The train was decorated and celebrated by passengers with cake-cutting, evoking nostalgia on reels and shorts on Monday as it enters its 97th year

“The train is an emotion, and there is a particular kind of romance that attaches itself to it. We will be celebrating 97 years of its existence and cutting a cake when the train departs from Pune on Monday morning,” Harsha Shah, president of the Railway Pravasi Group, told Mid-day

Ninety-six years ago, on the morning of June 1, 1930, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), now called Central Railway, flagged off this extraordinary train upon the 192-kilometre stretch between Bombay and Poona

The "Dakkhan ki Rani" was India's first deluxe intercity train. Her coach bodies were built at the Matunga Workshop; her underframes were shipped in from England

Deccan Queen introduced first- and second-class chair cars to Indian railways, pioneered the self-generating coach with a 110-volt electrical system, and carried herself with dignity

As the train enters its 96th year towards its century, this Indian Queen rolls into the memories of generations of Mumbaikars and Punekars who grew up travelling in her and knowing her schedule by heart