Thread by @VAdkri

WE WANT ONE PLR LOCOMOTIVE IN PARALAKHEMUNDI
Friends, PLR is the first private established Railway in SouthEastern India and we must preserve the memory of the Maharaja of Paralakhemundi. I request everybody to initiate steps to keep at least one PLR locomotive
@PMOIndia
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in front of Parala Railway Station(PLH).
There are 8PLR locomotives in india and one can be provided to Paralakhemundi
Simply RT it tagging @AshwiniVaishnaw.Your personal effort always counts.
If you are not aware of the history of the heritage line than pls Read this thread
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THE PARLAKIMEDI LIGHT RAILWAY, ITS LOCOMOTIVES ~
Parlakimedi Light Railway (PLR) was a two- foot six-inch gauge railway. It was the brainchild of the erstwhile Maharaja of Parlakimedi Sri Gajapati Gourachandra Narayan Dev.
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The Kimedi country, consisting of Parlakhemundi (also spelled by Britishers Parlakhemedi, by Madras province Parlakimidi), bodokimedi, and sanoKimedi, was under a single ruler until 1607. Parlakimedi came under the British influence in 1770.
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The Railway came into existence in the year 1893 with the construction of the Cuttack - Khurda Road - Puri line covering a distance of 96km and its subsequent link up along the East Coast up to Vijayawada - the junction point of Southern Maratha Railway and
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and Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway. As a result, a total stretch of 1280km of East Coast Railway covering the entire coastal stretch of Cuttack - Khurda Road - Puri - Palasa - Vizianagaram - Visakhapatnam - Kakinada - Rajahmundry - Vijayawada was opened for traffic
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between 1893 to 1896.
But there was no odisha originated rail line or andhra originated rail line .
Railway brought a rail line to Naupada in 1894.
At the time The mahaRaja of Parlakimedi decided to connect his capital with Naupada which was part of his kingdom
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which was only 40km away from parala. in 1898 work began in full earnest by Maharaja of Paralakhemundi. The line was opened to traffic in 1900. This railway line was built at a cost of Rs 700,000 from Maharaja's own pocket.

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There were three classes - Upper, Lower, and Lowest. Most of the early coaches and wagons were supplied by Arthur Koppel Company of Calcutta, who assembled them from the kits supplied by Orenstein-Koppel of Germany. The initial livery was standard maroon.
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Some time in the 1980s due to the ingenuity of some IR staff person, it was changed to the two-tone blue livery normally reserved for broad-gauge air-braked stock. PLR coaches had thus the unique distinction of being the only narrow gauge coaches to share livery with
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broad gauge stock on IR. Due to a change in the policy of the British Government, the Bengal Nagpur Railway, popularly known as the BNR, took over the northern section of East Coast Railway from Vizianagaram to Cuttack including the Branch Line of Puri by 23-01-1902.
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Accordingly, the working of the PLR was taken over by the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in 1902. In the first few years, the PLR had incurred losses but after 1910, it started making marginal profits and after 1924-25.
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Lihuri, Bansidhara, and Palasingi. The management of BNR was taken over by the Government of India in October 1944.
On 14-04-1952, at the time of the re-grouping of the Indian Railways it became part of the Eastern Railway. The merger of BNR into Eastern Railway, however,
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did not last long and on 01-08-1955 it was merged with newly constituted South Eastern Railway. During the SER centenary celebrations in 1987,a set of four postage stamps were released. One of the stamps featured the PL 691 locomotive.The standard type of locomotive on PLR
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was the 20-ton 0-6-4 tank locomotive with small (27-inch diameter) coupled wheels and an axle load of only 4.75 tons. The Parlakimedi engines were designated the 'PL' class. The first locomotives to work on these lines were 0-6-4T locos built by Brush Electrical Engineering
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Light Railways, four 0-6-0 T (All India numbers 691, 692, 693, 694) Kerr Stuart built locos were transferred to PLR. In 1987 four 'ML' and four 'PL' locomotives were homed at Naupada shed. Diesel took over from steam on 23rd April, 1992. The locos were ZDM-5 (All India
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numbers 523, 532) transferred from the Satpura lines. In early 2003 there were two services each in either direction. The first service from Naupada (1NG) started at 0530 reaching Gunupur at 0915. The first service from Gunupur (2 NG)started at 0930 reaching Naupada at 1315
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The second service from Naupada (3 NG) started at 13.45 reaching Gunupur at 17.30. The second service from Gunupur (4 NG) started at 1745 reaching Naupada at 2130. In view of the continuous loss that this railway was making, railways decided to introduce a rail bus
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service in this section. The buses reached Naupada but were never used as by then the government had decided in favour of gauge conversion. Bowing to public demand, surveys were undertaken for broad gauge conversion in 1950 and again in 1964 and 1967. The foundation stone
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was finally laid for the Naupada-Gunupur gauge conversion work at Naupada on 27th September, 2002. With effect from 1st April, 2003 PLR became a part of the newly formed East Coast Railway. The line was finally closed for gauge conversion on 9th June, 2004.
#BroadGaugeRun
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Seven of the locomotives from this railway have been preserved in different parts of India as heritage locomotive.
(1)
PL 691 has been plinthed outside Southern railway headquarters, Chennai.
@southernrailway
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(2)
PL 692 has been plinthed outside BNR hotel, Puri.
Very Roughly managed
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(3)

PL 693 has been plinthed on the Ramakrishna beach, Vishakhapatnam. It was plinthed there during Visakha Utsav in 1998
Andhrapradesh.
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(4)
PL 697 has been painted in @DRMWaltairECoR office of @EastCoastRail
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(5)
PL model engine at Nagpur Rail museum
@RailMinIndia
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(6)Now
PL 693 has been plinthed outside the Vizianagaram station.
Andhrapradesh
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(7)
PL 694 has been plinthed outside, Vishakhapatnam station
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(8)

This PL698 locomotive has been plinthed as part of SW heritage loco in @WesternRly
Bengaluru Railway station , Karnataka
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Hence my kind request to @RailMinIndia
@EastCoastRail @Naveen_Odisha @PMOIndia to establish a rail museum at heritage Paralakhemundi station and
#Return_back_one_Parala_engine to PLH

Regards
@VAdkri