The nostalgia of steam locomotive trains on show at Jehangir Art Gallery

Celebration of Indian Steam Locomotives, a series of paintings by artist Kishore Pratim Biswas, brings to the canvas the artist’s love of steam engine trains

As a boy growing up in Ichapur town of Barrackpore in West Bengal, close to a railway station, artist Kishore Pratim Biswas was fascinated by everything locomotive. People loading goods on the train, workers covered in coal dust and grease and passengers shielding their eyes from the coal dust were some of the sights he took in.

“Every summer vacation, I would board a steam locomotive train with my parents and brother and travel to my uncle’s place in Liluah in Howrah district. He was a steam locomotive train driver. Our parents would ask us not to look out the window because of the coal particles in the air. They would cover our face, nose and ears too. When the railway workers splashed water on the train and the hot engine, the steam would cause a ‘fog’ to rise; so much steam that people struggled to see things clearly. As a child, I was captivated by this particular scene and this is what I have tried to bring out on my canvas,” shares Mumbai-based Kishore who is displaying 25 such acrylics on canvas titled, Celebration of Indian Steam Locomotives, at Jehangir Art Gallery.

During his trips to Liluah, Kishore’s uncle would show him around the locomotive workshops where trains were cleaned and repaired. Though coal would be stacked in a corner, the surfaces in it would be covered in layers of coal dust and grease oil. “Looking at the workers and staff there one could easily figure out the kind of jobs they had. Today, we can’t tell the jobs of people just by looking at them because their physical appearance doesn’t reflect their profession like the locomotive workers who would spend days in trains to reach from one place to another,” says Kishore.

For years, Kishore would wake up at midnight and paint impromptu. “I still find that very gratifying. It has been over 15 years that I have been painting on different themes but my attachment to locomotives has not ceased. People might say that the locomotive trains in India are quite dirty with coal and grease when compared to those in foreign countries which are shiny and neat. As an artist, I feel closer to Indian locomotives because what people see as dirt, I see as the character of these trains. There are so many stories under those layers ,” says Kishore who is often asked by the younger generation whether the trains he has painted on canvas are from foreign countries because they have never seen such a train.

“Many times I have visitors who were ex-locomotive staff who worked across India travelling and working in trains. They share their stories on the job, families, and these trains that connected them all. I agree they were concerning for the environment because of pollution but we cannot deny the fact that these were classic trains. Even regional and Bollywood films were shot in these. This train also played a major role during the Partition when people commuted from one country to another only in locomotive trains,” says Kishore. Certain RD Burman songs still take him back to those locomotive days.

Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that these trains would stop running. “These trains would appear at the station very dramatically tearing through the dense, steamy fog; they looked so dark and scary! When one stopped at the station, thanks to the shrill whistle all of Ichapur would know it had arrived,” recalls Kishore who was in college when steam locomotives were stopped. “It was in the year 1993, that I saw an entire train dismantled. It was quite disheartening to watch my inspiration being broken to pieces. Back then we didn’t have a camera to click photos, I live with nostalgia and I am trying to show this generation that such a train existed and was very much part of Indian railway history.”

Celebration of Indian Steam Locomotives by Kishore Pratim Biswas at Jehangir Art Gallery from 11am to 7pm till September 17.