RailEnquiry

The third oil-fired steam locomotive meant for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) was flagged off at the Golden Rock Railway Workshop here on Friday.

Comprising over 3,400 components, the steam loco belonging to the ‘X’ class has been manufactured at the workshop at a cost of Rs. 3.7 crore.

The workshop undertook manufacturing of 600 components in-house including oil-fired boilers to improve the reliability of the locomotive.

Similar to the second loco dispatched in March last year, the third loco has also been fitted with all welded boiler.

The Railway Board had entrusted the workshop with the task of manufacturing four oil-fired steam locos for the NMR, which has been recognised by the UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

The fourth loco is under production.

The need for manufacturing of new steam locomotives was felt as the old ‘X’ class engines procured from Switzerland and operating in the NMR section started developing problems leading to frequent service failures.

Initial efforts to get these locomotives imported failed due to limited number of sources and prohibitive costs.

The General Manager, Southern Railway, Rakesh Misra flagged off the third loco at a function held at the workshop premises.

The Divisional Railway Manager Manjula Rangarajan, Chief Workshop Manager P. Mahesh and senior railway officials participated.