The legacy of India’s steam trains still attracts loads of people. In Delhi, everything from babies in arms to former signalmen literally piled onto the tracks last week where they faced the television cameras of at least four broadcast stations. In defiance of all health and safety regulations to fill 100 bound files in the Brussels archives, people jumped from the green plastic grass and red carpet onto the unimpeded rails.
The Steam Locomotive Heritage Parade celebrated the end of Railway Heritage Month. Shri Lalu Prasad, the Honorable Minister of Railways, was the most distinguished guest. The second was Sir Mark Tully, former BBC correspondent in Delhi and vice-president of the Indian Railways Society (IRS). Mark is a guru in his own right.
After the better part of 40 years in India (and was actually born in Calcutta, where his father was stationed at the time), he is something of a Grand Old One, regarded with roughly the same emotions of wonder and affection appropriate to his Saddhu’s condition. Being seen with him attracts more attention than a formal walk with Tony Blair.
This is not exaggeration. Once, when Sir Mark walked up the steps of Government House in Delhi with our Hon’ble Prime Minister, the crowd was ecstatic, but it was not Tony Blair who caught his attention. They were yelling in Hindi for Mark Tully.
There are several other dignitaries present: the Mayor of Delhi, members of the Railway Board, the President of the IRS and a whole line of very intelligent and important looking people. They are seated on the platform in beautifully presented upholstered chairs covered in white and set on plastic grass. On the opposite platform, a whole tableau of Indian history unfolds with children waving colored flags and a historical account of the Indian railways in full swing as men run up and down behind the boards carried by the moving trains.
Nobody is paying much attention. Despite the valuable collection of not only VIPs, but also VVIPs and the war on terror, security is conspicuous by its absence, except for the presence of a charming chocolate brown Labrador retriever led by a soldier along the seats, tail wagging enthusiastically.
It is very Indian that in this parade the normal scheduled train, its 24 battered green and cream ghosts so familiar to the 13 million people who travel on Indian railways every day, dump their passengers. In fact, not once but twice, the passenger cargo is unloaded in the melee. People move towards the exit, not happy to be denied the opportunity. Street theater like this is a part of Delhi life and attracts an instant audience.
Now, coolies spruce up the back edges that adorn the front line of comfortable sofas designated as Board of Railways. The presenter seeks silence in several languages. “Please sit down everyone.” Nobody pays the slightest attention to him. Someone yells gutturally into a microphone, part of it in Hindi, alternating with “hi, hi, hi, testing, testing, testing” and lots of reverberating comments.
Flowers and water bottles are now in place for VVIPs who are presumably more than just VIs. Even the Railroad Board has not hitherto been treated with such magnificence. Here comes the sniffer dog again, obediently sniffing at our feet. An Argentine gentleman introduces himself and his wife and strikes up an interested conversation. He is curious as to what a white woman from Western Europe is doing here.
The greeting party begins to assemble, guarded by soldiers and various hangers-on. Mark arrives looking very sharp in a lemon shirt and burgundy herringbone waistcoat. Suddenly there is total silence. The Minister welcomes everyone; cameras capture the moment from the middle of the tracks and like the media around the world, they are practically trampled to death in their quest to get the best shot. There are crying babies, children running from one side of the VIP chairs to the other, and clearly many people who are not the media or guests here, but who have found their way without hindrance.
A female soldier’s butt is literally in my face. A couch is relocated to make room for the transmission scramble and the bottom is shifted a few inches, but an increasing number of media are shifting onto the tracks, though whether deliberately or by the force of gravity it’s hard to say. .
Now we are being tied down, literally. I’m not entirely sure if this is to prevent us from mistreating Mark Tully or to try and get a free ride on the Fairy Queen, the oldest surviving locomotive, built in 1855 in Leeds, and the pride of the Indian Railway. Society.
This piece de resistance (my respects to intercultural relations) walks the platform in its green and gold livery, both dignified and friendly. Brightly dressed children waving flags and blowing plastic whistles add to the feeling that we’ve all stepped back in time to a more romantic, less threatening era when kids could be kids and railways were fancy, grand. and, in a way, symbolic of all that was best in the newly industrialized world of the mid-19th century.
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the fairy queen
This Guinness World Record holder locomotive is the pride of Indian Railways. It is the oldest locomotive in the world in working condition. Built in 1855 by Kitson Thompson and Hewitson of Leeds, this locomotive has been brought back into service by popular demand since 27th September 1997 and has been regularly hauling tourist trains between Delhi and Alwar. This locomotive was the first exhibit to be brought to the National Railway Museum in Delhi at the time of its foundation stone laying in 1971. This locomotive is said to have transported troop trains to Raniganj during the 1857 Indian War of Independence . The engine weighs 26 tons, has a track gauge of 5 feet 6 inches, coal capacity of about 2 tons, wheel arrangement with 2-2-2T WT and Stephenson valve gear.
The other steam trains in parade:
XE-3634
Built by the Vulcan Foundry Company Ltd in England in 1930, this engine was commissioned by the Indian Railways in 1931 at the GIP Railway, now the Central Railway. The Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board in Korba bought the engine in 1979. The gauge is 5 feet 6 inches, the weight is 196.42 tons and it is nearly 79 feet long. Its wheel arrangement is 2-8-2, the piston stroke is 30 feet, the water capacity is 6,000 gallons, and the coal capacity is 14 tons.
WAR CLASS AWE-22907
This locomotive is one of the war design locomotives purchased in large numbers in the early 1940s and was used for both passenger and freight services. Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, in 1943, it was owned by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Maker number 69703, GIP No 6128 and CR No 22907, identify the engine. It weighs 183 tons, has Walshaets valve gear, two outer cylinders, 5-foot-6-inch bore, and a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement.
WL-15005
With the majestic name of Shere-e-Punjan, this locomotive had the privilege of hauling the last broad gauge steam train of the Indian Railways. This historic run took place between Firozpur and Jallandhar on 6 December 1995. It usually carried express/mail trains and was assigned to the Southern Railway and was based at Shonanur shed. It was later transferred to the Northern Railway, where it was initially based in Bhatinda’s shed. From there, he moved to Ludhiana and finally to Firozpur from where he retired. The engine was brought to the National Railway Museum in January 1996. Built in 1955 by the Vulcan Foundry, it has a 5 foot 6 inch track gauge, a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement and is now based at the Steam Center in Rewari.
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WP-7200
Bullet-nosed WP locomotives were the mainstay of Indian Railways’ broad-gauge passenger train operations for a long time until the last steam engine was withdrawn in 1995. This exhibit numbered WP-7200 is one of the 16 prototypes that were received from the US before production began at the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works. This locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, in 1947 and was owned by the GIP Railway (later the Central Railway). It has a track gauge of 5 feet 6 inches, weighs 102.4 tons, and has a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement. It was withdrawn from service in May 1987.