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Raj Steam - Indian Metre Gauge Steam |
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This index links to a series of pages covering existing metre gauge steam locomotives of Indian Railways from the 1970s up to the end of steam at the turn of the century. Based on Hugh Hughes's CRC book "Steam Locomotives in India, Part 2, Metre Gauge" it appears to be surprisingly complete. Those with a copy of the book or knowledge of the subject will notice gaps and, of course, I would welcome offers to fill them. As the book records, by the early 1970s there had already been a cull of non-standard classes since the formation of a national system. Some will have been replaced by new build standard classes - the last YP appeared in 1970 and the last YG in 1972, others by locomotives cascaded by the arrival of standard YDM4 diesels from 1961. Paradoxically with gauge unification almost complete, these are now (2017) being scrapped in large numbers. This section of Raj Steam now covers all of the zones which had metre gauge railways, the last zone added, the Western Railway, was definitely the most interesting. Most travellers to India naturally gravitated to the narrow gauge with its vast array of different classes of locomotives. Often metre and broad gauge steam was covered only in passing and in researching available resources, I have been constantly reminded of that. I would welcome offers of contributions, obviously top of the list would be non-standard classes but for some of the railways coverage of even the standard classes is sparse except for the closing years of the 1990s by which time steam was concentrated in a very few areas. If you can help fill these then please get in touch using the email address at the bottom of the page.
All photographers are acknowledged by their initials, their identity can readily be established from the list in 'The Last Word' link. Sadly more than one third are no longer with us, let these pages be a memorial to their efforts for the benefit of future generations of enthusiasts. |
