JOIN USA train from the past
Among the numerous things lying hidden in plain sight at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park in Bengaluru, is an old train engine.
No one bothered to find why an old, rusting engine was lying at the park until history enthusiast, ex-IAS officer T R Raghunandan, stumbled upon it.
Raghunandan has a passion for vintage vehicles. Bengaluru has at least six old steam engines in various locations, which he aims to document. So when a social media post showed another vintage railway engine with no markings, this history enthusiast set out to find out where it came from.
The first thing he did was to measure the gauge — the spacing between the two rails, which was two feet — the narrowest track gauge India has ever had.
India had many two-feet gauge lines in the pre-Independence era but the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Matheran Light Railway and the Gwalior Light Railway were among those that were not dismantled yet.
Raghunandan knew what the engines of Matheran and Darjeeling light railways looked like — they had to trudge steep terrain, so they were sturdier. Raghunandan felt this particular engine belonged to Gwalior Light Railway.
The Gwalior Light Railway system had the longest line of all the narrow gauge railways, with 200 kilometers of 2-feet gauge track. The construction of the Gwalior Light Railway was started by Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia in 1895. Meant to be a 14-mile-long private tramway, it was expanded step by step.
In 1942, the Gwalior Light Railway was renamed the Scindia State Railway and was eventually purchased by the Central Railway in 1951. The railway initially worked with steam locomotives, but later diesel locomotives were used.
Further investigation
Raghunandan did not stop here — he had to know the make of the steam locomotive.
The mystery steam locomotive had a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, where two leading wheels are placed on one axle in the leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels are on four axles and two trailing wheels are on one axle, mostly in a trailing truck.
This is meant to give the locomotive more power to pull through various terrains and curves. The engine had a long tender that is meant to store more coal and water, typically meant for dry regions.
Raghunandan narrowed down his search to 2-8-2 locomotives that ran in the Gwalior region. There were two makes that ran in Gwalior, one by Baldwin Locomotive Works, from Philadelphia in the USA and the other being Nippon Sharyo, a Japanese company.
Which one was this?
While scraping the paint on the engine, he came across the numbers 812 and NH/5. But the mystery continued because the number 812 was not available in the resources he came across in his research.
After many travels to the USA, Japan and the United Kingdom during which he continued to look for the make of the engine, he had no luck. Meanwhile, he chanced upon a set of books Indian Locomotives, written by Hugh Hughes and listed for sale on a website.
The four-volume book set had its last volume dedicated to locomotives used between 1940 and 1990 in India. The book listed the 812 locomotive as one of the four by Nippon Sharyo Limited, a Japan-based manufacturer in 1959.
Fate of restoration
In February 2021, a citizen-led initiative ‘Heritage Beku’ put together an event to restore the locomotive to working condition. The event was attended by the state Horticulture Department and the Railways officials.
The event also had an ex-railway official, Kannabiran, who had more to talk about the mystery engine. Kannabiran was instrumental in building the Indira Gandhi Music Fountain Park and recalled that the then Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief helped them procure the locomotive, then operation in Gwalior, for the park in 1995.
The steam engine was in working condition then. Children were given demonstrations of the locomotive emitting smoke. Now, the engine is rusting and is in urgent need of restoration.
Balakrishna H T, the Deputy Director of Horticulture, Cubbon Park says after the event in February, the participants decided to chalk out an action plan for renovating the train and draw up a cost estimate.
While the Indian Railways has the expertise to paint and restore the engine, officials say they have not got any official request in this regard. And since the Indira Gandhi National Military Memorial Park is under the care of the state Horticulture Department, the Railways cannot pitch in directly.
While Raghunandan wants to approach the Embassy of Japan for help on cultural grounds, the Consulate-General of Japan has acknowledged the efforts of the Heritage Beku group. Thanks to Covid-19, all the plans have been derailed while the steam locomotive continues to rust, braving the weather.