Neral-Matheran section Steam Run - A trip report

January 31, 2006.
Caught the first possible local for Neral and reached by 06:30. Didnt want to miss out on even a minute of the Darjeeling steam locomotive run on Neral Matheran line.

First couple of hours were spent in inspecting the shed and learning about the working of the 335 HP loco.Various operations like firing and building up of steam pressure, last minute top-up of coal and water, cleaning the engine, putting maalas of flowers on it,and last but not the least, putting on the tip of the chimney a silver coloured crown that seemed to have belonged to a former king.

In the midst of all this, the driver arrived and inspected the pressure and the decoration from the outside. He then proceeded to enter the cab of theloco. It was a touching moment to see him bend slightly and touch the loco, and then quickly touch the tip of his hand to his chest and forehead as if taking the aarti from a mandir. Another equivalent of this action is when is when classical musicians do the same with their musical instruments, and todays performance promised to be nothing less than a classic. I have no intention of starting a Steam v/s Electric debate here, but I couldnt help wondering whether a young electric driver would feel the same reverence for his engine? Steam has a certain spirituality associated with it, and to refine ones views on the issue, I strongly recommend Bill Aitken's works on the subject. Diverse works like "Branch Line to Eternity", "The Nandadevi Affair", "Seven Sacred Rivers" worship steam railway, Himalayan snow peaks and Indian rivers respectively, and suggest that the spirituality associated with steam issimilar to that for Himalayas and rivers in India, steam, snow and water being three forms of the same live-giving element 'Water'.

It was interesting to see the bogies being shunted by human equivalent of WDS4 shunters. Wonder what would be their HP. 6 people pushed the 2 1st class and 1 SLR bogie from the shed to the platform, much to the amususement of the 30 foreign tourists who had chartered the train.

Engine water capacity was not much and the fear of running out of water was always there, hence the engine was filled one last time with water finally backed up to the Neral NG platform, and then followed a lot of hectic photography session by the tourists and a frenzy of last minute coal firing, adjustment of boilerwater level via injectors, and steam pressure level build-up by the loco crew.

The train departed with cheers from all around, including a certain Mr.Murphy, the infamous creator of the Murphy's law.The engine which performed flawlessly in all the trial runs so far, with a loudnoise suddenly started showering heavy doses of water all around. It seems that there was some residual water in the boiler which was let off via the safety valve under high pressure. However, now the safety valve would not shut off. It was discovered that the spring which is supposed to shut down the safety valve had weakened a bit and Mr. Valve was taking his own sweet time to calm down. The train continued for a km. or so like this. The position I was in left me with no option other than to hang out from the loco and by now me and my handycam were totally drenched in this muddy rainwater and I was preparing to say goodbye to my good old cam. The train was losing the meagre precious water pretty fast and the steam had dropped to less than 50 psi from around 130. Relief came in the form of a halt which was demanded bythe tourists for a photography session. Water was filled via the several drums of water loaded in the SLR for the purpose. The angry engine deposited a shower of burning cinders as it was coming to a halt, causing burns on my neck, chest and holes in clothes

The mischevious engine started again, and was now in a creative mood. Soon it was discovered that injectors were not delivering water to the boiler, again a first incident of its kind. The pipe leading to the boiler was choked by an air-bubble, I forget the technical term for the phenomenon. Again, panic. Luckily, soon, the train was made to stop again by the tourists. One drum of water in the SLR, which was saved for an emergency was quickly emptied into the water chamber, easing out the bubble.

It must be mentioned that the engine was extremely well maintained. There was no leakage and hiss from the pistons or any other parts, and both the Sr. LocoInspector and the Maintenance In-charge Engineer pointed out that the stationary engine was quieter than even an electric, which it was. Only while moving, it made a very crisp and pleasing chook-chook-chook-chook sound.

The train proceeded to Jumapatti and had a beautiful and smooth run of atotal of around 6.5 k.m. The engine was filled with water at Jumapatti, reversed, and then brought the train back to Neral.