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The side profile of WCM/1 #20066, CR's real McCoy DC locomotive. The bonnet design was quite successful, and the series went through five successful versions. Note the absence of front cab-doors, and the diamond pantograph with twin current collection bows. This one's been assigned to haul the 7493 Mumbai-Tirupati Express out of Mumbai CST in April '98.

 

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This was the only surviving locomotive of her kind - the WCM/6 class #20187, caught in the siding at Kasara in Jan 2001. BHEL beat out CLW when it came to finding the heir to CR's Mumbai division throne, vacated by the WCM class. And CLW's WCM/6 locomotive is no match to BHEL's WCAM/3 class.

 

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The side profile of the WCM/6 class - she was never given a passenger train to haul, and remains shunned, doing menial jobs like shunting or hauling short freights. The underframe of the locomotive is remniscent of the WAG7 class, IR's star freight locomotive of today.

 

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Another view of the WCM/6 locomotive - I wonder if any other Indian locomotive had a run of bad luck as this one. Anyways, the good news is that her mate #20188 is back on the rails! Now two WCM/6 class locomotives exist - even though their future seems bleak, given the imminent demise of DC traction. A pic of WCM6 #20188 by M. Giridhar and Shrinivas Joshi can be found here.

 

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A closeup look at WCM1 #20068 from Kalyan, at New Delhi. This locomotive class dominated Mumbai operations for a long time, and this one was selected for preservation. However, NRM was bursting with no room, and she was shunted away south and was finally seen (12/01) in Erode, SR. There were plans to start more Rail Museums across the country.

 

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Another look at WCM1 #20068 from Kalyan, coupled to NR Mughalsarai (MGS) WDM4 #18001 at the tracks leading to National Rail Museum, New Delhi beside Delhi Safdarjang station. To provide company is a Tuglakabad WAG5 with the newly-delivered LHB coaches that strangely bore the Amritsar Shatabdi plate. The 200xx numbers have now been assigned to the WDP4 class.