A unique train service that operated on animal power was the Patiala State Monorail Trainway. This monorail was in existence in the erstwhile state of Patiala in the early 20th century.
The state was then ruled by Maharaja of Patiala, Sir Bhupinder Singh, of the Patiala peg fame. He was considered to be a fine ruler and several books describe him as a character “larger than life”.
The trainway developed and ran successfully under his aegis. Records show it to have run on two main lines namely from Sirhind to Morinda and from Patiala to Sunam.
What makes this system unique is the fact that, apart from being run on mule haulage, it was a monorail. The monorail, as the name suggests, is a single rail. The concept was successfully derived from the Ewing system by Colonel C. W. Bowles. The trainway was built and run on the following principle. About 90-95 percent of the weight of the vehicle was taken by an additional wheel. This additional wheel on an external frame ran alongside on the road, at the side of the track. Therefore, one wheel of the train ran on a rail while the other on the road alongside. The monorail was a concept midway between road and rail transport. In those days, it could be considered superior to the traditional modes of road transport like bullock carts or horse drawn carriages but definitely inferior to the trains run on steam power. Colonel Bowles had applied this system earlier at Kharagpur in West Bengal.
The principle was used in Patiala to run a successful trainway system. The train was drawn by mules, as it was a way to gainfully employ the mules maintained by the state for use in times of war. The train was used to carry both goods and passengers. Open carts or attachments, resembling the platform for loading containers, seem to have been used for carting bags of goods. The coolies accompanying the goods probably sat atop it. There is also some evidence of attempts at running this line on steam but the outcome is not recorded in history. The reason for the suspension of this trainway was perhaps the rapid development of trains run on steam.
