Champaner Manganese Mine Monorail/Railway

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Champaner Manganese Mine Monorail/Railway

The manganese mines at Champaner, Panchmahal District, Gujarat opened in 1905. The mines, owned by the Shivrajpur Syndicate Limited were managed by the Agent Killick, Nixon & Company [1].


Monorail
The Champaner Manganese Mines were initially linked to the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR) station at Champaner Road by a 20 mile(32km) Ewing system monorail. This had 60 wagons designed to carry 6 tons that were hauled by buffalo. Marsland, Price & Co built the system. In 1909 it was stated that 'the said many claimed advantages of trhe system did not materialise' and it was decided as 'most unsatisfactory' [1].


NG Railway
A conventional 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) opened on 3 Feb 1912 replacing the monorail. This line was known as the 'Champaner-Shivrajpur Light Railway' and started at the BB&CIR station at Champaner Road then ran 600 yards(550metres) beside the provincial road, which it followed crossing several times until it reached the mines, a line length of 18¾ miles(30km)[1].

It is thought that2 ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG) locomotives were used in the mines [1].


Later Developments
In 1915 the line was taken over by the Guzerat Railways Company and the line extended to Pani in 1916, a total of 31 miles(49km) [2] and became the Champaner-Shivrajpur- Pani Light Railway. (see for further information)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compliled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. ISBN 978 1 901556 82-7. Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry GJ29 pages 153-154
  2. " Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 222; Retrieved 16 Feb 2017