Sindhuri Aparna: The Patiala State Monorail Tramway
The Patiala State
Monorail Tramway (PSMT) - one
of the most iconic artefacts at the National Rail Museum - is the
only remaining steam-run monorail in India. Not only does the PSMT have an
interesting history, it is still in use and is ‘steamed-up’ on a weekly
basis.
In the poem ‘Gioconda
and Si-Ya-U’, Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet wrote, ‘To visit a museum is fine/ to
be a museum piece is terrible’. While it is true
that most objects in museums have been sentenced to a life within the confines
of four walls to tell tales of a bygone era, there are some pieces of history
that continue to be a part of our lives. One such object is the Patiala State
Monorail Tramway - an ‘artefact’ at the National Rail Museum, New Delhi. It is a
unique monorail locomotive that is in use even today. Monorails have existed
in India since the colonial era. The PSMT was the second monorail system in
India after the Kundala Valley Railway in Munnar, Kerala.
However, today, it is
the world’s only operational locomotive-hauled railway built using the Ewing
system. The monorail consists of a steam 0-3-0 locomotive (which refers to the
three small wheels in the centre that roll on the single steel rail) and one
balancing wheel that runs on a concrete strip to the right of the rail. In this
system, the rail carries 95 per cent of the locomotive’s weight and the balance
wheel, only 5 per cent.
This unique railway
system was once part of the princely state of Patiala. The maharaja of Patiala,
Sir Bhupinder Singh, commissioned the railway line to Colonel C.W. Bowles, an
engineer, in 1907 to facilitate the movement of goods and people in his state.[iii] In
a normal railway system, the two rails have to be on the same level to maintain
balance, which takes more space and needs a uniform, level ground. However,
using the Ewing system, since the balancing wheel did not need be on the same
level as the rail, the use of a single rail reduced both the space needed and
the cost of construction, thus making it a more economical option. Interestingly, steam
locomotives were attached to the trains of the PSMT two years after the system
was established. Till then, these trains were hauled by animals. .. read more:
