Locomotive Whistle

Whistle from steam locomotive no. 3157, made by The Vulcan Foundry Limited, Newton-le-Willows, 1911.

Locomotive no. 3157 was made to pull mail and passenger trains on India’s North Western Railway while India was under British colonial control.

3157 probably spent the first decades of its working life pulling passenger trains, until Independence in 1947 and Indian’s partition into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The Partition of India left many people on the wrong side of the new borders. As violence broke out between different communities, millions of people left their homes to cross the border to safety. Many travelled by train, but the journey was hard and dangerous. Overloaded passenger trains filled with refugees were often attacked and countless passengers were murdered. We do not know for sure what 3157 was doing during this time, but photographs show engines of the same type pulling trains of refugees on their hazardous escapes. It is likely that 3157 was caught up in these tragic events. After 1947, 3157 became part of the newly established Pakistan Railways and continued its journeys for over 30 more years.