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Rewari‑Steam‑Loco‑shed,‑picture‑1930. Description: ========================================================================
Time Traveller
Taj Express, 1964
It’s
hard to think of a time when India didn’t focus on tourism. However,
before the sixties got well and truly under way, luring people to our
many monuments didn’t figure too high on the agenda. A major turning
point in the country’s attitude to tourism was the introduction of the
first dedicated tourist train—the Taj Express, which started operations
in 1964.
It was a masterpiece in many ways. Leaving New Delhi railway station
at dawn, it would take a mere two-and-a-half hours to reach Agra
Cantonment station. This at a time when the shortest rail link between
these two stations took in excess of three hours. Perfect for day-long
sightseeing trips, the return train would leave Agra in the evening and
get one back to Delhi the same night.
As an additonal sop to the multitude of foreign tourists who made a beeline for this train, booking a return fare meant that one would have the same seat number in both directions. Add to that a nice breakfast and dinner, as well as beautifully appointed AC chair cars, and the classic WP steam engines that hauled the trains and you had exotic India on a single line. That old Taj Express is long gone—superseded by the Agra Shatabdi—but its tradition lives on in later trains like the Palace on Wheels.  Rewari Steam Loco Shed, A Photo EssayThe morning of March 3, 2012 
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: The proud legacy
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Angadh, the one that welcomes you
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Still going strong
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Standing tall and strong
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Just a mangled set of iron now
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: The boiler pipes
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Workmen repairing the boiler
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Firing up the engine
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: Not a bad place for a meal, eh?
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: The royal watering hole
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: The man who loves his job
Rewari Steam Loco Shed: The entire visiting group
Welcome to Rewari Steam Loco Shed which re-opened on the 9th Oct
2010, join us in celebrating the return of the Steam Locomotives.
The restoration of this heritage shed from a ruin, lost and
forgotten, to its present grand state has been a long process
involving timely funding and more than that the dedication, planning
and expeditious execution by my Engineers.
Rewari Steam Loco shed is now on its way to take its prominent place
on the steam map of the world, it has had many visitors, besides
steam enthusiasts from India and abroad, who have come to enjoy the
steam engines in their full glory. There are many who saw a working
Steam Locomotive for the first time in their life. Seeing such huge
machines at work is one the most humbling experience in life and
perhaps, the most joyous one too. For the old timers, its pure
nostalgia of an era gone by, where every child wanted to be an
Engine Driver and blow the whistle.
History -
Rewari Steam Loco shed was started in the year 1893 and was under
the jurisdiction of Bombay Baroda and Central India Railways
(BB&CIR), Rewari soon became one of the biggest junctions on the
meter gauge route and the shed too was the largest Meter Gauge loco
shed in India with close to 500 maintenance staff working at its
peak. In the early 1900 the shed primarily homed 'P' class engines.
The Shed's locos worked trains to Delhi, Bhatinda, Churu, Fulera
etc. Though the pre Independence holdings are not known, the shed
had a holding of 65 MG locos between 1980-82. Rewari also had 395
loco drivers on roll making it a major crew depot as well.
The shed had a working span of 100 years and was closed down in the
year 1993, by 1994 all but two locos, YG 3415 and YG 3438, were cut
up and sold as scrap. The shed was planned to be converted to a MG
Diesel Loco shed and from Sept'93 Diesel locos were maintained here,
this practice stopped in Aug'96. In 1994 The Royal Orient Express
was started and was to be hauled by two steam locomotives on the
stretch between Delhi Cantt and Rewari with this, the shed again
came to prominence for some time. In 2001 it was planned to convert
the shed to a heritage shed. By this time all meter gauge routes to
Rewari had been converted to broad gauge and some vintage BG locos
were also planned to be homed here, one bay of the shed was
converted to Broad gauge for this purpose. In May 2002 WP 7161
became the first loco to come to Rewari Shed followed by WP 7200. On
14th Aug 2002 the then Railway Minister Sh. Nitish Kumar opened the
shed, declaring it as the Heritage Steam Shed.
Rewari Locos have been a part of several Bollywood period films,
Guru, Gandhi- My Father, Rang de Basanti, Gadar are a notable few.
The shed has been given a new lease of life with large scale
renovation and restoration carried out in 2010, A new cafeteria, a
small library and a museum have been added. However, the sprit of
the place is intact, with the same shed building dating back to 1893
and majestic black beauties back in action.
The
Revival - Vikas Arya, the Sr. Divisional Mechanical Engineer
says, "Taking over the charge of Rewari in Feb' 2010, I found to my
dismay, that out of the 9 steam locomotives based here, only 2, one
BG AWE-22907 and one MG YP-3415, were in some kind of working order,
rest of the locos were in a complete state of rust in peace. 2 broad
gauge locos, belonging to this shed, WP-7200 and WP-7161 were lying
at Kolkata and Siliguri, at nature's mercy. Rewari shed itself was
in a state of total neglect, with crumbling walls and leaky roofs,
wild vegetation was all over and the spirits of the last 25 men
standing guard to the 118 year old locomotive shed and the rich
steam heritage of Indian Railways, was on a depressing low.
The first task was to give the men a
sense of purpose and instil a sense of pride in them, here the
infectious zeal of Ashwani Lohani, the steam man of India and DRM/Delhi
came handy. Offered a cup of tea on his maiden visit to the shed by
the staff in Feb'10, he refused to take it saying- "no one has a cup
of tea in a graveyard.. get the locos running and then we have a
feast here", the words had the required emotional impact that was
needed. On my subsequent visit two days later, a hammer could be
heard at a distance. An hour long chat session with the old guys of
steam, had them committed to the task that the skies of Rewari will
soon see smoke puffing out of loco chimneys and the whistle will be
heard once more."
It was an odious task to have the 2 WP
locos, stationed in Eastern India hauled back to Delhi, at 30 Kmph
over a distance of 1490 Kms, the movement order was released by the
board in July' 10 and loco 7200 WP left its rusty confines of Howrah
yard and moved towards Delhi, on way to Rewari. Getting 7161 out of
the cooler confines of Siliguri, farther east of Kolkata was
relatively easier. By now the remaining 2 YG locos had been
reconditioned by my men, by July end 3 out the 4 meter gauge locos
were on steam and the work on WP 7161, that had reached Rewari in
mid July, was on at a brisk pace. Another Loco, WL15005 that had
been involved in a freak accident 3 years earlier, that had
unfortunately killed its driver, had been sealed as a case property
by the police. I filed an application in the honourable court in
Feb'10 stating that the locomotive was a National heritage and the
only such class of locomotive in India and if left unattended, a
priceless piece if history will be lost. To our good fortunes, the
learned judge in the very first hearing could gauge the significance
of the matter and released the stay on the locomotive in April '10.
With this order I was free to bring this lovely machine back to
life.
We had 3 big locos in hand, 25 men and
just days to make them puff. Basic tools were not available, there
were no furnaces, expanders and cutters had to be procured. Working
against all odds our perseverance worked, we had to do it, no matter
what! The majestic WP 7200 was put on steam on the 25th Aug, WP 7161
was 'fired' on the 31st of Aug and WL 15005 was tested on 20th of
Sept. By September end the chimneys of 7 Locos were stamping the
overclouded skies of Rewari with steam and smoke, announcing the
re-birth of Black Beauties to one and all.
Civil work of the makeover started in early August and in spite of the heavy rains, was completed by October. In the meantime I had started collecting pieces of antique furniture, Crockery, Benches, Clocks, Telephones, Radio, Gramophone, Typewriters, Hand Signal Lamps, Semaphore signals, Old photographs, Miniature Models, Blueprints, Books and anything related to Steam Locos that could add value to this place, friends all over the Railways helped, specially my friend Vivek Sheel (SR. DME/JBP). A new Logo for the shed was designed, souvenirs planned, History of all the classes of the locos homed here was penned, which can be read in the Our Locomotive section. A lot of personal effort has gone to revive Rewari Shed but none matches the effort of my men here, without whom nothing was possible. |
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Thursday, December 20, 2012
The Rewari Steam Locomotive Shed of the Northern Railways
While
the shed has earned the tag of 'heritage site' for being one of the
rarest steam engine sheds in the world, the biggest challenge in near
future would be availability of workforce—well-trained in working on
steam engines.
