COIMBATORE: Officials of Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) had to cut short the trial run of the new HSD Oil-fired steam locomotive following an oil leak. According to sources, trial run of the loco that coupled with four coaches began from Mettupalayam at 11 am on Monday. When it reached Addderly, at 12.30 pm, officials detected an oil leak and decided not to complete the trial run up to Coonoor. It returned to Mettupalayam at 2pm.
An official said, “We operated the HSD oil fired steam locomotive at a speed of 30 kmph like the regular service. We noticed a slight drag and an oil leak. After restoring these defects, we will conduct a trial run at the earliest. We will operate the train at 30 kmph up to Kallar and from there will maintain 13 kmph untill Coonoor. From Coonoor, we will restore speed to 30 kmph to Udagamandalam. The loco has rack and pinion arrangement and there should not be a problem in operating it at 30 kmph till Coonoor.”
The metre gauge loco, X-37401, is the first High-Speed Diesel (HSD) oil-fired steam locomotive manufactured in the country, at the Golden Rock workshop in Tiruchy. It has two oil tanks - the main tank can hold 1,600 litres and the rear tank can hold 725 litres.