Changa Manga light railroad
| Changa Manga | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Irrigation ditches in clearing prepared for planting
| |||||||||||||||||
.jpg) Changa Manga
| |||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | Decauville: 4 miles Fowler: 33 miles |
||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | First 406 mm, later 610 mm |
||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
The field railway of Changa Manga ( English Changa Manga Forestry Railway, Urdu چھانگا مانگا) consisted successively of a 6.4 km long ox-drawn French Decauville railway with a gauge of 406 mm and a steam-powered British Fowler field railway up to 53 km long with a track width of 610 mm. She led 80 km southwest of Lahore in present-day Pakistan by one of the largest in earlier times Firewood - plantations in the world and is still in operation today.
Firewood plantation
The British-Indian Changa Manga Plantation was founded in 1866 by Dr. Stewart, Punjab's forest manager , to meet the growing need for firewood, especially Indian rosewood ( Dalbergia sissoo ) and Kikar acacia ( Vachellia nilotica ). On the plantation, named after two Dacoit bandit ( s ) , which today still covers 4856 hectares, European immigrants have been growing firewood since 1866 to run the steam locomotives of the North Western State Railway in British India .
Until 1871 only a small area was planted. At this time, Berthold Ribbentrop developed a concept for management and extensive use, which led to an area of around 8,000 hectares being successfully planted in the course of the following years. Through the use of the irrigation system developed by Charles Frederick Amery with ditches and ramparts, as well as the effective timber transport through the light rail, the plantation developed with forestry and financial success ("sylvicultural and financial success").
The plantation is located on a plateau on the Bari-Doab Canal, from which it is irrigated. In 1881–1882 the first harvest of eleven-year-old trees began. The planted areas should be cleared every 15 years, so that around 550 hectares could be cleared each year, with a certain amount of wood being planned. With suitable irrigation, Indian rosewood grew remarkably fast and showed an average increase in diameter of 14-17 mm per year, much more than in European forests, with up to 4.25 cubic meters of firewood per hectare.
Challenges and possible solutions
In Changa Manga it was difficult to find a sufficient number of hauliers to transport the wood in ox carts in the required time. The local zamindars were only available when they were not busy harvesting their own land. However, this did not meet the requirements of firewood, and consequently high wages had to be paid to get a sufficient number of carts at suitable times of the year.
By 1870 the irrigated area of the plantation had grown to 9699 hectares. The Karachi – Peshawar railway , to which the firewood was to be delivered, ran along the edge of the plantation, with the greatest distance from any part of the planted area being less than 6.4 km as the crow flies. The entire plantation could therefore be managed with a temporarily laid light rail of this length.
The conditions for operating a light railroad in Changa Manga were exceptionally favorable because the forest was located in a contiguous, almost level piece of land a short distance from the product transfer point. The only obstacles were the canal that had to be bridged and the small irrigation ditches that could be temporarily bridged.
Decauville Railway (gauge 406 mm)
In the years 1883–1884, a contractor bought the harvest rights for trees on around 900 hectares of the plantation. He imported a Decauville light railway with portable rails for 7,648 rupees (including freight from England) to carry the firewood away. It was one of the world's first Decauville railways. From May 1884 he laid flying track with a track width of 406 mm (16 inches). In 1902 he owned track bays with a total length of 6.4 km and 39 freight carts that were pulled by 13 ox two-man teams .
The forestry department acquired the light railroad in May 1884 from the contractor after he had finished his work. The light railway was then expanded by purchasing another 20 lorries and 2.4 km of track. In the two years from May 1884 to May 1886, the light railway transported a total of 31,771 cubic meters of firewood.
Fowler light railway (track width 610 mm)
In the annual report from 1915–1916 it is described that the procurement of a new field railway with 610 mm gauge was necessary because the old 16-inch field railway was worn out. She could not handle the transportation of the trees growing in Changa Manga. It was suggested that steam-powered transport should replace the oxen on the new line as there would be a shortage of firewood in the Lahore and Amritsar area if cattle diseases broke out.
Construction of the new field railway began in 1919. From 1920/21 onwards, two steam locomotives were already in use on the 4.8 km long route. The field railway network grew to a length of 21 km by March 1923. By 1923/24, the length of the field railway network increased to 34 km of permanently laid track and 6.4 km of flying track. In 1924/25 there were a total of 51 km of track. In 1931/32 the track network finally consisted of 16 km of permanently laid track and 37 km of flying track.
The light railroad used wood-fired steam locomotives built by John Fowler & Co. , Leeds. The flying sparks caused by burning wood caught fire, whereupon the locomotives were converted to be fired with coal. The demand for firewood from Changa Manga has remained stable over the years as the supply base in the Indian timber market grew.
A 6 km long section of the railway is still in operation today and is used to transport wood or occasionally for excursions.
Locomotives
Of the three steam locomotives still in service, two were built by John Fowler & Co. of Leeds , England and one by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. of Kilmarnock , Scotland :
| No. | Construction year | design type | Manufacturer | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N ° 17208 | 1927 | C n2t | John Fowler & Co. | Operational |
| N ° 20496 | 1936 | C n2t | John Fowler & Co | Operational |
| N ° 1125 | 1927 | B n2t | Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. | Issued as a memorial |
| N ° 1763 | 1927 | B n2t | Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. | Operational |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sameer: The Changa Manga . Pakistan insider. January 6, 2015. Accessed August 15, 2015.
- ↑ Xarvi Jalil: Forest land transfers, deforestation spiral out of control . Pakistan Today. December 14, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- ^ Berthold Ribbentrop: Ajay Rawat (ed.): Forestry in British India . Indus Publishing, 1898, ISBN 8185182248 . P. 157.
- ↑ a b c WE d.'A .: Portable Forest Tramways; A Decauville's Tramway at Changa Manga. In: The Indian Forester, Volume 12, 1886, pp. 349-357.
- ^ Government of Punjab: Punjab District Gazetteers . Superintendent Government Printing, Muzaffarnagar District, India 1916.
- ↑ a b Changa Manga Forest Tramway.
- ^ Simon Darvill: Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia. . The Industrial Railway Society, 2013. ISBN 978-1-901556-82-7 . P. 26 ff.
- ^ Owais Mughal: Changa Manga Forest Railway . All Things Pakistan. October 21, 2007. Retrieved August 16, 2015 and May 2, 2019 ..
- ^ Bingley Hall: Fowler N ° 21496/1936.
Coordinates: 31 ° 4 '53.7 " N , 73 ° 57' 52.8" E