The story of Fairy Queen, the 1885 steam engine that is still operational

Fairy Queen operated on the second and fourth Saturdays between October and March. It departs at 10:30 a.m. from Delhi Cantonment Railway Station and reaches the Museum of Rewari at 1 p.m. It then leaves from Rewari at 4:15 p.m. and arrives in Delhi at 6:15 p.m. It is a beautiful day journey; thus, one can also stay overnight in Alwar, which has beautiful heritage properties and is a perfect weekend getaway from Delhi.

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The Fairy Queen locomotive was started in 1855 and was first developed by Kitson, Hewitson, and Thompson in Leeds, England. The train then set off on a journey and reached Calcutta. It got the label EIR-22 from the East Indian Railway Company on its arrival. Initially, the Fairy Queen locomotive was used to haul light mail trains in the state of West Bengal, but then it got its route and operated between Howrah and Raniganj. Later on, it was consigned to line-only construction duties in Bihar and remained there till 1909. For almost 34 years, the engine was displayed outside the Howrah Station, and in 1943 it was moved to the Railway Zonal Training School in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandausi.

In 2011, after the loot, it was discovered that rare locomotive parts of the train were ‘irreplaceable.’ Some were stolen, and thus the locomotive was moved to Perambur in Chennai. Approximately 50–60 parts were looted, which included the flow tubes, lubricator, condenser, and boiler. Following a substantial rebuild, the missing parts were constructed by the workshops, and the train returned to service on December 22, 2012.

In 1972, it received its heritage status and was thus declared a natural treasure by the Indian government. In 1997, it received its name as the Fairy Queen train, which undertook two-day excursions from Delhi to Alwar, and from there, the tourists were mainly taken to the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary. This train was destroyed and looted at a railway shed in Delhi in 2011. It was then replaced with a WP 7161 steam engine, which was known as Akbar. The train is now housed at the Rewari Railway Heritage Museum and is only used for special day trips by the steam express at times.

The Fairy Queen is one of the world’s oldest working steam engine trains, built in 1855. It was the same year that the train saw its first journey for the East Indian Railway. In 1998, the Fairy Queen Train was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest locomotive delivering regular service. Till the year 1908, the train used to run off the Howrah-Raniganj line and then take the routes in Bihar. However, it had a small halt for some time, and in July 1997, it came back on track as it was restarted by the Indian Railways as a heritage train now running from Delhi to Alwar.

Fairy Queen has a broad gauge and weighs around 26 tons. It has a power output of 130 horsepower that allows it to reach a maximum speed of 40 km/h and has a 60-seater air-conditioned carriage. The seats inside are made up of cloth upholstery and are comfortable, with pairs of wide aisles on both sides. Having large glass windows at the front to expose travelers to the countryside view, the comfortable and vintage lounge looks mesmerizing with the startling views. The train also has a pantry car with an on-boarding catering service for its guests.

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