Goldenrock Railway workshop makes history

TIRUCHI: The Railway Board has sanctioned Rs. 40 crore for the manufacture of four oil-fired steam locomotives for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railway, V. Carmelus said on Friday.

The locomotives would be manufactured at the Golden Rock Railway workshop here, as it had the designs and technical know-how, he said, flagging off the 2,000th container wagon meant for the Container Corporation of India from the workshop.

The first loco would be manufactured in 18-24 months. In three years, all the locos, belonging to the ‘X’ class, would roll out. At present, seven steam locos were being operated between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, of which two were oil-fired and the rest coal-fired. The steam locos operated were imported from Switzerland and aged between 50 and 90 years.

The surplus metre gauge locomotives (MG) in the possession of the Railways were being exported to various countries.

In all, 108 MG locomotives had been exported, Mr. Carmelus said.

He complimented the workshop for delivering wagons on time and for maintaining the quality. This had enabled it to bag orders continuously from the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR).

He urged the workshop personnel to strive to manufacture 1,000 wagons from this financial year, assuring all help from Southern Railway.

Chief Workshop Manager S. Rangarajan said it was a red letter day for the workshop, as it had crossed the 2,000 mark in the manufacture of container wagons through the despatch of the 45th rake of container wagons on Friday.

The workshop had completed three wagon manufacturing orders from the CONCOR. The present order for 1,125 wagons was under execution. The Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi S. Subramanyan, Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Ramasubbu, and senior workshop officials were present.