Patiala State Monorail Trainways
The Patiala State Monorail Trainways(PSMT) was a unique rail-guided, partially road-borne railways system running in Patiala from 1907 to 1927. [1]
The total distance covered by PSMT was 50 miles (80 km). PSMT was run on two unconnected lines.The lines were constructed by the firm of Marsland and Price, based in Bombay.
- Sirhind to Morinda, a distance of 15 miles (24 km). It was proposed to extend this line to Ropar but since Ropar was connected by a railway line, this idea was abandoned.
- Patiala to Sunam, a distance of 35 miles(56 km) via Basi[2], 5 miles(8km) from Sirhind where there was a connection to the North Western Railway.
The opening in 1927-28 of the North Western Railway(NWR)'s Sirhind-Rupar Railwayline made the Patiala State Monorail Trainways obsolete together with any plan to extend the line from Morinda to Rupar. [3]
Monorail System
The PMST was the second monorail system in India, after the Kundale Valley Light Railway, and the only operational locomotive-hauled railway system built using the Ewing System in the world.
The Kundala Valley Railway pre-dated this, also using the Ewing system between 1902 and 1908, although this only used bullocks for haulage. Following the conversion of the Kundala Valley Railway from a monorail to a narrow gauge railway in 1908, the PSMT was the only monorail system in India until its closure in 1927.
References
- ↑ Wikipedia "Patiala State Monorail Trainways"; Retrieved 13 Dec 2015
- ↑ "Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 7, p. 95. Basi"; Retrieved 22 Dec 2015
- ↑ IRFCA "Patiala Monorail Reappraisal" by Simon Darvill, 2012 – ‘Sirhind to Morinda Line’; Retrieved 13 Dec 2015
