This low quality image was taken by me with a digital camera nearly 7 years ago. It's zoomed in to showcase the Meter Gauge loco properly. This whole division used to be meter gauge once [think decades ago]. It was slowly converted to Broad gauge[Indian Railways doesn't use Standard gauge] until this stretch remained. This was one of the last remaining locos in this area [ the Y in the 'YDM' indicates it to be a MG loco, whilst W indicates Broad gauge and Z indicating narrow gauge found only on UNESCO World Heritage Rail sites in India now ]. This stretch was too converted soon after and has been re opened as a broad gauge section now, leaving these MG locos only in memory. The other proper image has been taken quite recently. It is a loco used for traversing Goods trains on electric traction.
Gwalior is a medium sized town lying in central India, maybe more common in tourists for it's historic forts than anything else. However, until couple of years back, it also had a ~200km network of Narrow gauge tracks/trains starting from it. These trains had a peak maximum speed of 35 kmph and when running inside the city, only 5 kmph. Accelerating like a toad with a diesel engine in tow, these could carry single digit coaches only [with lower capacity as well]. Whilst traveling on train tops is nearly non existent on most broad gauge routes of India due to electrified tracks, it was common on these ancient relics. I sadly, never had a chance to ride on these trains[inside the trains, not roof in case someone is curious ] and after tracks closing down, some of it has been converted to Broad gauge via a different route alignment. In the images, one can see the Narrow gauge tracks[which still exist at the main station in a tiny corner], the dilapidated coaches [ the built year being 1992] and an inside view of what it once might have been. With the closing down of this section, India now has a handful of Narrow gauge tracks left, mostly UNESCO Heritage sites, used for tourism purposes rather than anything else. This was one last exception since it exclusively catered to locals and not anyone else.
