The Hindu Business Line : S-E Rly plans heritage run of Garratt steam loco

The Garratt loco
The Garratt steam loco, manufactured by Beyer Peacock and Co of Manchester, England, derives its name from engineer Herbert William Garratt, who devised and developed it in association with the Manchester firm.

The Garratt steam locomotive of the Indian Railways, which served the BNR system from 1925 till 1966. The locomotive is now being revived and put on the heritage trail.

Kolkata Nov. 12

South Eastern Railway (SER) never misses an opportunity to hit the heritage trail - be it the magnificent Garden Reach premises where SER is headquartered on the south-western fringes of Kolkata by the side of river Hooghly or some of its legendary freight locos from the steam era.

SER enjoys the sobriquet of `Steel Enterprise Railway' because of its sizeable freight loading of both raw materials and finished products from steel plants.

Heritage run of one such old work horse of the 150-year old Indian Railway system - the Beyer Garratt giant steam locomotive - has been planned on November 17, 2006, from SER's Shalimar station to Mecheda in Midnapore. SER eventually plans to use the "iron horse" to haul a special heritage train between Howrah and Digha, the seaside resort.

According to SER top brass, the heritage train was a gift to the people of Kolkata, the cultural capital of the country.

The Garratt steam loco, manufactured by Beyer Peacock and Co of Manchester, England, derives its name from engineer Herbert William Garratt, who devised and developed it in association with the Manchester firm. Described as a veritable behemoth, dwarfing the much smaller locomotives of that era, it was said to be the heaviest and most powerful steam loco of its class ever used in the IR system.

Says Mr A.K. Behera, Chief Workshop Manager at SER's Kharagpur workshop: " The `beast', with two tenders at both ends and weighing a massive 225 tonnes, was pressed into the BNR service in 1929 for use in the heavy mineral and iron ore traffic, and could easily haul a 2400-tonne train unaided up a 1 in 100 incline."

Paradoxically, he added, the Garratts could run on lightly laid track, as their weight is spread over a long wheel base.

Some 200 parts were actually taken out from another Garratt near twin now stationed at the Rail Museum in Delhi, and some 300 parts had to be manufactured in-house, says Mr Behera.

The major disadvantage, however, is that its tractive weight reduces as the water is used from the tanks, which led to problems. One severe constraint with the Garratt loco was that if the train hauled by it gets stalled inside a tunnel, the crew may get trapped, as no escape route will be available backwards or front past the sizzling cylinders. A normal engine has a hot cylinder only at one end, providing an escape route through the other.

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