birmingham and a signallever frame from Saxby Farmer Limited dating back

to 1899. And there is an ancient hand-pointmechanism in the yard outdoors from AnderstonFoundry Company Limited, Glasgow andMiddlesborough, with a barely visible ‘BNR 1887’appearing in relief.

Besides a diesel-hydraulic locomotive and a narrowgauge royal carriage built in 1899 by OrensteinKoppel of Germany, the principal attraction indoorsis a Bagnall 0-6-4 narrow gauge tank loco weighing15 tons and having a maximum speed of 25 kmph.This baby tank engine is no old junkie—built in 1916by Bagnall Limited, Stafford, England, this loco wasreconditioned for a heritage run in 2002, and can beseen resplendent in bright red livery and polished brassfittings.

A CC class locomtoive

A Heritage Goods wagon

A Bagnall Locomotive at the Museum

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Placed on a low ‘pedestal’ outside the main buildingis a 39.5 ton 4-6-2 steam loco manufactured in 1907by the North British Loco Company, Glasgow, UK.Cross over the lawn and you find yourself in a little‘yard’ complete with turnouts and a level crossing gate.Here you will find stabled a 1957 steam crane of Italianmake coupled to a goods brake van, and on theadjoining track, an oil tanker, old goods wagons andheritage carriages in the usual maroon-red livery.

A Legend called Nainpur

No railway can hope to survive without extensive repairfacilities. On the Satpura Lines, periodic overhaulswere done at Motibagh, while routine maintenanceof engines was carried out in sheds spread over theregion. There were locomotive sheds at Howbagh(Jabalpur), Chhindwara, Nagpur, Nainpur, Nagbhir

and Gondia. With the exception of Howbagh, eachof these locosheds was furnished with an accident relieftrain and a 10-ton steam loco crane.

Turntables for reversing engines could be found atNainpur, Howbagh, Nagpur, Chhindwara, ChandaFort, and Gondia, each 50 feet in length, whiletriangles were provided at Katangi, Chhindwara,Khirsadoh, Nagbhir and Mandla Fort.

Centres of the busiest railway activity were, without adoubt, Chhindwara and Nainpur. Bill Aitken,exploring the railways, had been to the latter town,and he tells us of “…the satisfaction of seeing a steamlocomotive back up to take us to Nainpur which in1985 boasted of a locomotive shed that still homedten ZEs. Like all narrow gauge carriages the fittingswere old but full of character. The wooden seats ofthe lower classes gave a pleasant enough ride for me

to have no regrets on that overnight journey whichended at 4 a.m. when the train, which was runningto time, halted for water and a change of engine atNainpur Junction.”

The narrow gauge enthusiast must gravitate toNainpur just as the old countryman cheerfully turnsto the pub on his way back home. On anotheroccasion, while at Nainpur, Aitken had the unpleasantexperience of being ‘chased away by censorious securitymen.’ A most unfortunate experience for a manpossessing an official permit allowing the use of acamera — and perhaps the reason why his book doesnot have a single picture from this busy little railwaytown.

Being then the focal point of the Satpura railway,Nainpur was a place of concentrated railway activity.

With four routes radiating outwards, Nainpur (likeChhindwara) was fully equipped to deal with anycontingency that arose. Its station had two platforms,one low-level, the other rail level; six reception linesand loops long enough to hold about 20 vehicles each.For the student of narrow gauge railway operations,no other station offered as much scope in terms ofequipment, infrastructure and staff.

Signaling and Telecommunication

Railwaymen are a business-minded lot and when aline is constructed, the size chosen is dictated moreby practical considerations than by anything else.Before a line can be laid the first thing to do is tomake a thorough study of the region in terms of itsindustry, population, trade, natural resources andgeographical features. These details together with apreliminary study of the various possible routes along

A view of the Motibagh Railway Workshop A Narrow Gauge train

30

which the railway may be laid enable a calculation tobe made of the cost of constructing the line as alsothe revenue it is likely to bring in. While the broadgauge may seem superior to every other gauge in termsof speed and carrying capacity, it does not offer themost economic rail solution in every case: if theamount of traffic expected is small, laying a meter, oreven a narrow gauge line would appear to be morejustified from a practical standpoint.

After being around for more than a century, theSatpura railway is now on the brink of extinction withmany of its lines already converted to broad gauge.But what remains still delightfully retains the flavorof a heritage railway. You can still find a pointsmanwalk up to the track and set the route whereupon apretty little ground lamp will be found to flip its facetowards you. And Station Masters along the line stilluse Neale’s token instruments making their entries ina voluminous train register maintained in the office.

Signaling on the narrow gauge was based on thetraditional Lower Quadrant semaphore system. Theusual signaling arrangements at a station wouldinclude an Outer signal with a Warner below it, aHome, Starter and an Advance Starter. A Warner hasa fishtailed arm and its main function is to indicate tothe driver if a reduction in speed is called for. When atrain runs through a station (and this was a rareoccurrence on the Satpura lines) the Warner arm wasdropped indicating that the driver could proceedunhindered. Sadly, not all Station Masters follow thisinjunction and the South Eastern Railway rule bookhas a stern warning for offenders: “Warner signals arenot always lowered for trains booked to run through.It should be impressed on all cabinmen that this is a

serious offence as such a practice reacts very adverselyon the speed of such trains.”

The earliest electrical instrument which enabled aStation Master on the line to instantly confirm thestatus of his section to his colleague in the rear wasthe electric telegraph. In later days, Neale’s tokeninstruments were installed to exchange line clearmessages. But for several years to come, even afterNeale’s instruments had come into use, line clearmessages had to be telegraphed in addition. TheSatpura timetable of 1975 has specific instructionsfor Station Masters along the line. For non-interlockedsections of the railway it clearly warns, “Avoid shortcut methods. All line clear messages must betelegraphed in full.”

Railway rules for signaling provide interesting materialfor contemplation and study. For example, all Downtrains proceeding from Chhindwara towards Nagpurare expected to stop at the Outer signal of Kukrakhapastation, 36 kilometers down the line. After halting atthe Down Outer, the driver whistles, after which thestation master on duty lowers the signal for the trainto be admitted to the station.

Communication on running trains was facilitated byportable control field telephone sets. A field telephoneof this kind was provided in the brake van of narrowgauge trains; when connected to an overhead telephoneline it allowed train staff to get in touch with Controlduring an emergency. Another interesting device usedwas the magneto telephone illustrated here. This hada hand-operated generator for giving a ring andprovided a link between stations masters on the lineand gatemen manning level crossing gates.

The Romance of Shunting Trains

Other than Passenger trains and Goods services, theSatpura railway also had Mixed trains on its timetable.A mixed train is a composite of passenger coaches andgoods wagons; its operation makes absorbing studybecause it has work to do in the form of shunting atwayside stations along the route.

Consider the working of 1 NR Up/2 NR Down. Thiswas a mixed shunting service between Nagpur andChhindwara, and yet a passenger embarking atNagpur could travel on this train only as far asRamakona. Each day 1 NR Up (Nagpur—Ramakona)leaves Nagpur with a set of passenger coaches andgoods wagons. After journeying for over seven hours,the train pulls into Ramakona at 8 p.m. where

A Heritage Telephone

31

coaching vehicles are detached and stabled on a loop.However, it has by no means reached the end of itsjourney. The engine has work to do here: switchingover tracks it picks up two full water tanks and returnsto the main goods train resuming its onward run(minus the coaching vehicles) at 9 p.m. On the way,it deposits one water tank at Bheemalgondi, the otherat Kukrakhapa, besides picking up parcels traffic andwagons at stations en route, finally reachingChhindwara at about 2 a.m.

In the down direction, 2 NR Down leavesChhindwara at 2.30 in the morning with only goodswagons. On the way it picks up water tanks atKukrakhapa and Bheemalgondi (now empty) reachingRamakona at 7 a.m. There it deposits these tanks tobe filled up and picking up the coaching vehicles leftearlier by 1 NR, it proceeds with its load of goodswagons and passengers towards Nagpur.

Safety in Operations

Unlike the motor car, a railway is a form of guidedtransport. When running at speed a train develops atremendous momentum making instant stopping

impossible. This coupled with the fact that steeringas in an automobile is not possible has made itnecessary for an elaborate system to be devised toensure safety.

Serving a total of over 120 stations spread over a routelength of about 1020 kilometers, the Satpura railwayof yore was the largest narrow gauge system in India.Ancient timetables, both public and working, arealways a pleasure to study, listing stations andstoppages besides providing a wealth of informationon various matters of interest. Some very pretty stationnames emerge from a perusal of these old documents:

Hatta Road, Padregunj, Binaiki, Shikara,Chiraidongri, Ram Rama, Saongi, Tempa, Devi ....

Consider the stretch of track from Nainpur toChhindwara. This 140-kilometer long route has twoghat sections where the line crosses the Mahadeo hillsof the Satpura range. Abbreviations following stationnames give interesting insights: ‘W’ stands forWatering Station, of which there were a total of aboutforty on the railway. The duration of a halt for enginewatering depends on the class of train: 12 minutesfor a Passenger train, 15 minutes for a Mixed and 20minutes for a Goods train. Other abbreviations foundin these timetables include E for Engine ChangingStation, N for Notice Station, PH for Passenger Halt,R for Restaurant, S for Tea stall, Sg for Siding, BS forBlock Station, V for Vegetarian Refreshment Room,and NV for Non-vegetarian Refreshment Room.

Not all sections of track can handle a train at full speedand for safety reasons, speed restrictions are sometimesimposed on the movement of trains. The mostcommon cause of such a restriction is a scissorscrossover where narrow gauge trains are limited to only10 kmph. Other causes leading to a speed limitinclude passage over a siding point, old and worn outrails, scanty ballast, weak girders over a bridge andreverse curves on steep gradients.

Another interesting area of safety in operation is theinterlocking of level crossing gates with signals.Between Itwari and Nagpur for example, you had twolevel crossings each interlocked with banner typesignals placed between broad gauge and narrow gaugetracks, 180 meters short of the first level crossing ineither direction. These signals apply to trainsapproaching on both BG and NG tracks. When adriver comes up against a level crossing signal atdanger, he has to come to a dead halt at the signaland blow his whistle at short intervals. If the signal isnot lowered after 2 minutes, drivers are required to

Carriage Builder's Plate

Key-Locking

32

proceed cautiously while being prepared to stop shortof the level crossing.

At other places, level crossings on the railway wereprotected by gate signals preceded in the rear byWarner signals or signal sighting boards.

The Satpura line has a number of Ghat sections. Theseinclude Ramakona-Umranalla on the Nagpur-Chhindwara Section, Bhoma-Seoni & Karaboh-Jhilimilli on the Nainpur-Chhindwara Section as wellas Pindrai – Ghunsore, Binaiki – Shikara &Gowarighat - Howbagh (Jabalpur) on theGondia-Nainpur-Jabalpur Section.

The passage of a train over a downward grade on aghat is always fraught with danger and to ensure safety,mixed and goods trains had to halt at engineeringstop boards placed at the commencement of suchsections and the driverrequired to ‘pin down’brakes beforeresuming his run.Each such stoppagewould be certified bythe Guard by an entrymade in his TrainReport. For suchtrains, the rules laydown that not lessthan 70-75% of thevehicles on the trainshould be fitted withactive vacuum brakesoperative from the engine.

Passenger trains, in contrast, were fully vacuum-braked, and were, therefore, exempt from theprocedure of halting and pinning down brakes on adownward grade.

For added safety, vacuum log registers were maintainedat select stations in ghat areas. Station Masters on dutywere required to personally check the vacuum gaugeof the brake van jointly with the Guard before handingover the line-clear ticket to the driver of the train andrecord the results in the vacuum log register obtainingthe Guard’s signature in token of the correctness ofthe entry. The minimum vacuum recommended was15 inches in the brake van.

Train operation on the Satpura railway may thus beseen to be based on definite rules worked out withthe greatest care and forethought.

When it was first conceived, one of the primeobjectives of the Satpura Lines was to tap theagricultural produce of the region. A hundred yearslater, that area of commerce has been taken over byroad transport leaving the narrow gauge free to devoteitself entirely to ferrying the habitual traveler to hisremote country destination. Within a few year’s timewhat remains of this quaint little railway, too, willhave vanished without leaving a trace behind otherthan a few select remnants preserved in the Nagpurmuseum. And with it will come to an end the saga ofthe narrow gauge rail adventure that first began whena colonial administration sniffed at the untappedresources of India’s tribal heartland. There was muchenthusiasm in the air when the railway was first begun.“All the passenger coaches are fully vacuum brakedand lighted with Pintsch’s incandescent gas,” said onebrochure of 1908. “The first and second class

composite carriagesare replete with everyconvenience forcomfortable travel ...The ceilings are ofmillboard paintedwhite, and pleasingeffect has beensecured by theintroduction of stripsof metal worked intovarious geometricaldesigns ...” It was anage of new ideas, anage of optimism,

where the steam engine led the way bringing inprosperity and progress wherever it went. The littletrain was a complete success. It sped along all throughthe day and late into the night, passing throughobscure little towns and hamlets, bringing the blessingof mobility to a rural clientele, whistling a message ofcheer and hope as it went along. Fisherman or farmer,day labourer or schoolmaster – all rejoiced at the soundof its approach.

That was the Satpura railway. On the eve of itsdeparture let us salute the little train. Au revoir!

(Footnotes)1

This article was written in the middle of the year (2015). Subsequently,Narrow Gauge operations on the Nagpur-Chhindwara, Chhindwara-Nainpur, Nainpur-Mandlafort and Balaghat-Nainpur-Jabalpur sectionshave been closed owing to conversion to Broad Gauge - Editor

Paralakimedi Royal Saloon

33

Formed in 2012 andlaunched in 2013,APHTRO (Asia PacificHeritage and Tourist RailOrganisation) was set upprimarily to help inimprovement of the heritagerailways and museums of theAsia-Pacific by forming a co-operative organisation tounite nations and countriesof the region. It provides aforum where the countriescan share their experienceand exchange ideas, adviceand information in any of the diverse aspects of railheritage and tourism. APHTRO aims to play animportant role in contributing to the growth anddevelopment of the heritage and tourist railways inthe Asia-Pacific region.

The aims and objectives of the organisation and theroles it can play are as follows:

• To represent heritage and tourist railways andmuseums in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a non-profit making body.

• To provide a discussion forum for meetings,newsletters and website to share and exchange anyexperiences, ideas and information.

• To promote the sustainability of its members andto support the operation of members’ activitiesby:

• Making submissions to and liaising withgovernments or local authorities as and whenrequested by its members.

• Providing access to advice, assistance andinformation on technical matters, marketingarea, etc.

• To generate good relationship for mutual benefitwith other international organisations of theheritage and tourism sector.

• To explore and formulate bi-lateral/multi-lateralfunding/programmes.

A Report

APHTRO Conference 2015

• To convene an AnnualGeneral Meeting and topromote conferences withrelevant themes.

With Thailand becoming afull member during thecourse of the 2015Conference, theorganisation now has 10 fullmembers. These membersare: Australia, India,Indonesia, Japan, Jordan,Malaysia, New Zealand, thePhilippines, Taiwan and

Thailand.

The Indian Steam Railway Society (ISRS) participatedin the Annual Conference of APHTRO for the firsttime this year, being represented by J L Singh andIshwar Singh. The Conference was conducted inBangkok, Thailand, from the 21st to the 23rd ofOctober 2015.

The morning of the first day of the Conference, i.e.the 21st of October, was devoted to the opening ofthe conference, the inauguration of the Thai RailFoundation and the Thai Rail Museum along withother similar activities. The latter included a booklaunch as well as a panel discussion. Later in the day,all delegates were taken to the Thonburi Depot where5 steam locos are being maintained and kept in steamfollowed by a visit to the Siriraj Bimuksthan museum.

The venue of the opening of the conference is was theconcourse of the Hua Lamphong railway station. This

Front view of the Hua Lamphong station

Governor of SRT ringing in the APHTRO 2015 Conference

34

is the main railway station of Bangkok city. Theconcourse is about 50 meters wide and perhaps 75meters in length. There are shops on each side of the75-meter lengths except fora gap on South side fromwhere you enter theconcourse. You can enterthe concourse through theshorter length as well. Thisis the side that faces theEast, while you enter theplatforms from theconcourse through theshorter length on the otherside. The State Railway ofThailand (SRT), who werethe hosts for the conference,did not close the area to thenormal public so that anymember of the travellingfraternity who was interested could also take part inthe proceedings. A small stage had been set up at oneend and seating arranged for the delegates in themiddle of the concourse. Behind the seating for thedelegates, a photo exhibition had been put up andalso a small model railway installed. On both sides ofthe area where the delegates were seated were normalchairs for passengers and a large number occupiedthese chairs while the conference proceedings were inprogress.

The conference began with a welcome address by Dr.Siripong Preutthipan, Chairman of the APHTRO ThaiWorking Committee and Chairman, Thai RailwayFoundation. This was followed by an introduction toAPHTRO by Mr. Kyoichi Oda, President of

APHTRO. The inauguration of the conference as wellas the main address was by Mr. WuthichartKalyanamitra, Governor of SRT. Unlike the lighting

of the traditional lamp thatis the usual means ofstarting proceedings inIndia, SRT gave a touch ofrailroad operations to theopening by the ringing of abell of the type that is usedto signal the arrival anddeparture of trains atrailway stations. An ornatebrass bell, bedecked withflowers, had been set up onthe stage for this purpose.All VIPs on the dais rang thisbell three times to formallylaunch the conference.

Immediately after this, we were moved to another partof the station towards the front side where the ThaiRailway Foundation was inaugurated along with theThai Rail Museum. The museum is very small byIndian standards but one of the interesting exhibits isa Neale’s Ball token Line Clear instrument. Thisinstrument had been manufactured by Saxby andFarmer (India) at Kolkata. The date of manufacturewas not clear from the instrument but it was certainlynot later than the 1950s or 60s. We were alsointroduced to a photo exhibition and a model railwaythat had been set up in the main councourse behindthe seating area. A large screen was playing movies ofSRT and its heritage railways and a live band was inattendance that played later in the day.

After a small break for tea and snacks, there was apanel discussion in which Mr. Kyoichi Oda, threemembers of SRT and two bloggers/columnists/traintravellers participated. The topic was train tourism.Various means of promoting train tourism andproblems facing this area were discussed.

At the end of this discussion, a book on the SteamLocomotives in Thailand was launched.

After a sumptuous lunch hosted by SRT, we were takenin vans to the Thonburi Depot where SRT homes 5steam locomotives. Two of these locomotives werecoupled back to back and we were informed that theselocomotives are used coupled like this on the train sothat the need for turning is avoided. These twolocomotives, Nos. 824 and 850, are both Pacific type

A view of the Thai Rail Museum. This furniture has been madefrom old wooden sleepers

The start of the main conference on 22 October 2015. In thepicture are Dr. Kyoichi Oda and Dr. Siripong Preutthipan

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4-6-2 wheel arrangement locos, imported from Japan,as were all the other steam locomotives that we saw.Both locos are oil-fired but gave the impression thatthey have been convertedto this means and were notinitially built that way.The other 3 locos were inthe shed undergoingrepairs. One, No. 953, a2-8-2 wheel arrangementMikado locomotive, wasbeing converted from woodfiring to oil firing.

From the depot, we weretaken to the SirirajBimuksthan museum. Themuseum is essentially amedical museum set up bythe Siriraj Hospital. It has a small section devoted tothe railways as well. This has been done as the landon which the museum is constructed belonged to therailways and was the site of the old Thonburi stationand railway yard. The area was destroyed during theSecond World War and a new station built at thepresent site a little distance away. The railways thenpermitted the museum to be constructed here with asmall section on the Railways. One of the features ofthe museum was a 3-D film on the old Thonburistation and the destruction that had been wreakedduring the war.

The second day of the conference was the formalsession conducted in the Meeting Room of the SRTHeadquarters. Dr. Siripong Preutthipan chaired thesession along with Mr. Kyoichi Oda. After welcomingremarks by the former, the latter conducted theproceedings.

The first item on the agenda was inducting a new fullmember, Thailand, represented by the SRT.Following this, Council members of SRT were re-elected. Mr. Rajesh Agarwal of the Indian Railwaysis one of the Vice Presidents. The other of the twoVice Presidents is from Taiwan. Mr. Kyoichi Oda isthe President. This was followed by a revision of theAPHTRO constitution, presentation and passing ofthe Annual Accounts and Budget. A resolutionadopting the Bangkok Charter was passed. Dr.Preutthipan was to present a paper on the Thai RailwayFoundation and Museum in the afternoon session butowing to his being preoccupied at that time, he made

his presentation in the morning itself.

This took us to lunch that was hosted by SRT. Afterlunch, the time was devotedto presentations by variousdelegates. The first was oneon Heritage and TouristTrains in Thailand by Ms.Kanrawee Thongpull of SRT.She had participated in theISRS conference in Februarythis year and talked on thesame subject. The nextpresentation was on ISRS byJ L Singh. During thispresentation, J L Singhcovered not only the activitiesof ISRS but gave an overviewof rail heritage on the Indian

Railways including a brief on the National RailMuseum.

This was followed by a presentation on the Enginesof Ecotourism in Southern Luzon by Mr. Alberto Nualof the Manila Railroad Club, Manila. An interestingpresentation on European Heritage Railways and theirpolitical representation by Mr. Heimo Echensperger,Vice President of FEDECRAIL, followed this. Mr.Echensperger gave us an idea of the kind of issuesfaced by heritage railways in Europe and the politicalstructure that has been set up to take care of them.One major difference between heritage railways inEurope and Asia is that the former is spearheaded byvolunteers. As of now, this does not appear to befeasible in the Asia-Pacific, except perhaps in Australiaand New Zealand. Government support is a virtualpre-requisite in our part of the world.

The last presentation was by Mr. Rajesh Agarwalwherein he made the announcement that the nextAPHTRO conference would by hosted by India in2016.

Later in the evening, we were invited to a formaldinner hosted by APHTRO.

The last day of the conference was devoted to anexcursion by a steam hauled train to the erstwhilecapital of Thailand, Ayudhaya. This was not a specialtrain for the APHTRO conference but a normal steamheritage train that runs on this day each year. Seatshad been booked for the APHTRO delegates in thelast coach that was coach No. 10. The two Pacific

Locomotive No. 824 at the Thonburi Depot

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locos, polished and clean, were at the head of the trainand passengers and tourists were permitted tophotograph the locos and the train. This day, October23rd, is selected for this run as it is a public holiday tomark the passing away of King Chulalongkorn, alsoknown as King Rama IV. The reign of KingChlulalongkorn was marked by several major reformsand significantly, the opening of the rail line betweenBangkok and Ayudhaya more than a hundred yearsback. SRT runs steam excursion trains at least fourtimes a year: on this day; on the birth anniversary ofthe present King, Rama IX; on the birth anniversaryof the present Queen; and on the anniversary of SRT.

I was very impressed by the condition of the steamlocomotives. Apart from been neat and clean, I couldsee no leakage of steam or water. With 10 coaches,they were able to reach speeds of 50-55 kmph andgave no trouble whatsoever during the run. The beatwas perfect with no missed beat or distortions.Unfortunately, they did not allow us to footplate sothat we could see the locomotive only from theoutside.

The train steamed out of Hua Lamphong station at08.06 hrs. and arrived at its destination at 11.15.The first part of the journey was through the suburbsof Bangkok but the later part was through the

countryside with extensive rice fields. At Ayudhayaitself, SRT had arranged visits to various tourist sites,of which there are many. So many and of suchimportance and significance that Ayudhaya has beenlisted as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. For thereturn journey, we drove by vans to Bongpa-In station,a little distance from Ayudhaya main station. Thetrain arrived at this station at 17.10 and left at 17.14.We arrived at Bangkok Hua Lamphong station at19.30. The return trip was also steam hauled.

Overall, a very satisfying experience of a Conferencewell planned and managed. SRT did an excellent jobon both counts. In addition, their hospitality was ofthe highest order. Among other areas, their timemanagement was very good and all events started andended on time. Having an organisation as APHTROis a good beginning by the Asia-Pacific region whenalmost all such organisations are Europe or NorthAmerica based. The result is that the standards andnorms that they set are either not applicable or oflittle use for countries of this region. The issues raisedin Europe will be quite different from those that arefaced in Asia. It will perhaps be in our interest ifIndia supports APHTRO to the maximum extentpossible so that it becomes a viable alternative to similarorganisations in the Western Hemisphere.

Passengers photographing the Steam train at Hua Lamphongstation

Waiting for the Steam excursion train at Bongpa-In station onthe 23rd

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