Date:30/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/30/stories/2008093050660200.htm

Karnataka - Mysore

Fairy Queen sashays down the line

Special Correspondent

The world’s oldest steam locomotive completes trial run

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

FOND MEMORIES: The Fairy Queen on its run between Mysore and Nanjangud on Monday.

MYSORE: Rekindling the romance of a bygone era, the lyrical sounding Fairy Queen chugged and puffed and hurtled along the track on its trial run from Mysore to Nanjangud on Monday.

The whistling sound and the belching smoke as also the distinct hissing sound of the piston drew attention of the passersby as the world’s oldest steam locomotive switched tracks gathered steam to the delight of the passersby who stood still and waved at the black beauty on her heritage run.

Hauled all the way from Delhi where the Fairy Queen operates during winter as a heritage train to Alwar in Rajasthan, it will create history of sorts when it makes an official run between Mysore and Nanjangud on October 2, 5 and 8 to mark Mysore Dasara. An initiative of the Railways, it will generate goodwill and awareness about the rail heritage of India, according to Mr. Anurag, who is a Heritage Officer and Senior Deputy General Manager of South Western Railway.

The Fairy Queen was commissioned in 1855 and ran between Howrah and Ranigan for the erstwhile East Indian Railways and was retired from service in 1908. However, it adorned the Howrah Station and later the National Rail Museum and was re-introduced as a heritage train in 1996 after being overhauled at Perambur and since been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest running steam locomotive in the world.

Carrying a motley crowd of railway personnel and scribes for the trial run, the Fairy Queen covered the distance between Mysore and Nanjangud in one hour after which its tank was filled with 3,000 litres of water for the return journey.

En route, the train stopped atop the 270-year-old Kabini bridge which is the oldest of its kind on any railway system in the world and the authorities showcased the restaurant and exhibition on track that is coming up atop the bridge.

Four compartments have been stationed and is being made over by the interior designers and of these two will be cafeteria to be operated by private agencies while two other compartments will be an exhibition that will showcase the rail artefacts and heritage and the area surrounding the bridge will be landscaped to make it a tourist attraction.

All this will be ready in six months, according to Mr. Anurag.

Once on the Kabini bridge, the visitors will be taken to the cafeteria by a Rail Bus which has already been tastefully redone.

It used to operate between Shimoga and Talaguppa but has been shifted to Nanjangud.

The authorities have plans to illuminate the bridge as also the vintage metregauge trains stationed atop the bridge to harness heritage, according to Divisional Railway Manager Vijayraghavan.

It was disclosed that the Mysore Rail Museum will be embellished with new attractions and the museum which is now on a four-acre plot will have six acres of land. “We plan to have educative materials on display as to how the steam works, the functioning of the vacuum brake and so on,” said Mr. Anurag.