Year on,Parel workshop restores another steam engine

Since last year,the 94-year-old engine was being resurrected under the supervision of assistant works manager H V Kulkarni who retired recently. “The repair and restoration work of this engine was really challenging; it was done at a cost of Rs 20 lakh and it took 10 months to complete the work. The engine parts were not available; also,skilled workers for this job are not easily available. As many as 20 specialised workers were called in for its repair,” Sharma said.

B-794 was in operation on the Neral-Matheran section till 2005,when services were suspended for two years owing to the deluge. It had done 12 trips from 2007 to 2009 and was due for periodical overhauling. The efforts to restore the steam engines followed a decision to conserv heritage and the Railway Board’s order not to sell them. The Parel workshop had last year restored a steam engine — 7-38,one of the four purchased from Germany for trips on the Neral-Matheran mini railway 100 years ago.

The B-794 engine,manufactured in 1917 at Baldwin Loco Works,UK,has a capacity to process 1,818 litres of water. Eight coaches have been manufactured for this engine. It was operational on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways and it was re-commissioned at the Parel workshop in 2001,but it was not put into service until May 2002. It had a heritage run on May 7,2002,on the occasion of the 100th year of the mini railway.