Eye on Games, black beauties gather steam

Indian Railways is gearing up to offer the Commonwealth Games  an old world charm. Those who have an interest in the big mean machines or wish to experience the Victorian era lifestyle will now be able to chug along to Rewari about 80km from the capital in one of the oldest serving steam locomotives of the country.

The Rewari steam loco shed built in 1893, a decade before the Old Delhi station was inagurated is undergoing a makeover. In a bid to conserve the British period edifice set up 117 years ago and promote rail tourism during the mega sports event, Northern Railway has decided to convert the only existing steam loco shed in India to a museum. And unlike those at Chanakyapuri's National Rail Museum, the engines at Rewari will be available for live demonstrations.

"Few are aware of the shed's historical significance in helping connect Delhi and Peshawar. It was the only loco shed in North India for a long time,'' said Vikas Arya, senior divisional mechanical engineer of Northern Railway who is in-charge of this facility.

"Besides displaying parts of the steam engine, the museum will exhibit old Victorian era artifacts used in the Indian rail network along with the old signalling system, gramophones and seats. It will have a library housing rare books collected from across India, US and Europe,'' added Arya.

At present, 10 engines each weighing around 125 tonnes are stationed at the shed. "These engines guzzle about 4,000kg coal and 5,000lt of water from Delhi to Rewari. Before commencing on the journey, they need at least 10 hours of heating. They may be old, but they are capable of running at about 100kmph,'' said Soorajbhan, a driver from the steam locomotive cadre. He last drove a steam engine on a commercial route in 1993 two years after which railways withdrew all steam engines from service. Soorajbhan says the thought of operating one of these today still gives him "childish delight''. Co-driver Jagram draws an interesting analogy: "It's like a choice between kulfi and the ice-cream bars. While the bars come in different flavours, the kulfis just cannot be done away with.'' Several film crews even of the recent releases such as Guru, Love Aajkal and Veer have visited the shed. "We were part of Gandhi My Father, which was shot here for over six days,'' said an excited Soorajbhan.

Some of the oldest steam engines will be pulling the heritage coaches during the Games. "This will be part of the special heritage runs on October 9 and 16. Four of these coaches are unique as they are constructed of only wood. We will also place three engines at New Delhi, Old Delhi and Delhi Cantonment stations to offer visitors a peek into railway's heritage. There will be special runs on the Ring Railway Network. All work at the site will be completed in time,'' said Arya.

Some old timers, however, fear the last-minute sprint might not augur well for the shed. "This flurry of activity is only due to the Games. The museum idea took shape only in February 2010. While the National Rail Museum has allotted Rs 10.5 crore to Northern Railway for heritage preservation only 29% of the amount has been diverted here,'' said one of the shed's 22 employees. "The shed was almost abandoned in the late 90s and it was on August 14, 2002 that former rail minister Nitish Kumar approved the plan to turn this into a `live' shed for steam locos,'' he added.

Concerned about the future of these steam locos, 60-year-old Lombu Ram said: "We have approached the divisional railway manager, Ashwini Lohani, several times to make proper infrastructure available to the technicians. Going by the present state of affairs, there will be no one to maintain these jumbo machines after we are gone.''