Dehri Rohtas Light Railway

Dehri Rohtas Light Railway (DRLR) was a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge railway line between Dehri-On-Sone and Tiura Pipara Dih in the state of Bihar, India.[2][3]

Dehri–Rohtas
0-6-0T Baldwin steam locomotive No 50788 of December 1918.
It had 11" x 16" cylinders and 2' 7½" wheels.
Technical
Line length72.6 kilometres (45.1 mi)
Track gauge762 mm (2 ft 6 in)
Route map
 km
0 Dehri-on-Sone,
opened 1911
 Dehri City,
eröffnet 1911
 Badihan Shankar Puri,
opened 1911
 Indrapuri,
opened 1911
 Tilauthu,
opened 1911
 Tilauthu Bazar,
opened 1911
 Tumba,
opened 1911
 Ramdihara,
opened 1911
 Banjari,
opened 1911
 40 Rhotas,
opened 1911
 42,5 Rohtasgarh,
opened 1927
 Baulia Road
 Mahadevpuri Bhadara
 Nimahat
 Nauhatta Road
 67 Tiura Pipra Dih[1]

History

The Dehri Rohtas Light Railway started off as Dehri Rohtas Tramway Company in 1907 promoted by The Octavius Steel and Company of Calcutta. The original contract was to build a 40 km feeder line from Rohtas to the East Indian Railway's Delhi - Calcutta trunk route at Dehri-on-Sone. Soon thereafter, the tramway company was incorporated as a light railway in order to acquire the assets of the then defunct Dwara - Therria Light Railway in Assam. The DRLR opened to traffic in 1911 and was booming by 1913-14 when it carried over 50,000 passengers and 90,000 tons of freight, the goods traffic mainly consisting of marble and stone. In 1927, a 2.5 km spur was added to Rohtasgarh Fort from Rohtas. Rohtas Industries brought the line up to Tiura Pipradih by adding another 25 km to the DRLR, most of which passed through their property.

Operation

At its peak, the DRLR used to operate two daily passengers trains in each direction from Dehri-on-Sone and Tiura Pipradih, a run of 67 km. Apart from this the railway carried marble and stone traffic to the mainline at Dehri on sone.

Locomotives

The DRLR operated a very mixed bag of locomotives. It started off with 0-6-2 tank locomotives, three of which arrived from the Dwara - Therria Railway after it closed in 1909. In the pre IRS years, it also used 0-6-0, 0-4-0 (Sentinel) and 0-6-4 variants of tank locomotives. After the wartime increase in traffic the railway brought as many as eight new ZB class 2-6-2 tender locomotives, orders for which were equally split between Hudswell Clarke and Krauss Maffei. The railway also purchased several locomotives, second hand, notable among which were the A/1 class 2-8-4 tank locomotives built by Hudswell Clarke that arrived from the Pulgaon - Arvi system of Central Railway in 1959. Other unique locomotives that operated on DRLR were the several ex. Kalka - Simla Railway K class 2-6-2 tank engines by Kerr Stuart and 2-6-4 tank engines by Henschel that arrived from the Shahdara–Saharanpur Light Railway.

Closure

Due to the decline in the traffic and competition to road in the late 1970s, the DRLR succumbed and closed to traffic on July 16, 1984.[4]

References
  1. In the Supreme Court of India: Civil Appeal Nos. 3250 with 3249 of 1983, Decided On: 12. March 1992, M/s. Dehri Rohtas Light Railway Company Limited vs. District Board, Bhojpur and others and District Board, Shahabad and others.
  2. "IR History: Part III (1900-1947)". IRFCA. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  3. "M/s Dehri Rohtas Light Railway Company vs District Board Bhojpur & others and District Board Shahabad & others". Manupatra. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  4. "IR History: Part V (1970-1995)". IRFCA. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
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