aklekar

Did you know that India’s first steam engine never ran on tracks and was actually used to run driving mills in a factory? That the maximum speed of the first commercial train in India was 4.5 miles/hour? That the country’s first-ever steam locomotive could never be introduced commercially since it was destroyed in a factory blast? That the locomotive engine for the maiden rail run between Bombay and Thane was pulled by 200 coolies on streets? That there actually was a plan to build a rail network from the English Channel all the way to the river Indus? This is a people’s history of Indian Railways. Anecdotes and stories are curated from the time the first wagon rolled in India, up to the advent of bullet trains.