Gwalior Light Railways 0-2-2 Locomotives in India

Class unknown (Locobase 10527)

Data from "Locomotives Working the Gwalior Light Railways", The Railway Magazine, (15 September 1905), p.153. See also Arvid Chauhan, "Heritage narrow gauge rail track to chug into history" India Times (13 August 2020) at [], last accessed 27 June 2023.

The core of this light line was a toy railway originally laid by His Highness the Maharajah Madhav Rao II Scindia of Gwalior. It connected the Maharajah's palaces, the Morar residency, clubs and other places in Gwalior and Lashkar and to the royal fishing preserves 11 miles off. The considerably more ambitious GLR was a revenue-earning system of a type constructed by several maharajahs independently of any British control or financing.

The GLR opened on 2 December 1899. Although narrow, the network of lines ran off in several directions to the extent of 53 miles to the northeast to Bhind, 74 miles southeast to Sipri, and 58 miles to Sabalgahr (Shivpur).

In 2009, an Indian committee proposed that UNESCO deem the GLR to be of "Outstanding Universal Value." Its proposal stated, in part: "As an example of interchange of human values, the GLR is part of that stage of globalization which was characterized by colonial rule. The British in India had then decreed that railways can be constructed and used by Indian rulers for restricted private purposes as toys, for amusement and subordinated to the British. However, notwithstanding this; Maharaja Railways of India emerged as an outstanding example of the amalgamation of cultures and human values coupled with bold initiatives / enterprise by Indian rulers to construct railway lines for the benefit of their kingdoms. The GLR is a spectacular example of this from the 19th century and one of the very few surviving examples."

Motive power for the railway included this little Kerr, Stuart engine which was rated at 68 tons up a 1% grade.