Requiem for steam engines

With steam engines making way for diesel and electric locomotives, one misses the eerie whistle in the night that sometime woke up sleepers even in places far away from railway stations. It reassured many that there was activity past midnight, with trains hurtling in the dark to distant destinations and with passengers half-asleep and hardly aware of their whereabouts but dimly conscious that they were nearing homewards. 

For those waiting to catch a smoke-puffing train at some remote station like Sarai Rohilla or Tughlakabad, the engine headlight alerted them that the long wait was finally over and now it was just a question of boarding the train for a long or short journey. As the train stopped, they saw the Anglo-Indian driver with a tumbler full of tea in his hand and the firemen hauling coal into the burning fire in the engine, which needed to be replenished from time to time. These men were known as Jacks and their ultimate aim was to become engine drivers themselves. There was a whole colony of them at Daya Basti and also at Rewari. 

Passing by Bandiqui station on the way to Jaipur, one still nostalgically remembers the engines lined up on the tracks prior to being shunted and attached to some train or the other before it was brought to the main platforms of the station. But there was one engine, a magnificent specimen, which always remained parked under a shed. This was reserved to haul the train meant for the Maharaja of Jaipur and high officials of his court. British officers posted in Bandiqui, with a big AngloIndian population of railwaymen, also used such locomotives. It looked like a romantic setting, but the old charm is lost after the introduction of electric trains.

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