Sir Leslie Wilson On the Tracks

His Highness Sir Leslie Wilson today rests at the National Railway Museum grounds in New Delhi and meets visitors without prior appointment! This is what Indian railway historian G.D Patwardhan has to say about His Highness.

But what has a railway historian got to do with Sir Wilson?

Well, Sir Leslie Wilson is the name of one of the first direct current (DC) electric locomotives that came on to the Indian soil in 1928. This was among a batch of 41 electric locos specially designed for goods operations and had a high tractive effort.

The engine was christened Sir Leslie Wilson in the honour of the then Governor of Bombay, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, who officially inaugurated railway electrification in India.

Build by Swiss Locomotive Works with electrical equipment by Metropolitan Vickers, England, this 5’ 6” broad gauge engine was initially classified as EF/1 and later WCG1.

The first batch of these electric locomotives of India were in the service of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the pioneering railway in India. The railway was electrified in 1925 and these locomotives started arriving at the Bombay Port since August 1927.

These locomotives were typically Swiss in their design and appearance and had coupled wheels like the Swiss electric locomotives of those days and were called “Crocodile” electric locomotives. “Incidentally, these engines were based on the Swiss “Krokodil” articulated electric locomotives of the 1920s,” says Anirban Dasgupta, a railway enthusiast. The engines are styled around the renowned Swiss 'crocodile' class of engines, so called due to their low slung profile and very long wheelbase, and an alleged resemblance to that animal while rounding bends.

Of the 41 electric locomotives, the first 10 had their bodies built by the Swiss Locomotive & Machine Works ( SLM ) of Switzerland with electricals by Metropolitan-Vickers of England.

These engines had regenerative braking and they were used extensively on the Bombay to Poona and Igatpuri routes via the Western Ghats.

Having C-C wheel arrangement, these locomotives had an articulated frame, suitable for rounding the sharp bends on the ardous hill route.

The next 31 were built totally built in England. These locomotives worked for 66 years and today, two such units are preserved, one at the National Railway Museum, New Delhi, and the other at Kalyan near Mumbai. Salute the His Highness.