The Hindu : National : New locos for Darjeeling

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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National

New locos for Darjeeling

By Marcus Dam

KOLKATA, OCT. 13 . The Indian Railways' maiden bid to operate oil-fired steam locomotives on narrow-gauge tracks is facing some teething trouble, but the project is on course. The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) wants to introduce them for its toy train services in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal, but repeated trial runs revealed that the noise of the locomotive was not in tune with the "sounds'' of the original coal-fired steam engine. The distinctive sound was one of the factors that earned it heritage status from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, some four years ago.

An official of the Central Workshops, Golden Rock, Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu, entrusted with the task of converting two coal-fired engines into oil-fired ones, said that the assistance of the Tiruchi unit of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. had been sought to make certain modifications to correct the sound. The locomotives, which cost Rs. 3 crores each, should be ready by December 2004.

The new locomotives are expected to double the average speed of the toy trains to 30 km an hour, the NFR's Divisional Mechanical Engineer, B. Topno, said from New Jalpaiguri. They will each haul four coaches instead of the three that make the trip now.

The new locomotives will bring down the demand for coal. Shortage of coal stocks had last Saturday forced the NFR to stable all 12 steam engines and suspend the toy train services for three days.

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