After a series of tests and trials, a trial run of a Diesel Locomotive was successfully conducted on Nilgiri Mountain Railway on Saturday (October 31) between Mettupalayam and Hillgrove.
A release from the Salem Division said that the train for the trial run had five coaches pushed by YDM4 Diesel Locomotive, backed by a steam locomotive and another coach, since it was a trial run. The train moved over the rack section up to 8.2 km. The haulage and braking efficiency of the diesel locomotive were tested along with the steam loco in the critical section where the gradient is 1 in 12.5.
The maximum speed of the train in the rack section will remain at 13 km ph for the diesel locomotive as in the case of the steam. The diesel locomotive with 5 coaches was operated up to Hillgrove Station, a distance of 10 km, and all the parameters like hauling capacity and braking efficiency were satisfactory. The train which left Mettupalayam at 08.35 hours went up to Hillgrove Station and then came back to Kallar Station at 13.25 hrs. The outcome of the trial is found to be encouraging, the release added.
The trial run was conducted in the presence of V.Carmelus, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Chennai; P.N.Ram, Divisional Railway Manager, Salem Division; Parmanand Singh, Chief Motive Power Engineer, Diesel, Chennai; R.Kuppan, Chief Workshop Engineer; C.C.Joy, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Erode; G.Chandraseharan, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Salem; and Narayanan, Divisional Engineer, Salem.
During the trial run, the expertise and experience of Dasarathy, Retired Member Mechanical, from Railway Board, was taken.
The Advantages in operating trains with diesel locomotives on Nilgiri Mountain Railway will be that more number of coaches can be operated in a train between Mettupalayam and Coonoor than in steam operated trains, thereby catering to more tourists and passengers. Also, reliability of the train services can be improved, thereby avoiding delays in operation.
Keywords: Nilgiris Mountain Railway
The then GM of Southern Railway, Vishwanath, said on 5th Feb.1986 that RDSO, Lucknow, was designing a locomotive suitable for this stretch, which climbed from a few hundred feet above mean sea level at Mettupalaiyam to nearly 7500 ft. at Ooty. He said that the locos would have to be of a special type, with attachments called the rack and pinion system, which are also fitted into the rails so that the trains could negotiate the steep climb. This sort of arrangement was provided only on one mountain railway in the country - Nilgiri Railway.
To my query to RDSO, a reply was received in April 1987 that "Four of the nine steam engines operating on the Mettupalayam - Udhagamandalam section were imported in the early nineteen fifties. So, there is no likelihood of introducing diesels on this section in the immediate future." As you can see there was no mention of the special diesel locos for NMR reported to be designed by them as said by the GM-SR!
Well, one YDM-4s was introduced on this line in March 1993, having been rendered surplus by gauge conversion, to operate only between Coonoor-Ooty, on the non-rack easy gradient route. And this section is still run as such. It is only now that a trial was done on Oct.31st between Kallar and Hillgrove on the steep route below Coonoor to Mettupalayam, but it is not known whether it is with a diesel loco fitted with the rack and pinion gear, or not.
The news report also did not clarify this point. However, as track strengthening is in progress on the route after decades of neglect, one hopes for a brighter future to the unique engineering marvel of the 1890s, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, which is an asset to the country.
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