Southern Railway India steam 1987

[roythebus]

A few pics of my holiday in India, mostly taken around Golden Rock/Trichy Junction (Tirruchirappalli).

 

I found the staff there very accommodating and friendly as I was a BR driver at the time and welcomed me on the footplate for a real main-line experience.

[MGR Hooper!]

My grandfather worked on Southern and South Central Railways for many years....

[roythebus]

My first wife's father was a fireman at Trichy Junction (Tiruchirapalli) shed. He came to England in 1961.

 

The top picture shows my 2 sons on the loco, the one on the right is now a fireman on the Bluebell and is also fleet engineer for the GoviaThameslink franchise.

Edited October 26, 2017 by roythebus

[bingley hall]

You have solved a mystery for me. Googling 'YP 2674' and yours was the only image to come up.

 

In October 1978 I photographed YG 2674 at Surendranagar on the Western Railway - a running number way out of sequence for a YG. A bit of research found that YG 3173 carried the number YG 2674 which was the number originally allocated when it was amongst the first batch of YGs to be built by Tata Engineering in 1952. 

 

Despite being officially renumbered some time in the early 1960s when a batch of YPs with the same numbers were built (YG 2501 to YG 2750 were renumbered YG 3000 to YG 3249), it still carried its original number in 1978. Interestingly YG 3248 from the same batch was at Surendranagar on the same day, carrying its correct stock number.

 

From your pic I now know YP 2674 was a Southern Railway locomotive so it is unlikely the duplicate running numbers ever caused any major problems for the authorities as never the twain were likely to meet.