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There were six narrow gauge lines in the Central Railway as
constituted in the mid 1970s.
The Matheran Hill Railway was built to 2ft (610mm gauge) to serve the hill resort from a junction with the main line at Neral. Four Orenstein and Koppel 0-6-0T locomotives were supplied to the line and in view of the severe curves they were designed with 'Heywood radiating axles' which are similar to Klien-Lindner hollow / radial axles. Steam was gradually replaced by diesel from 1956 onwards and finally retired in 1982. All have been preserved, three in India and one in the UK.
The Gwalior lines (Scindia State Railway) were also built to 2ft gauge and were the last
public railway to use this gauge in the country except for the hill railways. They had a wide range of tender locomotives
(4-6-2, 4-6-4 and 2-8-2) variously built in the UK, USA and Japan.
The remaining railways were built to 2ft 6in (762mm) gauge.
The nearby Dhaulpur State Railway used a mixture of 2-8-4T and 4-8-0s.
Further south, the Pulgaon - Arvi line was originally worked by 2-8-4T but the later 4-6-2s were in control at the time of this compilation.
The two lines running north and south from Murtajapur were traditionally operated by 2-8-2s as was the line connecting Pachora with
Jamner.
Click
here for the India Narrow Gauge Steam Index
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