The steam engine of the first passenger train that plied between Mumbai and Thane in 1853 will be installed at Thane railway station premises, said an official. Thane MLA Sanjay Kelkar said it was apt to install the engine at Thane, where history was created several years ago.
Similarly, all historical monuments in the city and district would be preserved in the coming days, Kelkar said.
The steam locomotive was kept at the Heritage Gully in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). Over the days, this locomotive was painted in green and black to re-live its look from the British era. Now, it has been placed on a platform created especially for this locomotive near the parking lot outside the station.
It was manufactured in 1928 in Manchester, United Kingdom and the locomotive served on this narrow-gauge line on the Barsi Light Railway. It was a 325 km long, having tracks of 762 mm narrow-gauge railway line between Miraj and Latur.
This month the Indian Railways will complete 168 years since it first ran on April 16, 1853. The first passenger train in India ran from Mumbai (Bori Bunder) to Thane on April 16, 1853 and covered a distance of 34 km. It carried around 400 passengers and the journey itself then took one hour and 15 minutes.
