This service will begin from November this year till April next year, senior Railways officials said here, early this week. They said, they were keen on restoring this only coal engine on the main line for tourists, which had been abandoned due to technical defects in this steam engine.
Weighing over 103 tons and reaching a maximum speed of 100 kms per hour, this regal heritage steam engine, now called “Akbar”, was made by a Canadian Locomotive Company nearly 80 years ago. The Railways had brought it into service in the early 1960s, and after it had served the nation for decades, it lay abandoned in a shed in Sharanpur for another 20 years until it was rediscovered for its’ use in promoting tourism. So “Akbar” and some other heritage steam engines were refurbished and put back on rails to serve the tourists on popular demand.
Railways were, however, compelled to withdraw this popular service as many of these heritage loco engines developed serious technical snags leading to minor accidents. In fact, in one case two persons were reported killed due to leakage of steam from faulty tubes in 2006. In 2010 and 2011, Railways tried to revive this steam engine but tourists complained that even after they paid hefty sums to enjoy the coal engine ride, they were often transferred and asked to ride on Diesel engines, due to technical glitches in steam engines.
Nevertheless, under pressure from tourism ministry the railways had to get these locomotives repaired at Rewari Steam Locoshed to recreate the romance of steam engines. The chief works manager of Amritsar Rail Workshop, Samrendra Kumar said: “We don’t have the original drawings of these heritage steam engines. So we are making use of our sixth sense, ie making intelligent guess to reconstruct the original design. We are ourselves keen in restoring to life such heritage and preserving them.” He said, he was confident that his team would succeed in this project also as they had succeeded in many others. Once back on rails it will be the only steam engine which will run on the main broad gauge lines. Most of the heritage engines are repaired here.
There are several other heritage preservation work undertaken by the Amritsar Rail Workshop. Under its repair and maintenance is also a Monorail Tramway of 1907 which was introduced by Maharaja of Patiala in his State. The Patiala State Monorail Tramway (PSMT), was a unique rail guided, partially road-borne railways system running in Patiala in the State of Punjab from 1907 to 1927. PSMT was the only operational locomotive-hauled railway system. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala got this unique railway system constructed to facilitate movement of people and goods in his state. One of the objects of PSMT was to make use of the 560 mules being maintained by Patiala State. Apart from mules, bullocks were also used to haul the monorail before introduction of steam engine on route of PSMT.
The PSMT was made by Orenstein and Koppel Company of Berlin (Germany) in 1907. It ran on a unique gauge and covered a distance of 80 kms on two unconnected line from Sirhind to Morinda. There was a proposal to extend it to Ropar which was abandoned. It is presently used by the National Railway Museum. This monorail engine is being repaired and serviced by the Amritsar Workshop and it will be handed over to the Rail Museum to preserve this unique heritage.