Central Railway plans to re-introduce heritage steam engine for Matheran-Neral toy train

Mumbai, January 09: With an aim to boost tourism of Maharashtra, the Central Railway is planning to re-introduce the steam-spewing 'back beauty' locomotive on the Matheran hill toy train route.

 

As per the media reports, the railway will introduce the steam engine without the use of coal but fired by either electric power or hydrogen. They will discharge steam vapour to keep the vintage feel. The look and design will be similar to the ancient locomotives and it will also have vintage features like the signature horn.

Moreover, the train will have the transparent vista dome coaches which glass ceilings and windows to give the passengers a 360-degree view of the scenic route. The prototype of these engines is under development at The Golden Rocks Workshop of the railways in Tamil Nadu.

 

The 'black beauty' in the new avatar is expected to start running before the end of this year.

The Neral-Matheran line was shut since 2019 due to the rain-damaged tracks. The narrow-gauge line progressing through lush greenery has been a favourite trip for the Mumbaikars and is one of the main tourist attractions of Matheran, a small hill station located 100 km from Mumbai.