Rail trail

Due to a change in the policy of the British Government,the Bengal Nagpur Railway,popularly known as the B.N.R,took over the northern section of East Coast Railway from Vizianagaram to Cuttack,including the Branch Line of Puri,by 23-01-1902. Accordingly,the working of the PLR was taken over by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in 1902. In the first few years,the PLR had incurred losses but after 1910,it started making marginal profits and after 1924-25,the profits increased. This motivated the Raja to extend the line to Gunupur in two phases in 1929 and 1931. There were now a total of ten stations between Naupada and Gunupur. Tekkali,Paddasan,Temburu,Ganguvada,Patapatnam,Paralakhemedi,Kashinagar,Lihuri,Bansidhara and Palasingi.

The management of BNR was taken over by the Government of India in October 1944. On 14-04-1952,at the time of the re-grouping of the Indian Railways it became part of the Eastern Railway. The merger of B.N.R. into Eastern Railway,however,did not last long and on 01-08-1955 it was merged with newly constituted South Eastern Railway. During the SER centenary celebrations in 1987,set of four postage stamps were released. One of the stamps featured the PL 691 locomotive.

The standard type of locomotive on PLR was the 20 ton 0-6-4 tank locomotive with small (27 inch diameter) coupled wheels and an axle load of only 4.75 tons. The Paralakhemedi engines were known as ‘PL’ class. The first locomotives to work on these lines were 0-6-4T,built by Brush Electrical Engineering Company,Loughborough (All India no-698). It was delivered by Hunslet engineering Co. in 1931. Later,with diesel taking over Mayurbhanj Light Railways,four 0-6-0 T (All India No-691,692,693,694) Kerr Stuart-built locos were transferred to PLR. In 1987 four ‘ML’ and four ‘PL’ locomotives were homed at Naupada shed. Diesel took over from steam on April 23,1992. Bowing down to public demand,surveys were undertaken for broad gauge conversion in 1950 and again in 1964 and 1967.The foundation-stone was finally laid for the Naupada-Gunupur gauge conversion work at Naupada on September 27,2002. With effect from April 1,2003,PLR became a part of the newly formed East Coast Railway. The line was finally closed for gauge conversion on June 9,2004.

— VIKAS SINGH,RAIL ENTHUSIAST
Courtesy National Rail Museum