Welcome to the Fairy Queen

Welcome to the Fairy Queen

Welcome to the oldest working locomotive in the world, the Fairy Queen.

The Fairy Queen was built in 1855, by Kitson Thompson and Hewitson of Leeds, England. It is registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest working steam railway locomotive in the world. The National Railway Museum in conjunction with Indian Railways and the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation run an outstanding tour from Delhi Cantonment station to Alwar, Rajasthan. The tour ran two days and was a great value! The package included:

Lunch on board,

Coach transfer and afternoon tea at the Lake Palace Hotel, about 20 km outside Alwar,

Overnight accommodations, including Hors d'Oeuvre, dinner and cultural show,

Early morning guided jeep-safari tour of the Sariska National Park (now a Project Tiger reserve),

Breakfast buffet,

Guided tour of the Alwar City Palace/Museum,

Lunch followed by tea on board the Fairy Queen,

And of course the privilege of riding behind the oldest working steam locomotive in the world!

All this for an extremely reasonable price. Go to the Fairy Queen web site for current prices and itinerary. (A word of caution, some web travel agents were charging double the price.) The Fairy Queen departs Delhi on Saturday, returning on Sunday. It does not run every week so you need to plan accordingly.

The train consists of the Fairy Queen, one first class coach and one pantry car. The coach seats approximately 50. The trains runs on the Indian Broad Gauge, 5'-6" between the rails. The Fairy Queen can keep up a lively pace, much better than the maximum 50 mph limit imposed. Be sure to ask to ride up front, and get a real taste of India main line railroading!

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Delhi Cantt, is a suburban station. You miss all the crowds of the main Delhi stations.	Welcome by traditional music.	Delhi Cantt station platform. The station serves both meter and broad gauge trains.

The business end of the Fairy Queen.	The Fairy Queen has a 1-1-1 wheel arrangement. In American lingo it is a 2-2-2.	The entire crew was extremely proud of the Fairy Queen. Polishing continued throughout the trip.

Probably at an angle for clearance, but maybe the original builders thought steam pistons work better on a slant.	The safety valves. Looks like overkill, but back in 1855 they may have had some spectacular boiler explosions that resulted in this design.	Not much space for the Supervisor, Driver, Fireman, Lubricating man, and assorted rider-visitors. The coach has a full-width picture window on the end next to the Fairy Queen.

Steamed up and ready to go.	The whistle is operated by turning a valve, no cord required.	The Fairy Queen is coal fired. Additional coal is carried in the pantry car. The Fairy Queen's coal is replenished at one of the stops.

Interior of the first class coach.	Mr. Rajesh Agrawal, Director of the National Rail Museum, Delhi, introduced the entire crew at trips end. National Rail Museum Link.	Certification that we road the Fairy Queen.

Scenery along the way.	People stopped to look at the Fairy Queen the entire trip.	The cultural show, brought in from Jaipur, at the overnight accommodation.

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