History
Deccan Queen was started on June 1, 1930 as a weekend train for the Britishers during the British rule in India, to ferry race-fans from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Poona (now Pune). The first service of the train was conducted from Calyan (now Kalyan) and Pune. It was converted to a daily service soon after, starting from Bombay Victoria Terminus (renamed Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus CSTM). It is one of the longest running trains on the Indian Railways to have never run on steam power. From the beginning, the Deccan Queen has been run using electric locomotives. Occasionally, it was given diesel locomotives in case of original locomotive failure.
The color of its rake has seen a lot of changes, from red colour to yellow and then to blue.
The Deccan Queen has several firsts or 'among the firsts' to her credit: she was India's first superfast train, she was the first long distance electric hauled passenger train, she was one of India's first vestibuled trains. The Deccan Queen was the first to have a Ladies Only car, and amongst the first to feature a diner. (dining car). The train has an exciting and chequered history. The Deccan Queen got a brand new rake in 1966, consisting of Indian Railways standard integral anti telescopic cars. For the first time since the history of the train, third class (now second class)passengers were allowed to travel by this train. It had only reserved first class since inception till 1966.
Deccan Queen is the second train in India having ISO 9000 certification and a dining car after the India's first ISO Certified train Shaan - E - Bhopal Express running between Bhopal Habibganj (Bhopal) - Hazrat Nizamuddin (Delhi). It has sixteen coaches including the engine.
The Deccan Queen is also one of the most favourite trains among railfans. Every year on 1 June, its regular pass-holders, railfans and railway authorities celebrate the train's birthday. Deccan Queen entered its 82nd year of service on 1 June 2011.
Read more about this topic: Deccan Queen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I feel as tall as you.”
—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)