History of Fairy Queen

There is no train journey quite as legendary as a Fairy Queen travel. Fairy Queen Fairy Queen is a tribute to the early railway heritage. It is the oldest working broad gauge steam locomotive in the world and transports tourists from Delhi to Alwar in Rajasthan. However its chequered history has its own share of upheavals.

The Fairy Queen was built in the year 1855 by the British firm Kitson, Thomson and Hewitson of Leeds to run on a broad gauge track (5 foot 6 inches). Weighing all of 26 tonnes, the locomotive was a type 2-2-2 WT (under slung water tank) with a double plate frame and its original maker number was 481.

In 1855, Fairy Queen was handed over to the East Indian Railways (EIR), the pioneer of the railway network in India, and renamed EIR 22. The East Indian Railways used the locomotive to haul mail trains between Howrah and Raniganj in the state of West Bengal. This distance of 194 kilometers was covered at a leisurely pace of 25 miles per hour taking 5 hours in all.

During the Great uprising of 1857, she was used for the transportation of the troops. In 1881, her number was changed to 92 and she was renumbered 101 in 1884. In 1895 she was finally named 'Fairy Queen'.

The Fairy Queen retired in 1909 and was placed outside Howrah station in Kolkata where she made her debut.

Between the years 1909 to 1943 she remained in Kolkata. She was then shifted to the Zonal Training School at Chandausi. In 1973, she was brought back to Delhi during the inauguration of the Rail Transport Museum.

However, she has to wait till 1997 to claim the title of the oldest working locomotive. Before that another engine named 'Tweed' which was built by Dubs of Glasgow, Scotland in 1873 was regularly chugging and wheezing at Sarayu Sugar Mills, in Gorakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh.

In 1996, a complete over haul of the Fairy Queen took place in Perambur Workshop in Chennai. On October 31, 1998, she was pressed into action to run on select days between Delhi and Alwar, a distance of 143 kilometers.

Pulling a two-bogie train the locomotive regally chugs out of Delhi Cantonment station, working to a fever pitch of a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour. And the grand centenarian that she is, she stops six times in between to get her breath back and of course to stock up on water and coal.

The locomotive is still original and in pristine condition - the steam regulator as well as the copper boiler furnace and a blast from the old whistle never fails to bring people of all ages to stand and gape and wave wildly as the locomotive chugs merrily by the stunning Indian countryside.