Barsi Light Railway

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Barsi Light Railway
Leeds Forge Co passenger car (1897)
Leeds Forge Co passenger car (1897)
Route length: 325 km
Gauge : 762 mm ( narrow gauge )
Leeds Forge Co flat car (1897)
Standardized wagon frame from Leeds Forge Co (1897)
Standardized closed freight car Leeds Forge Co (1897)

The Barsi Light Railway ( BLR ) was a 202 km long, narrow gauge railway with a 762 mm (2 ft 6 in ) gauge from Miraj to Latur in Maharashtra , India . It was designed by the British engineer Everard Calthrop , and it revolutionized the construction of narrow-gauge railways in India and other colonies.

history

Everard Calthrop worked as a locomotive inspector for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) and requested his leave in 1886 to investigate proposals for various branch lines. He focused on two routes of particular importance: an 8-kilometer (5-mile) branch line (tramway) from the Hindu meditation center in Nasik with the standard-gauge main route and a 34-kilometer (21-mile) junction to the town of Barsi . The Great Indian Peninsula Railway approved both projects, so Calthrop began surveying the cheapest route. In 1887 he registered the Indian Railways Feeder Lines Company in London to promote feeder lines and began negotiations with the Indian government over the construction of the Barsi Light Railway. The GIPR then suggested that he should either resume his duties as a locomotive inspector or quit his position in order to support the construction of branch lines with the support of the FIPR. Because of health problems he quit his job at GIPR in 1889. As a consultant, he then oversaw the construction of a narrow-gauge horse-drawn tram with a gauge of 762 mm in Nasik based on his previous measurements.

Negotiations started in 1895 were finally successful in 1887, so Calthrop set up a new company to build the Barsi Light Railway, for which he worked as a consulting engineer. Calthrop assumed that the axle load of all axles of all rail vehicles, including the locomotives, should be the same in order to be able to load the freight cars optimally. He standardized a load of 5 tons per axle, which was light enough to build the tracks with inexpensive narrow-gauge railroad tracks weighing 30 pounds per yard (14.9 kg / m). In addition, he argued that the 762mm gauge was the best compromise between capital cost in construction and cargo capacity during operation.

Five 0-8-4T steam locomotives with evenly distributed axle loads were built by Kitson and Company based on Calthorp's specification . The freight wagons were built on standardized 25 × 7 feet (7.62 × 2.13 m) steel frames, which reduced their empty weight and optimized the permissible load weight. Calthrop recognized the importance of the railroad for warfare and designed his rail vehicles so that they were suitable for the transport of troops and supplies. The wagons ran on Fox bogies made of deep-drawn steel, and were sprung with Timmi double spiral springs. The line was built with the then new idea of ​​superelevation, whereby the track is inclined a few degrees inwards so that it is aligned parallel to the wheel treads. This concept is now used universally in railway construction. Before the railcars were shipped to India, Calthorp and the Leeds Forge Company carried out investigations on a specially built test track in Newlay near Leeds . The line was cleared for inspection by railway workers and journalists, and some reports about it appeared in the specialist press.

The BLR was finally opened in 1897 and lengthened several times until it reached a total length of 325 kilometers (202 miles) in 1927. It revolutionized the construction of narrow-gauge railways on the Indian subcontinent and was unusually successful, making Calthorp one of the leading experts in this field. Calthrop remained a consulting engineer until his retirement, which he started in poor health and died two years later. The BLR continued to operate as a private railway until it was taken over by Indian Railways in 1954 .

Aftermath

Internationally, other narrow-gauge railways have taken on and copied Calthorp's ideas, such as narrow-gauge railways in Victoria , Australia, which switched their total of 307 kilometers (190.7 miles) rail network from 610 mm gauge to 762 mm gauge in order to use the railway vehicles available for that gauge to be able to.

Re-gauging to broad gauge

The section from Kurduwadi to Miraj was changed to broad gauge in 2002 . The section from Latur to Osmanabad was re- gauged on a new route through Osmanabad in September 2007. The re-gauging of the section from Osmanabad to Kurduwadi was completed in October 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Gratton, Robert, 2005, The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway , RCL Publications.
  2. ↑ a b Calthrop, ER, 1997, Light Railway Construction , Plateway Press.
  3. ^ Anon: Engineering January 12, 1897.
  4. ^ Lewis, Nick: The Leek and Manifold Light Railway . In: Narrow Gauge Pleasure . Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  5. ↑ anon ER Calthrop & the Newlay Exhibition Narrow Gauge Railway Modeling & Industrial Review No. 69 Jan 2007
  6. ↑ Hughes, Hugh 1994 Indian Locomotives Pt. 3, narrow gauge 1863-1940 . Continental Railway Circle.
  7. ^ Bhandari, RR: Steam in History . In: The IRFCA Server . Indian Railways Fan Club. Archived from the original on June 6, 2008. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
  8. ↑ Turner, Keith 1980, The Leak and Manifold Light Railway , Newton Abbot, David & Charles.
  9. ^ Bhandari, RR: Steam in History . In: The IRFCA Server . Indian Railways Fan Club. Archived from the original on June 6, 2008. Retrieved August 11, 2015.

Coordinates: 16 ° 49 ′ 48 ″  N , 74 ° 37 ′ 48 ″  E