Tale of the 1855 twins

There's some intrigue and unanswered questions about the Express and the Fairy Queen

The advent of railways in India is generally dated to April 16, 1853. At 3.35 pm on that date, a train left Bori Bunder for Thane (then Tannah), with three steam locomotives (Sindh, Sultan and Sahib) pulling it. No photographs exist of that journey or the locomotives. Sindh, Sultan and Sahib have vanished into the pages of history.  No one knows what became of them.  Between 1852 and 1853, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) imported eight locomotives from Vulcan Foundry. Sindh, Sultan and Sahib must have been from that lot. Down the years, the postal department has issued several stamps with locomotives on them.  A set of such stamps was issued on May 15, 1976, and one of these stamps shows a locomotive with the explanation “GIP No. 1”. This is one of the first locomotives to be used in India and Sindh, Sultan and Sahib must have looked like this.  Since the cylinder was inside the engine, these locomotives had a longish appearance, a bit like the locomotives George and Robert Stephenson designed. For steam locomotives, a classification system known as Whyte (named after Frederick Methvan Whyte) is used. In essence, the Whyte notation counts the number of leading wheels, driving wheels and trailing wheels. GIPR locomotives such as Sindh, Sultan and Sahib were 2-4-0 — two leading wheels, four driving wheels and zero trailing wheels.  When you look at an image of the postage stamp, such as on the Net, this will be obvious. 

On April 16, 1953, the postal department issued another 2 anna postage stamp, with two locomotives on it. For this, too, you will find an image on the Net. The first locomotive was from 1853, the second from 1953. That 1853 locomotive has flummoxed me and no one has been able to answer my question satisfactorily. In 1855, Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson built several locomotives, including some for the East Indian Railway (EIR). In the Whyte notation, these were 2-2-2T. This means two leading wheels, two driving wheels and two trailing wheels, but the suffix “T” needs an explanation. A steam locomotive needs to carry coal or other fuel and water. This may be on a separate tender pulled by the locomotive, in which case, it is called a tender locomotive. In the Whyte notation, a tender locomotive has no letters as suffixes, beyond the numbers. Those GIPR locomotives were tender locomotives and in the image, you will see the tender behind the locomotive. Alternatively, the locomotive can carry coal and water inside the locomotive itself. This is called a tank locomotive, indicated by the suffix “T”. The EIR locomotives were tank locomotives. If you contrast the two images in the two stamps, the difference in appearances will be clear. Incidentally, for these EIR locomotives, the cylinder was on the outside.

VINTAGE TRAIL Withdrawn from service in 1909, Fairy Queen was restored in 1997 and did a two-day excursion from Delhi to Alwar. It entered the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest functional steam locomotive

Thus my question. In 1953, a hundred years of the 1853 run was commemorated. Why use a locomotive not used in 1853? The 1953 stamps show an EIR locomotive, not a GIPR one.  Indeed, the locomotive shown in the stamp as being of 1853 vintage had not even been built in 1853. It was built in 1855. There are records of two such EIR heritage locomotives in working order, EIR-21 and EIR-22. Both were built by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson. Later, they were known as EIR 91 and EIR 92.  Much later, in 1895, they came to acquire the respective names of Express and Fairy Queen. The old locomotive shown in the 1953 postage stamp is the Express, not the Fairy Queen. I don’t detect any numbers on the stamp, so I don’t know how one can tell. However, since railway experts say so, it must be true. It is believed that Express was used for ferrying British troops to suppress the 1857 War of Independence. Subsequently, it retired and was preserved at the Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop. It then became an exhibit at the Railway Museum, Howrah. Later, it moved to the Perambur Locomotive Works. As for Fairy Queen, it is a famous locomotive. It was withdrawn from service in 1909. But restored in 1997, it did a two-day excursion from Delhi to Alwar, with an overnight stay in Sariska. The locomotive entered the Guinness World Records as the oldest functional steam locomotive in the world and is now housed in the Rewari steam locomotive shed. Express and Fairy Queen are like twins. But since Express was numbered EIR-21 and Fairy Queen EIR-22, the former must be the elder twin. 

Perambur restored Express to working condition in 2010 and once in a while, it has been used to run heritage specials. On September 10, 2017, Southern Railway used Express to haul a single compartment between Egmore and Kodambakkam. (There are pictures and a wonderful video on the Net.) Does this mean the Fairy Queen loses its status as the oldest functional steam locomotive in the world? I suspect this might be a premature deduction, though I am unsure. Express has been restored to working order. Among working heritage steam locomotives in India, Express and Fairy Queen are from 1855. Chronologically, the next one is Pawan Doot, from 1905. That’s the gap between these two and the others. However, the record seems to be about the oldest functional (in operation) steam locomotive, not the oldest locomotive in working order. Therefore, like Delhi-Alwar, Express will need to have a regular run. Nevertheless, Fairy Queen’s record, which has existed since 1998, is under threat.

The writer is a member of the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog. The views are personal