After resurrecting nine steam engines from the brink of extinction, the Rewari loco Shed in Haryana is ready to receive its 10th occupant — the famed Palace on Wheels. By Hamari Jamatia
A shrill but comforting whistle rings through the auditorium as the screen lights up with the image of a gleaming steam engine. Nostalgia reverberates across the hall as people whisper about the good old times.
The documentary on screen is about the Rewari loco Shed in Haryana that has the distinction of being the only such shed to house nine magnificent steam engines that have chugged alongside the country’s history witnessing its various upheavals.
Made by the Indian Railways, the documentary screened presented a step-by-step development of the shed. Interesting tid-bits were thrown in between such as the refusal by the CME (Delhi) Ashwani lohani to have tea at the site when he first visited it some years ago. “Nobody can have a cup of tea in a graveyard, get the locos running and we’ll have a feast here,” he told the staff that was manning the broken-down shed.
After months of hard work, in 2010, the shed resurrected nine locomotives — four that ran on metre gauge and five on broad gauge. In fact, the staff named each one of them — Sultan, Sindh, Sahib, Angadh, Akbar, Virat, Azad, Shere-e-Punjab and Rewari King — according to their personality or the region they belong to.
Now, after restoring the nine locomotives to their original glory, the loco shed is in the process of welcoming its 10th occupant — the famed Fairy Queen, the world’s oldest steam locomotive in regular operation, plying between New Delhi and Alwar, in Rajasthan. The 5 ft 6 inches in (1,676 mm) Indian gauge locomotive was built in England in 1855, and has a two-cylinder engine with a power output of 130 horsepower (97 kw), producing a top speed of 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph). It was placed in service by the East Indian Railway Company in West Bengal, where it hauled troop trains during the First War of Independence of 1857, and was withdrawn from service in 1909 and displayed in Howrah until 1943. Heritage status was accorded in 1972 and the locomotive was restored as an exhibit at the National Rail Museum in Delhi. Restored to full working order, in 1997 the Fairy Queen returned to commercial service for the first time in 88 years.
Rajesh Kumar, Senior Mechanial Engineer, Delhi said that the Fairy Queen is at present undergoing overhauling and will be brought to Rewari around October from when it will be plied every alternate Saturday. “The maintenance has been handed over to us and we will take care of it to our best of capability,” Kumar said.
Once again, the Fairy Queen will continue to make history as the oldest surviving steam locomotive, a reminded of why the spirit of these steam engines will never die. They are, after all, made of iron.