wp glory a tribute to the magnificent WP class of steam locomotives of the Indian Railways |
by S.SHANKAR (With inputs from JOHN LACEY & TERRY CASE) |
PHOTOS PAGE-3
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By now, you undoubtedly agree about the WPs being one of the most handsome classes of steam engine built in the world. The glorious beasts live on eternally in the hearts of their admirers.
Concluding your ride behind one of the world's best looking steam engines.
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1. Dressed to kill: a pristine WP at Mettupalayam on the SR. |
| 2.Most WPs on the SER were drab machine sans the decorative star. One such star-less WP rounds a bend on the East Coast with a WG in tow. |
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3. A scene from the East Coast: a star-less WP headed passenger train on the Godavari Bridge in AP. |
| 4. And on the West coast, a WP hauls the Frontier Mail on the Bassein (Vasai) creek bridge. (Photo courtesy: a fellow-irfca member.) |
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5. WP 7316 (with a tender of WP 7342!) takes on water at Gondia. The engine is hauling the Howrah-Ahmedabad Express. Note stainless steel milk tanker as the first car. Its amazing how milk was hauled all the way from Ahmedabad to Howrah. (Photo courtesy: John Lacey) |
| 6.The extent to which the pointed star on the WP smokebox enhanced the beauty of these majestic machines is more than brought out by this beautiful pic of one of these beauty queens at Agra heading the Taj Express. |
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7. Living up to her reputation of being the most handsome class of engines ever built, a WP blasts out of Agra with the superfast Taj Express in the 1970s. |
| 8.Shadow play: a WP gilstens in the late afternoon sun as she prepares to leave Poona with the shuttle train to Daund. (April 1983.) |
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9. The same locomotive caught as she steams out of Poona Jn. (April 1983.) |
| 10. Another star-less WP, this time with a black nose, exhibits raw steam power on the SER. |
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11.Clouds of white steam as a WP leaves Poona at 1755 with the Daund shuttle train. ( Sept. 1983.) |
| 12.A star-less WP/P prototype awaits preservation at the NRM in Delhi.This engine was originally based at Daund near Poona.(Scanned from a picture postcard sold at the NRM.) |
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13. The WP at the NRM, Delhi with a sparkling new coat of paint and sporting a smart pointed star on the smokebox door in place of the ridiculous flower motif.(Photo courtesy Harsh Vardhan: Nov/Dec.1998.) |
| 14.A WP shows off her lines at Daund Jn. in 1983, having just taken over the Poona-Raichur Passenger from a WDM/2 diesel. (1983.) |
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15. A WP/P prototype at Daund, complete with 3-D cut-out brass star around the headlight just prior to her taking over out train to Poona. Note the fitment of non-disk wheels from another class, indicating that other steam engines have been cannibalized to keep this unit on the rails. (Photographed by my brother in Sept.1993). |
| 16. The last of the steam-hauled express trains was the Madras-Jammutawi Janata Express, seen here rounding a bend. |
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17.WPs await the call of duty at the Delhi shed. (Photo courtesy of Buriton Wheelbarrow 1997) |
| 18.A sombre black and white pic of a WP showing off her handsome lines. |
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19. A WP hauls a passenger train near the Darrang Pass in Western India. |
| 20. A steaming WP enters a station in Eastern India. (Scanned from a print in the Khaleej Times Friday magazine (Dubai) in 1992.) |
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21. Steam, darkness, and angular lighting give this heavily embellished WP a ghostly look. (Photographed by me in the Daund shed in 1983: that was when the shed foreman branded me a lunatic!!) |
| 22.A brilliant model of a star-less WP in the indoor galleries of the National Rail Museum, New Delhi. ( Nov. 1997.) |
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23. Dramatic late-evening shot of a WP leaving a station in India. |
| 24. With some of her streamlining missing (see atop boiler), a decreipt WP speeds past in Bihar with a local passenger train. (Near Patna: April 1986.) |
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25. Dressed to kill: a brilliantly embellished and immaculate WP at Idgah shed, Agra. |
| 26. WP 7249 steams into Howrah with an unidentified passenger train. (From Joydeep Dutta's collection: pic posted to irfca shared files section) |
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27.A WP emerges from a fog bank in North Eastern India. |
| 28. Side view of a star-less WP in steam in Eastern India. |
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So the WPs are gone. Sadly, they will never be seen in action again, save for the two preserved units, which will be occasionally steamed and put back on line. But that will be for short spells of time on dedicated routes alone. Never again will the magnificent beasts overwhelm the Indian tracks, hauling almost every passenger, express or mail train all over the country, on the broad gauge.
Hopefully, this page would have given you some idea about the charisma of these handsome beasts.
The WPs fought bravely a long battle against other forms of traction, but tragically lost. What adds insult to injury is the attitude of the IR authorities towards steam: all their actions seem to reflect a certain feeling of shame that steam had existed in the first place.
We enthusiasts can only shed a tear in
the memory of the WPs 
and light a candle in their rembrance.
That drives
the final nail into the coffin, the story of the most hansome and beautiful railway
locomotives in the whole world: the WPs.May they rest in peace.
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NOT GOTTEN 'NUFF OF THE WPs YET? Or like me, are you so overwhelmed with nostalgia and sentimentality that you simply got to see some more WP pics or else!
Help is on hand. To see some more WP pics, visit John Lacey's STEAM MASALA site.
CLICK HERE
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