Tank to Dera Ismail Khan Portable Railway
Tank to Dera Ismail Khan Portable Railway
The 'Tank to Dera Ismail Khan Portable Railway', in operation using horses by Feb 1920, with steam locomotives taking over in June [1], constructed for stategic military purposes by the Indian Army, and was a 'Light Portable Railway' - (see separate page), using the 60cm narrow gauge(NG) to connect 'Tank' to 'Dera Ismail Khan', a distance of c.44 miles (70km).
Tank had been connected in 1916 by the extension to the strategic Trans Indus (Kalabagh-Bannu) Railway, a 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) line [2]. The ‘Kalabagh-Bannu’ and the ‘Tank Extension’ lines are shown in BLUE on the map
Dera Ismail Khan was on the west bank of the Indus River, where there was a boat bridge in place crossing the Indus River to 'Darya Khan' on the east bank. Here there was a North Western Railway (NWR) mainline station [3].
By 1925 the railway was closed [1]
Construction
The 26th Company Battalion Sappers and Miners with the 122nd, 126th(one wing), 127th and 131st Railway Construction Companies built the line. The track, purchased in India, was delivered to Dera Ismail Khan from Nov 1919 and built to 60cm narrow gauge to suit the 60cm rolling stock. By Feb 1920 the line was being worked by horse traction with locomotives in use by Jun 1920 and was reported to be carrying 200 tons of stores per day, this had dropped to 85 tons per day by mid 1921. It is thought the line was dismantled and put into store by NWR by 1925 [3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Narrow Gauge Magazine” No 248 May 2018, page 15 published by ‘The Narrow Gauge Railway Society’, by Richard Harrison
- ↑ “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compiled 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 IA05 page ....
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compiled 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 IA07 page ....