Southern Railway plans Sunday treat with heritage trip on Madras’ 163-year-old steam locomotive

For this pleasurable journey, the SR has decided to put the century-and-a-half old and the world’s oldest functional locomotive EIR-21, which was an exhibition piece to pull a lone coach for short distances on Independence Day and Republic Day since 2010, back on track for this novel trip. “We have planned to operate one more heritage train (apart from Niligiri Mountain Rail) in and around Chennai,” said R K Kulshrestha, general manager of SR, during the annual media briefing on Wednesday.

The SR has sought the approval of the railway board (RB) for operating the 163-year-old steam locomotive, which could easily haul three coaches, during weekends in city. “We are planning to operate EIR-21 from Beach to Egmore on Sundays,” Kulshrestha said, adding that the idea was to give people a feel of travelling in a heritage train. The commissioner of railway safety will also have to give his approval. 

Revived in 2010 by the loco workshop in Permabur, the colonial-era locomotive has thus far completed seven heritage runs on Beach -Tambaram route so far, including the most recent one - Egmore to Kodambakkam- during the Republic Day (January 26), this year.

On March 31, 2018, SR introduced weekend summer special service with steam locos between Mettupalayam and Coonoor. Also, a heritage summer special with three refurbished coaches was also introduced. The special train, a premium service catering to domestic and foreign tourists with two first class and one second class coach (totally 132 seats), will run till June 24, 2018.