Rewari Heritage Shed

Introduction

      Rewari Steam Loco Shed was started in the year 1893 under the jurisdiction of Bombay Baroda and Central India Railways (BB & CIR). Rewari soon became one of the biggest junctions on the metre gauge route and the shed too was the largest Metre Gauge loco shed in India with close to 500 maintenance staff working at its peak.

      In the early 1900s the shed primarily homed ‘P’ class engines. The shed’s locos hauled trains to Delhi, Bhatinda, Churu, Fulera etc.

      Though the pre-Independence holdings are not known, the shed had a holding of 65 MG locos between 1980-82. Rewari also had 395 loco drivers on roll making it a major crew depot as well.

      The shed had a working span of 100 years and was closed down in the year 1993 and by 1994 all locomotives were cut and sold as scrap except two locos, YG 3415 and YG 3438. The shed was planned to be converted to a MG Diesel loco shed and from Sept’93 MG (YDM4) Diesel locos were maintained here. This practice stopped in Aug’96. In 1994 The Royal Orient Express was started and was hauled by two steam locomotives on the stretch between Delhi Cantt. and Rewari. With this, the shed again came to prominence for some time. In 2001, it was planned to convert the shed to a heritage shed. By this time all metre gauge routes to Rewari had been converted to broad gauge and some vintage BG locos were also planned to be homed here. One bay of the shed was converted to Broad gauge for this purpose. In May 2002 , WP 7161 became the first loco to come to Rewari Shed followed by WP 7200. On 14th Aug 2002, then Railway Minister Sh. Nitish Kumar opened the shed, declaring it as the Heritage Steam Loco Shed.

      Rewari Locos have been a part of several Bollywood Movies. Among these Guru, Gandhi-My Father, Rang de Basanti, Gadar, Jaanissar, Sultan,Bharat , Rrifleman Jaswant Singh are a notable few. The shed has been given a new lease of life with large scale renovation and restoration carried out in 2010. A new cafeteria, a small library and a museum have been added. However, the spirit of the place is intact, with the same shed building dating back to 1893 and majestic black beauties back in action.

      The shed has also been associated in maintaining steam locomotives of National Bal Bhavan, PSMT at NRM & NR HQ office, KC520 on Kalka-Shimla section and ZB-66 in Kangra Valley.