Steam engine chugs down memory lane

Billowing huge columns of smoke,the train left Howrah at 11.55 am and completed the 40 km journey to Bandel Junction reaching there at 2.10 pm after stopping for brief intervals at Rishra,Sreerampore and Hooghly stations.

Inside the stream engine cabinet was a driver helped by two workmen adding coal (fuel) to the fire.

The WP class steam locomotive was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works,Philadelphia before production started at the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works.

The WP 7200 with a gauge of 5.6 feet and locomotive weight of 102.4 tonnes is one of the 16 prototypes that were handed over by the USA government to the Indian ambassador to the US on August 15,1947,nearly 93 years after when the first train journey commenced from the Howrah station.

On August 15,1854 the first train of Eastern Railways was flagged off from Howrah station with 300 passengers.

On Sunday,of the 3,000 applications,only 300 people were selected for the first ride on the train.

Reminiscing about the past,Railway officials said in those days the only ticket window was on the other side of the river at Armenian Ghat,and people had to buy tickets,cross the river and trudge through the muddy banks of the Hooghly.

Howrah station in its present avatar did not exist then—- it was only a tin shed to see through a pair of trains in a day.

Along with officials,nearly 150 children,including some differently-disabled,boarded the 17-compartment train. The railway authorities explained to the children the history and specification of the train.

A philatelic exhibition was organised at the Howrah station to trace the 155-year-old journey of the Eastern Railway.

A set of commemorative postal stamps were unveiled by Gurudas Kamat,the Union MoS for Information and Technology to mark the occasion.

The four postal stamps unveiled carried four heritage railway stations — Howrah,Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus,Delhi and Chennai. The programme was also attended by MoS Railway E Ahmed,MoS Shipping Mukul Roy and Deepak Krishna,the Chief General Manager of Eastern Railway.