Q. Are steam locos being manufactured in India?

No. The last BG steam loco built by CLW was a BG 'WG' class loco named Antim Sitara ("The last star") (No. 10256) in 1970. Mysteriously, this loco's final disposition is not known; SER records it as "untraceable".
YG locos were built until 1972 (perhaps 1973).

Q. Where can I see steam locos in India today? Are there any left?? When was steam eliminated??

[10/98] Unfortunately for fans who love steam, IR decided to eliminate steam several years ago, and has largely succeeded. There were 1,725 steamers on IR in 1992-93. The numbers in succeeding years were 911 in 1993-94, 358 in 1994-95 to 209 in 1995-96. By April 1997, there were only 75 steamers left: 3 on CR, 15 on NEFR, 8 on SR, and 49 on WR. Hardly any were preserved or plinthed; most were torn down for the metal plates.

Now the good news: The decision to eliminate steam was for commercial passenger and freight services; IR has thankfully decided to retain steam traction for some select tourist attractions, such as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Ooty Rack Railway, etc. These will probably have some steam traction for the next few years. Now [4/00] there is news that IR has sanctioned funds for the Rewari steam shed to house 10 BG and MG steam locomotives for tourist trains as well. [5/02] Update: There have been reports that the Rewari shed has been inaugurated.

See below for details of recent and current steam activity in various regions.

More steam information is available here:

• The Indian Steam Railway Society is the premier non-governmental organization engaged in preservation and restoration of India's steam heritage.
• Dileep Prakash's Indian Steam Locomotives site has much information on the remaining steam operations.
• Rob Dickinson maintains some web pages with Indian steam reports from 1996 onwards.
• Geoff Coward has compiled a Steam Survivors List for India,
• another list for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal,
• and yet another list for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
• Julian Rainbow has compiled a List of Ceylon Government Railways Preserved Locos.

Note that some of these are large files and take time to download and to be displayed in a browser.

• Fairy Queen - Delhi Cantt. to Alwar. November to March, every second and fourth Saturday, back on Sunday evening. Contact the NRM.
• Royal Orient - Steam till Rewari Jn. October to March, every Wednesday. Contact Gujarat Tourism.
• Brahmaputra by Steam - Guwahati, Assam. Steam special which can be booked by a group. Contact the NRM, or CPRO, NFR.
• Jatinga Steam Safari - Lumding Halflong Hill section, Assam. Steam special which can be booked by a group. Contact the NRM, or CPRO, NFR.
• Howrah - Tribeni HGS hauled steam special. Contact NRM or the CPRO, Eastern Rly for special group booking.
• Ledo - Lekhapani. Contact CPRO, NFR.
• Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Contact the CPRO, NFR or the NRM for special bookings.
• Neral-Matheran - Steam trials performed, no commercial details yet.
• Kalka-Simla - Steam trials soon. No commercial details yet. Several special steam runs are planned using KC 520 (see below under NG), the first being on Sep. 26, 2001.
• Udaipur - Chittorgarh steam specials planned. Contact CPRO, WR.

[4/02] For the 150th anniversary celebrations of IR, steam specials and heritage runs were organized on April 16. These included:

• SR: An MG train from Madras Beach to Tambaram
• NR: The Fairy Queen had a special run between the National Rail Museum, Delhi Cantt., and Garhi Harsuru.
• SCR: A special run by a YP locomotive near Secunderabad
• CR: Special BG runs with WP locos (Nos. 7161 and 7105 from the NRM) at Mumbai to retrace the route of the first Indian passenger train to Thane. [5/02] These are continuing to run as weekly tourist specials.
• The Bhusawal division steamed 'Rukmini', an NG loco from the Murtazapur-Yawatmal-Achalpur line.

Additionally, NR has plans for steam runs for the following sections this year [2002]: Delhi - Meerut, Delhi - Kurukshetra, Delhi - Palwal, Delhi - Alwar, Shimla - Kanoh, Nagrota - Baijnath (Kangra Valley Railway), Delhi - Farukhnagar. CR may also plans to have some more runs with the WP's 7161 and 7105.

See below under the sections for each railway gauge for further information on recent and potential steam specials.

Regular timetabled steam services have been totally eliminated from broad gauge lines. One of the last officially steam hauled broad gauge trains (hauled by a WL engine #15005, "Sher-e-Punjab") ran between Ferozepore and Jalandhar in the Punjab on 6th Dec, 1995. That engine is preserved at the National Rail Museum, Delhi. Some BG steamers were still in operation on ER and SER (possibly also NR) in 1996. CR, SR (except Nilgiri), and SCR were the earliest to eliminate steam (by 1990 or 1991). WR eliminated steam in 1992. One or two steamers had been sighted in action on ER near the Sahibganj shed in 1997. These may have been the last (unofficially) running steam locos in regular BG service.(Some material above from Lonely Planet: India -- A Travel Survival Kit, Nov. '97)

[9/99] A BG steam loco dating to 1922 (HGS 26761 ??) hauled the "Millennium Express" between Howrah and Tribeni. Following this the run has been made a semi-regular excursion.

[11/99] Two WP's (nos. 7105, 7161) which used to be at Charbagh were refurbished and travelled under their own power from Saharanpur to the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. They have been provided with air-braking capability, and use an auxiliary power car for the compressor, etc. There are some plans to use them to haul tourist trains on occasion (no firm information on this yet).

[12/99] WP 7161 (ex- New Jalpaiguri, ex-Moradabad) travelled back to Saharanpur and thence was hauled to BAMY (Bandra diesel shed) where it was cleaned and spruced up. [2/00] It was steamed and run live on Feb. 15 for the filming of a motion picture. It has since returned to the NRM, although with some damage to the smokebox and other parts during the filming.

[2/00] WP 7015 was steamed on Feb. 12 at the NRM and hauled a special tourist coach around New Delhi on Feb. 13.

These two WP locos (7161 and 7105) are occasionally steamed at the NRM. The Indian Steam Railway Society may be the best bet for getting information on such steam events. Currently [3/02] they are at the Parel workshops, Mumbai, for use in steam specials by CR as part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of IR. They have also been used in the shooting of some movies. No. 7015 was somewhat damaged in the shooting of the movie 'Gadar' but appears to have been repaired to working order.

[3/02] A third WP, No. 7200, which was at the NRM is reported to be at the Charbagh Workshopss undergoing restoration for use in steam specials by NR.

[3/02] WL No. 15005 is undergoing restoration at the Amritsar workshops, for use in steam specials by NR.

[3/02] It has also been proposed that AWE No. 22907 and XE No. 3634 be restored at the NRM and used for steam specials by NR.

[3/02] The Rewari steam shed is expected to be operational with BG and MG steam locomotives soon (possibly in April 2002).

There are several WP and other locomotives in reasonably good shape at various locations around the country. Sonpur on the NER has WP No. 7581F which is in excellent condition, while WP locos Nos. 7656 and 7000 of CR are at Jhansi and Bhusaval respectively and in good condition.

All timetabled MG steam services have also been shut down, the notable exception being the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. In Assam, east of Guwahati, most MG steam shut down by March 1997. Services to Alipurduar, Gitaldah, etc. were mostly dieselized in the mid-1990s. In Bihar, lines from Saharsa to Forbesganj and Mansi were running with steam until August 1998. In Rajasthan, Gujarat & Madhya Pradesh, there were steam services between Chittorgarh, Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Mhow that lasted a long time. Train 9643/9644 to Udaipur was a passenger express that was still steam-hauled until August 1998. Chittorgarh - Ratlam steam passenger service stopped in January 1998. Day passengers #85, #86 were also steam-hauled. Steam was officially supposed to shut down in April 1998, but did in fact continue for some time as dieselization plans were not being implemented apace. There were 12 steam locos at the Mhow shed in mid-1998 (4 working) and trains #89, #90 (Ratlam-Mhow) were steam-hauled until the end of 1998, and also reportedly occasionally in early 1999. A steam banker also used to run from Kalakun to Patalpani. However, as of March 1999, it was been reported that the Mhow shed has stopped working steam. It may be possible to still see some of the decommissioned steam locos at the shed (those that have not been scrapped).

Wankaner was another steam holdout for a long time. It had no diesel servicing facilities for a long time. Wankaner had 3 YG's (3360, 3334, 3318) and 1 YP (#2233) running a few passenger services and one goods service to Navlakhi, Morbi, etc. Two more locos (YP 2825, YG 3434) were also reported to be in good working condition in May 1999, but eleven others were being cannibalized to keep those working. The working locos had temporary extensions to their boiler certificates for 1999. As of July 1999, four passenger services and 2 salt trains to Vavania were still plying, but were to close on August 15, 1999. Following that, the salt traffic on the route shifted to road transport. The Dahinsara-Navlakhi steam service shut down in 1998. The Dahinsara - Maliya Miyana shut down on Aug. 15, 1999. As of January 2000, two YG locos were thought to be in good working order at Wankaner, and were being used for odd jobs. They had been purchased by private parties in the USA, and were packed and sent off to their new owners shortly thereafter.

Towards the end of 1998, Jetalsar had 6 YP's running, but by March 1999, this shed stopped working steam. As with Mhow, it may be possible to see some of the decommissioned steam locos at the shed.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (Ooty) steam locos are still running, and the Coonoor steam shed is naturally still active. There were some plans to have these locos be phased out by 2000, as there seems to be no easy way to get replacements for the X-class locos dating back to the 1940s (the youngest is from 1956). However, they're still soldiering on. Meanwhile, the Railway Board has (twice) put out tenders for new supplies of steam locos, but nothing further has happened on this front. It is reported that SLM, Winterthur, had submitted proposals for modern replacement steam locos for this railway.

[2/01] MAWD 1798 was steamed in preparation for its proposed regular use in hauling tourist trains in the northeast. It had last run in regular passenger service in 1993 and had since been lying condemned at New Guwahati loco shed. The loco was built by Baldwin in 1948. The loco has now [4/01] been run a couple of times between Guwahati and Pandu, hauling a train named Brahmaputra by Steam.

[2/01] YG 4367 was renovated and steamed, and ran between Badarpur and Panchgram (Lumding-Badarpur section of NFR). This loco, made in 1967 by TELCO, had seen its last run in the Karimganj-Mahishasan section of Lumding division (NFR), and had been condemned in 1997. It is now assigned to haul the train for the Jatinga Steam Safari (Lower Halflong - Maibong).

An MG 'GX' Garratt is being revived on the NFR at Guwahati, with the help of the ISRS. Another project where the ISRS is involved is the revival of WD 1801, also on the NFR.

[3/02] At least one YP loco has been restored and is at the Rewari shed which is to be made operational as a steam shed. Some additional YP and YG locos are also expected to be available there soon.

[5/02] Indian State Railways No. 421, a 0-4-0 saddle tank built by Black Hawthorne in 1873, was revived by the Ajmer workshop and steamed in May 2002. This was used for an irrigation project from 1873, and shunted at Ajmer Works for many years before being plinthed there until recently.

Apart from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, no timetabled NG steam services run now. The Pulgaon-Arvi section (762mm gauge), although not owned by IR, was operated by CR using ZP Pacifics until 1998. The 97km Bankura-Rainagar section in West Bengal, another non-IR railway on the 762mm gauge, had CC class Pacifics dating back to 1906 working until 1998.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway: New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling: The only 610 mm gauge line left. The DHR has about a dozen steam locos left, and as they break down they are being cannibalized for parts for the remaining ones.

[5/01] The Kalka-Shimla route may soon see the reintroduction of steam as a 1952 Bagnall loco from the Gaekwad's Baroda State Railway has been renovated and test run between Pratapnagar and Dabhoi with plans to use it in regular tourist service to Shimla.

[8/01] Another loco that may be used on the Kalka-Shimla route is KC 520 of 1905 vintage, plinthed at Ambala Cantt. for many years and recently renovated. This loco was recently [9/01] used for a few special runs on the route.

[9/01] Steam may return to the Neral-Matheran line. Trials have been run with a DHR 'B' class loco (No. 793) to see if it can be run on this hill section. Another proposal being floated is to use a steam locomotive of the erstwhile MLR (No. 741) on this line. MLR No. 741 is [3/02] being restored at the Parel workshops of CR. The ISRS is involved in both these projects. Update [5/02]. It is reported that the 'B' class is ready for regular running on the Neral-Matheran line.

[9/01] A ZB class loco is being used for trials on the Kangra Valley Railway line for possible introduction of a steam tourist run there.

[3/02] ZB No. 66 is being restored at the Amritsar workshops.

[3/02] SER is planning some steam runs with a class Bagnall 0-6-4 tank 2'6" gauge loco in the Nagpur division. The loco was earlier used in the Bankura-Rainagar section.

 The Fairy Queen, a 2-2-2WT BG loco, is one of the oldest working steam locomotives in the world, dating from 1855. It was built by Kitson & Co. in January 1855 and supplied to the East India Railway Company, and began working in August 1855 as EIR #22. It was withdrawn from service in 1909 and preserved, and later moved to the National Rail Museum at New Delhi, where it was "revived" in 1996, and in 1997 it began regularly hauling a tourist train between Delhi and Alwar. A sister loco, the Express, was also built at the same time (it became EIR #21) and withdrawn in 1909 to be preserved at the Gymkhana, Jamalpur Loco Works. Its firebox was damaged, hence it was not considered a candidate for restoring, unlike the Fairy Queen. Both Express and Fairy Queen are recorded as having hauled trains of troops from Howrah to Raneegunge to quash the uprisings during the 1857 mutiny.

The Fairy Queen is believed to be the oldest steam loco in the world that is in regular revenue-earning service now. There are a couple of locos that are even older that have been restored to working order, but they have been steamed only for special occasions (The Lion (1838) in the UK, steamed in 1930 and restored in the 1950's and steamed a few times since then; and John Bull at the Smithsonian in the USA, also of the 1830's, restored a couple of times over the years and steamed a few times in recent years).

 The locomotive Tweed, a 0-4-0 'D' class loco that belonged to the Tirhoot State Railway and then the Oudh & Tirhut Railway, later found its way to the Saraiya Sugar Works in Sardarnagar, Gorakhpur. Although built in 1873 (by Sharp Stewart), it was reported to be in active duty at the sugar mill until the late 1980s. (Current status??) A sister loco, Mersey was also reportedly working well into the 1980s at another sugar mill. (at Sardarpur?)
 

[1/00]  The last of the "F" or "FM/A" class 0-6-0 steam locos, built in 1887 (No. 253, built by Neilsen (Glasgow), works number 3701) is still at work, as of Jan. 2000, at the Lohat site of the Bihar State Sugar Corporation. It was earlier with the Mysore State Rly. and the Madras and Southern Mahratta Rlys. and sold in 1930 to Comens & sons.

There are locos dating from 1899 and 1904 on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

Q. What were the longest steam runs in India?

Probably the longest runs on broad gauge were by the GSM class 4-6-0's of the Bengal Nagpur Railway, which hauled trains between Calcutta and Nagpur (1130km, 700miles). These locos were built around 1938, and could generate 1544 indicated hp at 100km/h (64mph). Runs of up to 700km were not unusual, e.g., WP's and XC's hauled trains between Gangapur and Vadodara (crew change at Ratlam), Gangapur and Delhi.

On MG, runs of around 600km were not unusual. The Ajanta Exp. was hauled by the same loco (a superheated P or YB) between Kacheguda and Manmad, a distance of 630km. (The loco was coaled at Purna, which in later years became a loco change point as well.) Hubli YCs hauled trains between Pune and Hubli (560km) and between Hubli and Bangalore City (469km). On occasion, though, the same YC would haul a train between Pune and Bangalore, for a 1029km-long run, which was probably the longest MG run.

Q. What were the highest speeds of steam locos in India?

The WP locos were rated for 100km/h and were actually capable of more. The first prototypes (WP/P) were used in trials at higher speeds, with the unofficial record being 118.4km/h (recorded by a dynamometer for a WP on trial). On MG, the YP locomotives often hit 75km/h.