BNR Railway Workshops
BNR Railway Workshops
The Bengal-Nagpur Railway(BNR) was formed in 1887 with the objectives of taking over the metre gauge(MG) Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway and further expansion.
Motibagh Workshop, Nagpur
This workshop was originally set up by the Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway in 1879 to service its metre gauge stock. It was later taken over by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway(BNR) in 1887. When conversion of the Nagpur-Rajnandgaon MG line to broad gauge(BG) was completed in 1888, the workshop was altered to cater to BG stock requirements in the area. From 1887 to 1908, Motibagh Workshop was the prime workshop facility of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway.
The Nagpur Chattisgarh Railway company would get locomotive kits at Mumbai port and then ship them to Motibagh via the GIPR route from Bombay to Nagpur. These locomotives would then be assembled and commissioned at the Motibagh Workshop. BNR used a similar system in the initial years of its formation. After the Nagpur-Asansol BG line was completed, the locomotive kits would be brought in to the Damodar rail head by river. At a makeshift workshop there, the shell was assembled and wheeled so that it could be moved on its own wheels. This skeleton would then be moved to Motibagh via the BNR route for full assembly and commissioning. This practice continued till the extension of the Nagpur-Asansol line to Howrah and completion of facilities at Shalimar terminus for unloading ships
[1].
The importance of Motibagh diminished soon after establishment of the Kharagpur Workshop in 1904 as BNR decided to shift all BG work to Kharagpur, and Motibagh continued to handle only the 2ft 6in/762mm narrow gauge(NG) locomotives and stock, mainly for the BNR Satpura Railway network. However, Motibagh is known to have done some BG work intermittently since then. The workshop still has BG-NG dual gauge track leading [1] .
Kharagpur Railway Workshops
The Bengal and Nagpur Railway had sanctioned the building of the workshop in 1900. The workshop began to operate from 1904. It took over all the BG maintenance work from Motibagh Workshop at Nagpur [2].
For further details see separate page Kharagpur Railway Workshops
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Indian Railway Fan Club IRFCA 'Railway Workshops - Motibagh Workshop'; Retrieved 2 Mar 2020
- ↑ Indian Railway Fan Club IRFCA 'Railway Workshops - Kharagpur Workshop'; Retrieved 2 Mar 2020