Saturday, April 08, 2006

The return of the Emperor

"The Emperor" is going to run down the "ramp". No, this is not about the useless fashion shows being held in New Delhi.

"The Emperor" is the "Shehanshah" (pics here)...a mighty old (1947 USA-built) steam locomotive that will be participating in tomorrow's heritage run organized by Western Railway to celebrate its 51st railway week. The loco will travel in style all the way from Mumbai Central at 11 a.m. to Borivali. I hope to capture it from some station en route to Borivali both on the film SLR as well as my digital camera. Obviously, railfans would be out with all kinds of equipment to capture its run. I won't be surprised to find some nuts running along to get a view of the loco.

Of course, there would be a lot of waste of water and coal for no apparent gain...but then it might be the last time one sees such things working.

Note in the above pictures (especially this one) that the shed has been painted as "Bandra". I think that is a temporary paint, since the loco was reported in some newspapers as belonging to Rewari in Madhya Pradesh.

Other pictures are to be found on the IRFCA site. See this link.

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