The railways site about Sri Lanka shows a Telco bus on rails. Why look that far when Telco vehicles with rail wheels are all over Konkan Rail? Here is a Telco tipper truck at Verna station The truck is coming in from Old Goa (actually a sparkling new station, just that the place is known as 'Old') side. Accelerates quite fast and is an acceptable solution during the mad rush to complete the Konkan Rail, quite economical too. I wonder how these things are turned? Are these rail-cum-road?
The bright headlight in the distance is the Plasser tie tamper coming on the same line.
Here is a look at the Plasser machine. Note the huge diesel shed coming up at Verna for Konkan Rail use.
This is a picture of another Telco truck on rails. This pic is from a Konkan Rail brochure in Hindi. It is clear that the wheels are 'rail only'. Note the WDS4 in the background.
Here is a strange beast. This is a self propelled Gangman's trolley. It carries a small cache of stores required for track laying and maintenance. Normally the departmental works train carried the material, but some of the new track at Goa cannot sustain a heavy train yet (the pics are from July 1997). In any case the quantity required at the work site may be small and does not justify the entire works train, hence this vehicle. The other views are the left and right of the vehicle. One windscreen is broken and allows my colleague, the slender Sabu Nair to enter the cab even if the door is locked. The vehicle carries no marking of ownership or manufacturer.
