6 December 2024 ‘The widows Frontier Railways’ by Richard Pelham

The presentation began with one of Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack Room Ballads with a list of wars fought on the sub-continent between 1824 and 1919.
Three countries were covered however, most of the presentation was in Pakistan particularly on the Northwest Frontier with Afghanistan.
Starting in Burma, he saw various 4-6-2 & 4-8-2 metre gauge steam locos built by Vulcan Foundry in Newton-Le-Willows as well as Garrett 2-8-0+0-8-2. The lines in the mountainous region included reversals to gain height on the main line between Rangoon and Mandalay with siting of sugar cane trains.
Moving on to India Richard visited the Darjeeling Mountain Railway. This is a 2ft gauge line rising to a height of 7,000 feet and like much of the Indian sub-continent was stocked with British built locomotives, in this case the famous B class 0-4-0s built by Sharp Stewart and North British. Moving into Pakistan Richard traversed the Bolan Pass connecting Sibi and Quetta, the line achieved height by zigzag reverses and spirals.
With the partition of India into separate nations India and Pakistan which resulted in three different gauges, these being 2’6’’, 1 metre and 5’6’’. Richard made several visits to Pakistan, where accommodation was basic outside the major cities. As the northwest frontier neared the scenery became more rugged with villages built of mud with no windows. With security in mind a military escort was provided. The locos had a bogie flat wagon couple to the front in the event of an explosive device being placed on the line. The train was hauled by two Alco World series diesel locomotives.
This was a very good presentation with many pictures of steam locos, railway items, spectacular scenery, and views of local life