Steam & Coal

Visits to the National rail Museum here in New Delhi, for a lunatic as I am is always a welcome change from the regular places most of us prefer to go instead. And yet often the place makes me sad insted of making me cheerfull in the company of aging steam locomotives displayed in all their splendor. I've though about it and here is the conclusion that I have reached.

In reality a steam locomotive is all about steel, more steel and even more steel. That is what form the core of the whole machinery for most of us. But for me the whole exercise is worthless with two key ingredients - water and coal. The reason I say so is because to watch a piece of machinery lying idle in a disregarded state is something that is not what quite impresses me. For the moment I am keeping aside my love for the old steam loco and concentrating more on what is missing in them. Yes so the ingredient that really makes up a steam engine is not tons of steel but tons of coal and water. To find the same missing makes me wish that they were actually present and someone, somehow could breathe life into them. For something so beautiful to lay in a state of comma is a disrespect to our understandings and idea of aesthetics. So this is why a visit to the National rail Museum makes me sad at times.