Rail,Trail

Personalities in Indian Railways:
Chittaranjan Das
Among the personages who shaped the destiny of the Indian struggle for freedom,Chittaranjan Das ranks as one of the most prominent patriots who sacrificed his all for the country’s cause. Born on November 5,1870,C R Das had his early education in the London Missionary Society Institution,Bhowanipur,and graduated in 1890 from Presidency College,Calcutta. He then proceeded to England where he joined the middle temple and was called to the Bar in 1892. He returned to India in 1893 and enrolled himself at the Bar of the Calcutta High Court. During his early years as a lawyer,he intimately associated with Rabindranath Tagore. After a series of sensational criminal cases in which he used his vast knowledge of the British Law for the defence of patriots and the advancement of the cause of India’s freedom,the most famous being Sri Aurobindo Ghose,who was accused in the Alipore Bomb Conspiracy case. A founder of the Swaraj Party within the freedom movement,he advocated fighting the British Raj from within the council chambers. True to his own statement: “If I live,I live for Swaraj,If I die,I die for Swaraj”,Chittaranjan Das thought,dreamt,talked and worked for the freedom of India and nothing else till the day of his untimely death on June 16,1925. The first locomotive manufacturing facility in India was named Chittranjan locomotive works in his honour. The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department bought out a commemorative stamp on November 5,1965,the occasion of his birth anniversary.

Locomotives in steam-15
The WP class locos hauled more than eighty per cent of the trains on the Indian Railways. Between 1945 and 1995,755 WPs have worked on the IR. It is perhaps befitting that this class loco features on IR logo. Similar to WPs on broad gauge line,the metre gauge had 4-6-2 YPs that hauled passenger trains. The loco featured on special cover is YP 2511,manufactured by Telco in 1963 .Most YPs were manufactured by Telco. Featured in maximum card is YP 2590 built by Telco in 1965. The loco is now plinthed outside Aurangabad station. VIKAS SINGH,RAIL ENTHUSIAST