Patiala State Monorail Trainways
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Patiala State Monorail Trainways (PSMT) was a unique rail-guided, partially road-borne railway system running in
Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubarak ...
from 1907 to 1927. PSMT was the second monorail system in India, after the
Kundala Valley Railway Kundala Valley Railway was the first monorail system in India, later converted to a narrow-gauge railway, that operated in Kundala Valley, Munnar of Idukki district in Kerala, India. The railway line had 35 km length. History Monorail (190 ...
, near
Munnar Munnar () is a town and hill station in the Idukki district of the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. Munnar is situated at around above mean sea level, in the Western Ghats mountain range. Munnar is also called the "Kashmir of South Indi ...
in
Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, and the only operational locomotive-hauled railway system built using the
Ewing System The Ewing System is a balancing monorail system developed in the late 19th century by British inventor W. J. Ewing. It is not to be confused with the much later system patented by Robert W. Ewing. In the Ewing System the main wheels of the trai ...
in the world. The Kundala Valley Railway pre-dated this, also using the Ewing system between 1902 and 1908, although this only used bullocks for haulage. Following the conversion of the Kundala Valley Railway from a monorail to a narrow gauge railway in 1908, PSMT was the only monorail system in India until its closure in 1927. These were the only instances of a monorail train system in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, until the
Mumbai Monorail MMRDA Mumbai Monorail is an monorail system in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, built as part of a major expansion of public transport in Mumbai, public transport in the city. The project was implemented and is currently operated by the ...
was opened on 2 February 2014. A locomotive and a coach of PSMT have been restored, are in running condition and are exhibited in the Indian National Rail Museum,
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
.


History of PSMT

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...
Sir
Bhupinder Singh of Patiala Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh, (12 October 1891 – 23 March 1938) was an Indian royal and cricket player. He was the ruling Maharaja of Patiala, Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala State, Patiala in British India from 1900 to 1938. Bio ...
got this unique railway system constructed to facilitate movement of people and goods in his state. The chief engineer of this project was Colonel C. W. Bowles. Colonel Bowles has earlier successfully used monorail based on
Ewing System The Ewing System is a balancing monorail system developed in the late 19th century by British inventor W. J. Ewing. It is not to be confused with the much later system patented by Robert W. Ewing. In the Ewing System the main wheels of the trai ...
(designed by William Thorold) during his stint as engineer during laying of tracks for
Bengal Nagpur Railway The Bengal Nagpur Railway was one of the companies which pioneered development of the railways in eastern and central India. It was succeeded first by Eastern Railway and subsequently by South Eastern Railway. History The opening of the ...
for transportation of construction materials. Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh made him chief Engineer for the PSMT project. One of the objects of PSMT was to make use of the 560
mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...
s being maintained by Patiala State.An Indian "Might-Have-Been", by H. R. Ambler, available at http://www.irfca.org/members/ddickens/PSMTArticle.html Apart from mules, bullocks were also used to haul the monorail before introduction of steam locomotives on the route of PSMT. A 1908 edition of ''Imperial Gazetteer of India'' described the PSMT as "a mono-rail tramway, opened in February, 1907,
hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
connects Basi with the railway at Sirhind". An ordnance map of 1913 also shows a tramway running along the west side of the road, but does not mention the PSMT by name. Apart from the above, PSMT has not been mentioned in any official documents of that period in India.


Advantage of using Ewing System

The railways based on the Ewing System are basically monorails using a balancing wheel for balancing the train. The main load (almost 95%) is borne by the single rail while the rest is borne by the balancing wheel which runs on the ground. Further, in normal train systems, the rails have to be at almost exact level of other rail, failing which the train may go off the tracks. By using Ewing system, this problem is solved as the balancing wheel does not need exact level to maintain the balance of monorail. In addition the cost of laying tracks also goes down considerably since only one rail is used. Another benefit of using Ewing System was that the balancing wheel could run on existing tarred roads as well as the
macadam road Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
s thus further reducing cost to lay down tracks. Using one rail also means that the turning circle is far less than the standard trains. PSMT had to pass through some very congested areas. Since the space need to lay the tracks was less and balancing wheel could run on existing roads, PSMT succeeded in running through the congested urban areas of Patiala. The balancing wheel of PSMT ran on the roads and did not interfere with normal traffic. PSMT could have been forerunner of mass transit system in urban areas in India. Its model still holds good for introducing mass transit system in congested urban areas where laying of train or tram tracks is not possible due to space constraint.


Routes of PSMT

The total distance covered by PSMT was . PSMT was run on two unconnected lines. One ran from
Sirhind Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab. Demographics In the 2011 census Sirhind-Fatehgarh had a population of 60852. Males constituted 54% of the population and female ...
to
Morinda ''Morinda'' is a genus of flowering plants in the madder family, Rubiaceae. The generic name is derived from the Latin words ''morus'' "mulberry", from the appearance of the fruits, and ''indica'', meaning "of India". Description Distributed i ...
. It was proposed to extend this line to
Ropar Rupnagar (; formerly known as Ropar is a city and a municipal council in Rupnagar district in the Indian state of Punjab. Rupnagar is a newly created fifth Divisional Headquarters of Punjab comprising Rupnagar, Mohali, and its adjoining distr ...
but since Ropar was connected by a railway line, this idea was abandoned. The other line ran from
Patiala Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubarak ...
to
Sunam Sunam Udham Singh Wala is a town and a tehsil, near city of Sangrur in Sangrur district in the Indian state of Punjab. The city of Sunam Udham Singh Wala, which falls in Sunam Udham Singh Wala tehsil, was previously known only as Sunam. The ...
. The lines were constructed by the firm of Marsland and Price. Today no trace of the tracks or any infrastructure of PSMT remains. However, information about the route was found in a letter by Colonel Bowles to Mr. Ambler. Colonel Bowles described the route of Patiala-Sunam line as starting from goods yard of
North Western Railway The North Western Railway (abbreviated NWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Jaipur,Rajasthan with 59,075+ employees, 658+ stations and a route length of more than 5761 km across at least some parts of four ...
(NWR) at Patiala. The PSMT then crossed the main railway line at a road level crossing nearby. It then went through walled city towards City Mandi and then took a turn north towards cantonment. Then it traveled along the main road to Bhawanigarh and then
Sunam Sunam Udham Singh Wala is a town and a tehsil, near city of Sangrur in Sangrur district in the Indian state of Punjab. The city of Sunam Udham Singh Wala, which falls in Sunam Udham Singh Wala tehsil, was previously known only as Sunam. The ...
. The steam locomotive was probably used only on Patiala Sunam Line. In his letter to H. R. Ambler, Col. Bowles wrote that the locomotives were heavy for 18 lb/yd rail (9 kg/m), thus they were not used on Sirhind – Morinda line. Col. Bowles categorically stated that the steam locomotive did run between Patiala Station and City Mandi i.e. a distance of about a mile. Heavier rails (about 60 pounds per yard or 30 kg/m) of almost same length was found stored in PSMT Yard along with other dismantled equipments. Thus in all probabilities, the steam locomotive was used in hauling carriage only between Patiala Station and City Mandi.


Freight and passenger

The route of the PSMT passed through one of the major agricultural areas of Punjab; the area around Patiala was known as the “wheat basket”. The old photographs of the PSMT show it carrying sacks of grain as well as people. Thus, the PSMT was used for both purposes.


Steam locomotives

PSMT initially used mules to pull the train. Later four
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s were acquired for pulling the coaches. It is not known whether the locomotives were used on both lines or only on Patiala Sunam line. These four locomotives were of
0-3-0 0-3-0 is a type of wheel arrangement for a monorail steam locomotive. History This most unusual wheel arrangement was only used for specialised monorails. Listowel and Ballybunion Railway The Lartigue Monorail locomotives used on the Listowel ...
configuration and was built by
Orenstein & Koppel Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major Germany, German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876 in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel. ...
(O&K) of
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in 1907 at cost of £500 to £600 each. Donald W. Dickens, in his article on the PSMT, described the locomotives as “These were an adaptation of the normal O&K
0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...
's but had a double flanged driver in the centre of each axle rather than drivers at each end. The right-hand water tank was larger so that some of the weight shifted onto the diameter balance wheel which was attached beyond the enlarged water tank. The outside cylinders were 5½" × 14".The designer at O&K took advantage of the extra cab space behind the enlarged right-hand water tank and put the fire door on the right side of the fire box rather than at the back as is usually done. These locos were confined to the Patiala – Sunam line.” The wheel arrangement of the locomotives were 0-3-0. The middle flange less wheel was of diameter. Other two wheels were double flanged having groove depth of . The locomotive had wheelbase of .


Rolling stock

* Wagons were normally 8 feet long by 6 feet wide (2.4 by 1.8 m), with two diameter rail wheels. The coaches were supported by a road wheel of 98 cm diameter, set at from the rail. * The passenger coaches on the Sirhind Line were open-sided wagons with knifeboard seating. * In 1908 there was a total of 75 goods wagons and 15 passenger coaches. * According to Col. Bowles, there were a few long goods wagons, having two road wheels. Some of these wagons were also converted for use as passenger coaches by having transverse benches fitted in them.


Details about PSMT track

The track of PSMT was constructed by firm named Marsland and Price, who were based in
Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. The track was 18 pound per yard (9 kg/m) rail clipped to iron sleepers 10 in by 8 in by ½ in (250×200×13 mm). On the Patiala – Sunam line, wooden sleepers 15 by 3 by 4 inches (380×75×100 mm) were initially used but were later replaced with iron sleepers due to
termite Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
infestation.


Passengers, fares and cargo

The only account of operational details of PSMT is found in papers of Colonel Bowles. According to a memorandum dated 2 October 1908, found amongst Colonel Bowles papers, PSMT carried 20,000 passengers in a month on Sirhand – Morinda line. There are no details of the quantity of goods carried. The fare is stated to be 1½
annas Annas (also Ananus or Ananias;Goodman, Martin, "Rome & Jerusalem", Penguin Books, p.12 (2007) , ; grc-x-koine, Ἅννας, ; 23/22 BC – death date unknown, probably around AD 40) was appointed by the Roman legate Quirinius as the first High ...
for the entire route. The rate for carrying goods is mentioned to be 1 anna per maund (80 lb). There is no account available for fares or number of passenger or quantity of goods carried on Patiala – Sunam line.


End of PSMT

Around 1912, with the advent of
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s and improved roads, PSMT began losing favour with people. Ultimately PSMT was closed on 1 October 1927. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh expired in 1938 and Col. Bowles, who was in England, on leave, did not have the heart to return. Thus, PSMT and all its records, photographs, etc., were left uncared for, in Patiala. Further, at that period, since there was no interest in Patiala for the PSMT, the documents, photographs etc. related to PSMT was not preserved and thus what could have been valuable source of information on this unique monorail was lost forever.


Technical experiments in PSMT

Colonel Bowles also experimented with a petrol driven locomotive on Sirhind section.Railways of the Raj; Author Mike Satow; Page 30 Mr. Donald W. Dicken's article carries a picture captioned "Motor Engine Trial On Patiala State Monorailway". This picture shows four loaded vehicles being pulled by an "Ordinary Motor Car Engine". This experiment was supposedly carried out in 1930. This experiment was exception to animal power or steam power used to pull PSMT. This would be first locally built internal combustion engine locomotive in
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
.


Discovery of PSMT

PSMT was forgotten even in Patiala, until its remains were discovered in a Public Work Department (PWD) shed by Mike Satow in 1962. PSMT had not been a much publicised railway system. It had been briefly been mentioned in an article by H. A. Robinson in 1936. Thereafter John Day and Brian Wilson mentioned PSMT in detail in their book ''Unusual railways'' in 1957. Day got in touch with Colonel Bowles, who provided him some information and photographs of PSMT. Based on these information, Day wrote another article that appeared in ''Railway World'' magazine in 1962.Satow took it upon himself to find the remains of PSMT and discovered the same in a PWD shed in Patiala in 1962. This article was read by H R Ambler, who did further research and wrote an article – "An Indian “Might-Have-Been”", which was published in the February 1969 issue of ''The Railway Magazine''. Ultimately, due to the effort of Satow and others, One PSMT locomotive (Number PSMT – 4) accessed on 15 November 2008 was restored along with Chief Engineer's private inspection car (this coach was rebuilt on original frame as a normal passenger coach). Both of these are on display at the Indian National Railway Museum,
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
. A further Locomotive is also preserved on a plinth at the Amritsar Workshops of the NR. No information is available about the rest of the locomotives or coaches.


PSMT at National Rail Museum

After being restored, PSMT has become one of the star attractions of PSMT at National Rail Museum. It is regularly steamed up and runs on Sundays. It is open for public rides on Sundays as well as by special booking in advance.


Gallery

Delhi Railway Museum Monorail 05-02-17 M22.jpeg, Patiala State Monorail PSMT Engine.jpg, Locomotive of PSMT PSMT Coach.jpg, Coach of PSMT Monorail steam train.jpg, PSMT in shed


See also

*
Monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...
*
National Rail Museum, New Delhi The National Rail Museum in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, displays exhibits on the history of rail transport in India. The museum was inaugurated on 1 February 1977. The museum spans over an area of over 11 acres and the indoor gallery compris ...


References


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patiala State Monorail Trainways Monorails in India Closed railway lines in India Defunct railway companies of India Transport in Punjab, India Transport in Patiala 1907 establishments in British India Railway companies established in 1907 1927 disestablishments in India Indian companies established in 1907