|
Another unique train
service that operated on animal power was the Patiala State Mamorial
Trainway. This monorail was in existence in the erstwhile State of
Patiala in the early 20th century. The state was then
ruled by the famous Maharaja of Patiala, Sir Bhupinder Singh (of the
Patiala peg fame!). He was considered to be a fine ruler and several
books describe him as character larger than life. The trainway
developed and had a successful stint under his aegis. Records show it
to have run on two main lines namely from Sirhind to Morinda and from
Patiala to Sunam.
What makes this system
unique is the fact that, apart from being run on mule haulage, it was
a monorail. The monorail, as the name suggests is a single rail. The
concept was successfully derived from the Ewing system by Colonel
C.W.Bowles. the traimway is built and fun on the following principle.
About 90-95% of the weight of the vehicle is taken by an additional
wheel. This additional wheel on an external frame runs alongside on
the road, at the side of track. Therefore one wheel of the train ran
on a rail while the other on the road alongside. The monorail can be
called as one ideally in between road and rail transport. It could be
said to be superior to road transport. It could be said to be
superior to road transport by bullock carts or horse drawn carriages
but definitely inferior to the trains run on steam power. Colonel
Bowles had applied this system earlier at Kharagpur.
The same principle was
used in Patiala to run a successful trainway system. The train was
drawn by mules. The decision to use mules was of a practical
consideration. It was to gainfully employ the Government mules
maintained by the State for use in time of war. This was a way of
putting them to use in peace time. The train seems to have been used
to carry both goods and passengers. Open carts or attachments,
resembling the platform for loading containers on to seem to have
been used for carting bags of goods. The coolies accompanying the
goods probably sat atop it. There seems to be evidence for running
this line on steam but the outcome is not known clearly. The reason
for the suspension of this trainway was perhaps due to the rapid
development of trains run on steam.
| 