Raj Steam - Pakistan Metre Gauge

At one stage, the system seemed doomed to have faded away in the same manner as the various narrow gauge railways in the country. However a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan saw the plans to reinstate cross-border traffic dusted down. By now, the Indian side had been converted to broad gauge and obviously the Khokhropar line would need the same treatment. In the meantime, a skeleton service was reinstated on the Mirpur Khas system around 2004 after a period of spasmodic operation. Once a week, a train ran from Mirpur Khas to Khokhropar on a Monday and back on a Tuesday, a single train was run anti-clockwise round the Jhudo Loop on Thursdays and on the 1st and 15th of each month a return trip to Nawabshah. Hence, should the last run on a Wednesday, then visitors could expect four successive days of steam hauled passenger trains, an unbelievable prospect in the 21st century but obviously a great deal of good luck would be needed for all to run, let alone to time. Two tours were run, at the end of November 2004 and the end of May 2005 and while not everything ran to plan, I doubt anyone came away less than satisfied although for all the usual reasons I guess most will have lost a fair amount of weight.

Not long after, the service closed down, gauge conversion took place and the trans-border service was inaugurated, since when it has been 'subject to suspension' when relations between the two countries have soured as they have done frequently ever since independence.