"Come on big brother, let's play!"

BTW Rajeev, was the little one pulling the big one or was it being pushed? And some info on the vintage of this photo maybe...?

Posted by Bizzy Mishra on 2007 Dec 13 15:41:04 +0000

I vaguely remember being told about a railway siding which was was built to haul the stones up the Raisina Hill from NDLS, to enable construction of the (now) Rashtrapati Bhawan, North/South blocks and Parliament House. This was the first picture I found supporting that.

Posted by Rajeev Shrivastava on 2007 Dec 13 16:02:34 +0000

WG and the Fairy Queen - nice nice! Wish the railway line was still there!

Posted by Siddhartha Ganesh on 2007 Dec 13 16:14:11 +0000

Sid, that's not a WG. Seems like a BESA design to me but someone like Harsh would be able to confirm that. The buildings seen here were built in the 1920-30s and if I'm not mistaken, the loco on the left entered service a little after that. I think these locos were brought to the grounds as some sort of exhibit. Why would an EIR and GIP loco work on a construction site near Delhi?

Posted by Bharat Vohra on 2007 Dec 13 16:41:59 +0000

Oh ok. Thanks for the info Bharat.

Posted by Siddhartha Ganesh on 2007 Dec 13 17:58:55 +0000

Probably an XB

Posted by Ajai Banerji on 2007 Dec 14 07:33:38 +0000

Brings back memories of a bygone era!
Thanks for the pics Rajeev!

Posted by PVS Praveen Kumar on 2007 Dec 14 07:45:31 +0000

Wow! Wow! Great to see old vintage photos.

Posted by Arzan Kotval on 2007 Dec 14 14:03:31 +0000

The bigger one fits to XB description, but I didn't know that GIP also employed them. Smaller one is definitely Fairy Queen.
But These two were definitely not employed in the construction site of the Rashtrapati Bhawan or Parliament House. Polished painted wheels of XB doesn't confirm the identity of a construction worker. Parliament House design was brought in 1912 but the real construction began in 1921. And our Fairy Queen, who served only in the eastern part of the EIR and was withdrawn from service in 1909, was plinthed at Howrah until 1943. It was accorded with heritage status in 1972, the year when India was celebrating the silver Jubilee of its Independence, and was restored to exhibit at National Rail Museum.
The picture, in my opinion, was from 1972 when these locomotives were brought to the national Capital for an exhibiton, as part of the 25th year celebration.

Posted by Santulan Mahanta on 2013 Dec 27 05:32:44 +0000