• Message from the Director, NRM
• Editorial
• Facts about steam locomotives by Arjun Singh
• Trains of fame and locos with a name - 2 by Joydeep Dutta and Harsh Vardhan
• Diesel traction in India - When did it all begin? by S Shankar (with input from R R Bhandari)
• News from the NRM
• Maharajah's Saloons by Nick Lera
• Aspects of modern Edmondson tickets in India - 2 by John L King
• Steam locomotives builder and number plates by David Gillis
• Steam Update
• Publications Received

Wishing all the friends a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Ashwani Lohani, the former director of the museum has moved on a deputation to the Ministry of Tourism. We wish him all the best for his new. assignment. We are certain that in his present position, he will be able to synergise the potential of railway and tourism for the promotion of rail tourism in the country. Rajesh Agrawal who takes over the baton, is from the IRSME batch of 1982. His last posting was at Vatva diesel loco shed of WR as the Sr. Divisional Mechanical Engineer. Let us welcome him to NRM as well as to FNRM fraternity.

With profound regret we report the death of Hugh C. Hughes on 13th August 98. H.C. Hughes was the most prominent statistician of Indian Railway motive power scenario having authored eight books on the subject. His books have over the years provided every miniscule detail and rare pictures of the Indian Railways and have inspired many a enthusiasts.

This issue also brings us to the end of the year and it is reminded that ‘ALL’ memberships/subscription are falling due in Jan ‘99. Members should note the revised membership fee schedule, given in the feature ‘About FNRM’ and make timely payments. Those who can, should endeavour to take life membership.

We also invite contributions for the newsletter from all railfans. Articles, neatly handwritten/typed/printed on plain paper may be sent to the address given above. Any matter sent through a floppy, but with a printout, is most welcome as it eases the task of your editor. Photographs of size 4” x 6” or more, in any format or even slides with brief description can also be sent. We also invite letters from readers for publication in the newsletter.

The Society is in the process of getting registered and thereafter we shall be able to accept donations and grants from the corporate sector or any other source as it might be. Inputs from members are invited regarding generation as well as utilisation of these funds.

Your editor is collecting information about all the remaining steam locomotives in the country including those in industries. Any inputs for this work and photographs sent by the readers will be appreciated and will be acknowledged in a hook compiling this information to be brought out in near future. This project is aimed at securing a promising future for these locomotives by preserving them for posterity and possibly returning them to steam some day.

A group of British enthusiasts who have approached us intend to visit the Saraya Sugar Mills at Sardarnagar, Gorakhpur in February-March. Since this time will be out of the sugar season the locomotives will have to be specially. steamed up for a fee. If there are any members who may be interested in joining this group and sharing this expense of specially steaming up the locomotives they may get in touch with the Editor.

Did you know:-

1. The largest class of steam locomotives built in world history was the ‘American Type 4-4-0 which added to more than 25,000 examples followed by the Russian E class 0-10-0 numbering 14,000 examples and the German Kriegs lokomotives 2-10-0 numbering more than 6,000 examples.
2. About 1,700 steam locos have been preserved each in Britain and America, many of which regularly haul excursion specials.
3. About 7,000 steam locos have been preserved the world over. Hundreds still lie abandoned in graveyards.
4. China has an approximate two-third of the world’s surviving steam power at 7,000 units in operation today. It continues to build steam locos of the S4 class of ‘Mikados’ at a ‘Reduced Average Rate’ of one per day!
5. The largest class of steam locos still in use is the Chinese QJ 2-10-2, used for freight duty. Over 4,500 examples have been built, all of whom are in use today, making QJ class the largest surviving steam fleet anywhere in the world.
6. Steam locomotives in regular use survive in Turkey, Latin America (branch lines and industries), Portugal, Pakistan, China, Africa (notably Sudan and Zimbabwe), Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Java, Chile, Argentina and many other Countries.
7. The world’s last main line worked entirely by steam locos spans the 232 miles from the Paraguan capital Asuncion to Encarnacion on the Argentinian border.
8. Examples of British built ‘A-4 Pacifies’ can also be found in service in South Africa.
9. The SPS class 4-4-0 of Pakistan are the world’s last surviving inside cylinder 4-4-Os. They haul passenger trains in Pakistan’s Punjab province and are based at Malakwal Jn. Many enthusiasts visit Pakistan just to see these locomotives.
10. The preserved examples of Russia’s ‘ultimate steam locomotives’ the P-36 4-8-4s are used on the Trans-Siberian railway regularly for excursions during daytime, and are replaced by electric power at night. The locos are so powerful that only one loco is required to pull the entire Trans-Siberian Express.

(Part 1 appeared in the previous issue.)

One of the most luxurious service of its time was the ‘Imperial Mail’ from Bombay to Calcutta. The train left Bombay every Friday with 32 passengers and the ‘mail’ from Britain which arrived by sea at the Bombay port. The train covered the distance at an average speed of 60 km/br, had first class facilities for passengers and could be compared to the best in the world.

‘Howrah-Kalka Mail’ known popularly as the I Up/2Dn has been in service for more than a hundred years. Simla was the summer capital of India during the days of the Raj and the Kalka Mail carried the VIPs and government officials from Howrah to Kalka and was thus the top priority train of the East India Railway(EIR). The Kalka Mail continues to be the pride of Eastern Railway. An important train during the imperial days which left Howrah was the ‘Punjab Mail’ to Lahore which still is in service upto Amritsar. Although now it is officially known simply as Howrah-Amritsar Mail for a long time, the travelling public chooses to refer it as Punjab Mail. Another train introduced on this route more recently which follows the mail and called Howrah Amritsar Express is generally ascribed as ‘Duplicate Punjab Mail’.

Though the ‘Mails’ were the most important services, the fastest service in British India was run by the GIP in the form of the famous ‘Deccan Queen’ from Bombay to Poona. The Deccan Queen can well claim to be the first electric tractioned express service in India/During the mid 1930’s, the ‘Deccan Queen’ covered the 195 kilometers to Poona through the tough Ghat sections in 2 hrs 45 minutes reeling off the first hundred kilometers at an average of 84 km/hr. By 1946, still India’s fastest train, the Deccan Queen ran the distance in 3 hours. Currently the Deccan Queen covers the distance in 3 hours 40 minutes although it has been provided with a modern air-brake rake and is hauled by a powerful WCM5 class electric locomotive!

On the meter-gauge the best schedule in British India was maintained by the Delhi - Ahmedabad Mail. In North Eastern part of the country, two legendary mails used to operate. The ‘Darjeeling Mail carried passengers from Sealdah to Siliguri via Parbatipur & Santhahar Junction (now in Bangladesh). The ‘Assam Mail’ is a name known to everyone who resides on the N.F. Rly and the railwaymen here take its name with pride and it was popularly known as the 3 Up/ 4 Dn. Originally it ran from Santhahar to Guwahati. After independence the train ran from New Delhi to Dibrugarh, with broad-gauge part running upto Barauni Junction from where the meter-gauge part continued up to Dibrugarh. With the BG extension to Guwahati, the Assam Mail was renamed as the North East Express and this legendary train of N.F. Railway went into oblivion.

After independence, passenger train services in the country have undergone a sea change. There was also a change in the style on naming of the trains. All the new trains that were introduced were named as ‘Expresses’ rather than ‘Mails’. The ‘Tinsukia Mail’ which was introduced in 1972 was probably the last Mail train to be introduced. Initially it ran from Delhi to New Bongaigaon over the newly built Farraka Barrage. This train now runs upto Dibrugarh under the new name of ‘Brahmaputra Mail’.

An important day in the history of Indian passenger train services is 11th March 1969, On which the first ‘Rajdhani Express’ from New Delhi to Howrah was inaugurated. This fully air-conditioned train, which was booked to run at a top speed of 120 km/hr broke the age old 100 km/hr barrier of the Indian Railways and ushered in a new era of speed and comfort. Initially, the Rajdhani Express was composed of nine coaches of which, there were two generator cars cum brake vans, an airconditioned pantry car and six airconditioned chair cars. It was hauled by a WDM4 diesel-electric locomotive. It took 17 hours & 10 minutes to complete the 1441 km journey with one immediate stoppage at Kanpur and a crew changing stop at Mughalsarai. Later, the rake formation was increased to 18 coaches by introducing A.C. sleeper and 1st A.C. coaches along with the A.C. chair cars. In this formation a twin WDM2 haulage was preferred over WAM4 and this arrangement continued till the mid-eighties when the 3900 HP. WAP1 electric locomotive was pressed into the Rajdhani Service. The maximum speed of the Rajdhani Express was increased to 130 km/hr and by that time Rajdhani Express was stopping at Dhanbad and Mughalsarai. Later, Gaya and Allahabad were also declared as the stopping points for the great express. From July 1996, the Rajdhani Express is being hauled by the State of the art, 600& HP 3 phase asynchronous WAP5 locomotive built by ABB. Forty minutes reduction of running time has been achieved by WAP5 haulage.Following the Rajdhani Express to Calcutta, in 1972 a Rajdhani Express to Bombay was also introduced. In 1992, to commemorate the 50 years of ‘the revolution of August 1942’, another Rajdhani Express was put into service on the Bombay - Delhi Route, and was named as the ‘August Kranti Rajdhani Express’.

During the late seventies, several fast trains were introduced to connect the important state capitals to the national capital. These trains were designated as super fast trains and were allowed to run upto 110 km/hr. Of these trains, the notable ones are the Tamilnadu express, Andhra Pradesh Express, Kerala Express and Karnataka Express. From Calcutta and Bombay two air-conditioned express popularly called as ‘Deluxe’ were introduced to Amritsar via Delhi. Gradually due to popular demands one or two 3-tier coaches were attached to these services. Currently these trains have only four to five air-conditioned coaches out of the 21 coaches and the rest are sleeper coaches. The one from Bombay is now called the ‘Paschim Express’ and the one from Howrah is called ‘Poorva Express’. Poorva now terminates at Delhi while the Paschim continues to Amritsar.

Among the other important broad-gauge services introduced after independence, the Taj Express and Brindavan Express deserve special mention. They may be thought of as the forerunner of the ‘Shatabdi Express’ services that we find today. The Taj Express was identified with its blue and white livery. It would whisk tourists to Agra for the day and then bring them back to Delhi by night. The Brindavan Express made it possible to travel from Madras to Bangalore in just five hours in day time. Currently the ‘Brindavan Express’ takes 6 hours to do the journey due to an increased number of stoppages. The newly introduced ‘Lal Bagh Express’ and the ‘Shatabdi Express’ have taken its place.

The Assam Rail Link Project in 1949 connected Siliguri with Alipurduar by meter gauge. Over this route the great ‘Assam Mail’ traveled to Barauni. Another train popularly called the A.T. Mail (Avadh Trihut Mail) traveled over this route on its way to Guwahati from Lucknow. The A.T. Mail may be called as the ‘Blue Train’ of India as the whole train had a deep blue colour with two white stripes above and below the window panels. The connection of Assam with Calcutta was strengthened with a new broad-gauge route to New Bongaigaon with a pivotal station at New Jalpaiguri. The completion of the Farraka Barrage in 1972 paved the way for the introduction of the ‘Kamrup Express’ and the ‘Tinsukia Mail’.

The East Coast route of South Eastern Railway got a new lease of life with the introduction of the ‘Coromandal Express’ which ran between Howrah and Madras with a schedule much better than the Howrah-Madras Mail. But with the demand of increased stoppages, mostly in Orissa, the running time of this superfast express has increased and its punctuality over the past few years has been so poor, that some people may prefer the mail over it! The ‘Geetanjali Express’ from Howrah to Bombay was introduced with a better schedule than the ‘mail via Nagpur’ but unfortunately its fate turned out to be quite similar to that of Coromandal Express.

Meter-gauge trains were restricted to run at 75 km/hr, though higher speeds were possible on cer- tain routes. The “Pink City Express” which ran from Jaipur to Delhi in 5 1/2 hours was the first 100km/h train on the meter-gauge. In the South the “Vaigai Express” stole the show by covering the distance of 492 kms between Madras (Egmore) and Madurai in just seven hours. The Vaigai express holds the record of possessing the first meter-gauge A.C. chair car in India. We are certain that the memory of these great trains would linger long after the meter gauge is gone!

Curiously, some very famous train-names belong to the narrow-gauge, the oldest of which undoubtedly is ‘Darjeeling Mail’ which used to run between Siliguri and Darjeeling(later extended to originate from New Jalpaiguri) to make connection with the Darjeeling Mail from Calcutta. On the Kalka-Simla section, mail and express trains have been operating since the beginning of the line albeit without a name! Recently a superfast Shivalik Express has been introduced on this route with stoppage only at Barog and a journey time of little less than five hours. On the iabalpur-Gondia section of the erstwhile Bengal Nagpur Railway(BNR), the legendary Satpura Express operates. This train holds the unique distinction of pioneering and operating the only AC chair car service on the Narrow Gauge!

Finally, in the short and medium distance travel sectors, some important trains have been added in the last decade. The flagship among these trains are the various ‘Shatabdi Express’ services spread throughout the country. It was another great day for IR When the WAP3 22005 rolled the Shatabdi Express out of Delhi on its way to ihansi(later extended to Bhopal). This Shatabdi express. the first in India is booked to run at 140 km/hr. Now the Shatabdi Express has been introduced on various intercity routes in India. These fully air-conditioned trains are now the hallmark of fast and comfortable daytime intercity travel in the country.

It is something we more or less take for granted nowadays. Diesel locomotives have revolutionised the rail traffic scenario in India to such an extent that you are almost certain to spot a diesel locomotive everytime you undertake a train journey. You see diesels all the time, hauling expresses, stopping-passenger trains, freights, shunting. Not worth a second thought - they are ubiquitous.

And yet, how often has one wondered, ‘when did it all start’? The tragic demise of steam from the rails has been so sudden and rapid, especially over the past decade or so that some of us have probably not even recovered fully from the initial shock and remorse!

A 100% clear picture as to where India’s first diesel worked will probably never be available, as different experts opine differently on the subject.

Diesel traction in Imperial India began in 1933 with the two 350 b.h.p. Bo-Bo diesel shunting locomotives on the broad-gauge North Western Railway (NWR) and these reportedly did not meet with any great success. In the same year on Gaekwar’s Baroda State Railways (GBSR), the 95 b.h.p. Armstrong Whitworth railcars did very well since they were placed in service, and were operating at a cost of approximately 2.5d. per train-mile exclusive of interest and depreciation, the trains being made up of the railcars and three light trailers. Brian Reed’s book on ‘Diesel and Electric Railcars’ features a picture of Diesel-Electric railcar No. 103 of 1933 used on GBSR. Most of the NWR subsequently passed on to Pakistan after independence, due to which some purists hold that NWR work in this field tantamounts to being Pakistan’s first dieselisation attempt! However the Kalka-Simla section of North Western Railway, which is of course a part of Independent India, also acquired in August 1933, a further diesel vehicle in form of a 95 b.h.p., Armstrong-Saurer, diesel-electric railcar for passenger service over this arduous 2’6’ gauge section. This diesel-electric railcar now bearing No. 14 has been preserved at the National Rail Museum, New Delhi.

On NWR two 1300 b.h.p Armstrong- Whitworth locomotives were tried without success on the broad-gauge Karachi-Lahore mail trains, and two similar locomotives of 800 b.h.p. operated for a time on the broad gauge main line of Ceylon Government Railways. The Madras and Southern Mahratta Railways also obtained good results with six 180 b.h.p. Armstrong-Saurer oil-electric railcars, and railcars programmes were further undertaken on the NWR, East Bengal Railway, BBCIR, SIR and Burma Railways.

The other dieselisation attempts were made by the Nizam’s State Railway to run diesel powered vehicles in the form of diesel railcars, put on line in 1939. A photograph of one such railcar appears in the book ‘Indian Railways: 100 years’ published by the Railway Board in 1953. However, further details of the Nizam’s railcars are not available, nor are any of them preserved. Some of the smaller railway companies in Gujarat had also introduced diesel railcars on their lines prior to 1939. There were stray NG diesel locomotives too. One of these is represented by the ‘Betty Tramways NG diesel No. 390014’ (year built unknown) preserved at the National Rail Museum, New Delhi.

Many agree however that the first diesel locomotives to run in India were those introduced in 1949 in the arid regions of Saurashtra in Gujarat, to overcome a water shortage. This was probably the first serious, though meek, attempt at dieselisation in India; One of the engines from the 1949 batch is also preserved at the National Rail Museum. (The Fowler diesel built by John Fowler & Co. Leeds U.K., Makers No.4200031, Saurashtra Railway No. 203 and Western Railway No. 1004).

Dieselisation was not actively pursued after this till about 1955. In that year, twenty North British built diesels were introduced for service based at Gandhidham in Kutch region of Gujarat, again on the MG, and yet again to overcome water shortage. Initially classed DY, these engines were later reclassified as YDM1 class. Some of them still survive today and are based at Gandhidham. Many consider this to be India’s first real attempt at dieselisation.

Diesel traction got off to a head start in India only in 1957-58 when the IR decided to dieselise the heavy ore and coal carrying lines of the ER and SER. WDM 1 and WDM4 engines came in, along with a small batch of WDM2 engines in fully knocked down condition and since then, there has been no looking back.

A unique feature of the early scenario in India was that important specific trains were dieselised rather than of regions or areas. This meant that although several fast and prestigious express and mail trains had been put in charge of diesel, other express and mail trains, stopping passengers and local freights were still in the domain of steam. Diesel locomotive co-existed with steam, in fact the puffing steamers outnumbered the whining diesels several to one. Newspaper headlines were common in those days about several fast trains being ‘dieselised and speeded up’. The smooth diesels were something to be regarded with awe and respect, something to be associated with speed and prestige. Being diesel-hauled made that particular express very special indeed, it was guaranteed to be much faster; a cut above the rest, so to speak.

This outlook has now changed completely. In all dieselisation attempts since 1980, hordes of diesel locomotives have summarily descended upon specific areas, resulting in a total elimination of steam of that area in the process. This phenomenon has been so pronounced that even sparsely populated and far flung areas were being served by DMUs, diesel push pulls or railbuses.

The scenario is changing yet again now. Prima facie, it might appear today that the wheel has come a full circle, and that diesel traction itself might be losing its importance. Undei the IR’s current electrification policy, most of the trunk lines and several of the heavily worked routes are already under the wires, which means that some of the most prestigious assignments are no longer under the purview of diesel traction.

This could be true to some extent. However, one must appreciate that electrification still accounts for under 25% of IR’s total route mileage. The other 75% comes under the purview of diesel traction. Moreover, not all routes are significant and utilised enough to warrant the initial heavy capital expenditure involved in electrification, a phenomenon which will hold good even after the IR manages to implement its celebrated ‘project unigauge’. Almost all shunting and merry-go-round opera- tions are under diesel traction. Diesels sometimes have to be maintained in eletrified areas as well, as was the case till recently when the superfast Vaigai Express used to be hauled by a YDM4 diesel at 100 kmph plus even in the Madras-Villupuram electrified section, as the diminutive YAM1 could only manage 80-90 kmph. The Diva - Vasai Road and Karjat - Khopoli sections were diesel worked till recently, although they were still in electric territory. There are plenty of such examples.

• Fairy Queen is presently making two trips every month on alternate Saturdays upto Feb ‘99. The two coach train leaves at 10.00 from Delhi Cantt. and arrives at Alwar at 16.00. The guests are then taken to Sariska Palace hotel where they enjoy the traditional Rajasthani hospitality. Sunday morning starts early with a tiger safari in the Sariska tiger sanctuary and by afternoon the guests are back on another enchanting journey aboard the Fairy Queen Express on the way back to arrive at Delhi at 19.00. There are five stoppages for water and refueling en route so that you get to admire the locomotive and the local scenery on and off the train. The passenger coach now has a complete glass panel upfront so that the less enthusiastic can enjoy the locomotive working without getting dirty in the process. The response to the first two trips in November has been highly encouraging. The all inclusive package price for this two day journey is Rs 8,000.
• XE 3634 (formerly 22541) arrived at NRM from Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board’s Coal Transportation Division at Korba in September. It was cosmetically restored by the former steam loco shed staff of Bhillai. This locomotive is in full working order and was seen at work at Korba till late 1997. XE 22541 2-8-2 was built by William Beardmore in 1930(Maker’s No. 422). XE class locomotives were the largest unarticulated steam locomotives used in India and used to weigh upto 200 tons in working order. It is reported that the CTD at Korba has two more XE class locomotives, two AWE class locomotives and one HSM class locomotive.
• The exhibits in the outdoor gallery wear a new look through the massive repair and painting work recently undertaken upon them.
• Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is putting up its display in the indoor gallery. A new working model of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway will also be placed in the indoor gallery shortly.
• The air-conditioning work of the indoor gallery has been completed, much to the relief of the visitors to the museum in the summers.
• WP 7015/161 have been equipped with air brakes by the Loco Workshop, Charbagh, Lucknow and are now ready to work on the mainline. It is proposed to start a tourist special hauled by these locos to Agra/ Khajuraho - a project which is awaiting approval and also exploring possible tie-ups with hotels/tour operators.
• A 15” gauge steam toy train which is lying unused at Chittranjan is being requested for the museum to replace the present petrol engine toy train. In order to use the existing 18” gauge coaches, which are better than those with the Chittranjan locomotive, an option of using a third rail for the loco is being explored.
• An application has been put up to UNESCO for inclusion of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Bombay VT Station as ‘World Heritage Sites.’ A team from UNESCO visited these places and their response was very encouraging. A WHS status will ensure a bright future of these ‘monuments to the excellent works of Indian railway engineers’ and will also bring in much needed international funding for their restoration and upkeep.

When the general ‘trawl’ of old gauge saloons Was carried out in the early seventies to create the original ‘Palace on Wheels’, a few examples escaped the net by virtue of having become isolated on private sidings that had become cut off from I.R. lines, either through gauge conversion or a reluctance on the local Maharajah’s part to continue contributing to the upkeep of his connecting spur.

On my recent travels I have found out about two such examples, both in Kathiawar, Gujarat. The first at Morbi (Morvi) has been described to me but is inaccessible as the palace area there is closed to the public, and private visits have to be arranged in advance.

In the last issue we discussed the basic aspects of the Edmondson Card Tickets used on Indian Railways over the years. In this concluding part we first discuss the specific idiosyncracies of the individual railways ticketing practices which include the following:-

Central Railway:- This railway has an unusual tendency towards vertical tickets and to a certain extent to abbreviating station names-particularly on Bombay Suburban issues.

Eastern Railway:- Very keen on “combination” tickets, of which there are a mind boggling variety. These are titled on the front, and are in English only.

Some suburban issues from the Howrah (Calcutta) are clearly printed by the South Eastern Railway, as they display S.E.R. typeface and printing dates. Some tickets are tri-lingual, i.e. English, Hindi and Bengali.

Northern Railway:- The security background which appears on the fronts of many N.R. tickets consists of a logo repeated continuously within a diamond-shaped framework.

Some tickets which include supplementary charges, such as reservations or sleepers, specify this on the backs rather than the fronts.

Northeast Frontier Railway:- This is perhaps the least conformist of all. Its operating territory is largely inaccessible to foreign visitors, and possibly for this reason tickets are not commonly seen outside India. The initials used on the backs of tickets are “N.F.R.”.

Ticket colours are often non-standard, and unique to the N.F.R. in the writer’s experience is the description ‘0CM’ on tickets for journeys partlyby ordinary and partly by mail train (‘Ordinary cum Mail’)

The typesetting of station names by the N.F.R. printers is sometimes a little suspect and varying sizes of type can be found to spell out a single name.

Many, if not most tickets are trilingual - English and Hindi, plus (I think) Bengali.

South Eastern Railway:- The most distinctive feature of S.E.R. tickets is the printing date, which expresses the month in Roman numerals. There is also the red “D” overprint in evidence. The S.C.R. was formed in the early 1970s from parts of the SR. and the C.R. and some earlier issues appear to have been produced by these two railways.

Southern Railway:- The typeface used by the SR. is distinctive - very narrow lettering, which may be related with the notoriously long place-names found in the south of India.

Many tickets are trilingual - English, Hindi and Tamil for the most part, but the third language is sometimes Kannada or Malayalam, depending on the area of issue.

The S.R. is very keen on “combination” issues too - with much use of the word ‘cum’. These are wholly in English.

Western Railway:- Tickets for the Bombay suburban services are distinctive, and tend to use abbreviations for station names - “CCG” is Churchgate, for example.

Some ticket are trilingual, the third language being Gujarati.

An year or two ago there was a trend towards white 2nd class tickets, but this seems to have been only temporary.

The above are just a few examples of features which members may care to search for in their collections. The writer would welcome details of others identified by such research, and correspondence on the subject of Indian tickets generally. One trivial but fascinating subject for study would be the longest distance evidence on a pre-printed Edmondson ticket (Indian, of course). Can any member produce anything to exceed 3136 km. (Trivandrum Central to New Jalpaiguni)?

There are many otherwise rational people who despite all other ties and loyalties, manage to conduct a passionate love affair from thousands of miles away with that great beast of the sub-continent, Indian Railways. For my own part, although my enthusiasm for I.R. falls a long way short of such devotion (particularly when arriving at a destination over 11 hours late, courtesy of a so-called “superfast” train), I do confess to being a fan. Yes I do like steam trains too, but am not so masochistic that I want to be at Foulganj juction at 3.30 AM. to catch the once daily narrow-gauge 2nd class only train(steam-hauled of course) to Grotpur! What I would like, however, are a couple of tickets from Foulganj and Grotpur - you see my weakness is not for the rolling-stock as much as for evidence of the journeys undertaken by passengers thereon.

The concept of issuing a ticket as authority to undertake a journey is not new (Indeed, the concept of a fare for a journey goes back to Biblical times -- see Jonah ch 1, v.3, although we do not know if Jonah was issued with a piece of cardboard on this occasion). Certainly, the earliest railways in India issued tickets, and fortunately some of these have survived. It is actually quite likely that tickets constitue the only remaining relics of certain Railway Companies. I have a number in my collection where this may be so, such as the ‘Bengal Dooars Railway’ (amalgamated with Eastern Bengal Rly in 1941), and the ‘Bhavnagar, Gondal, Jamnagar and Porbandar Railway, which vanished rather earlier (ticket no. 3956 was issued in November 1904). Unfortunately many others have so far evaded me, including several of the minor State railways which were operating in their own right until the late 1940s (Porbandar and Rajpipla, for example) Others which I Would particularly like to obtain would include the ‘Carnatic Railway’ (absorbed by the South India Rly. in 1874), the ‘Pondicherry Railway Company’ (what language or languages appeared on their tickets?) and the amazing ‘Patiala State Monorail’ of 1907 whose rolling-stock may be seen today in the Delhi Railway Museum in full working order!

But the fascination of Indian railway tickets is not only in their representation of long-defunct companies. Even current tickets have plenty to offer, in terms of variety of type, and an amazing amount of information can be extracted from a single ticket. A few examples will illustrate what I mean:

1. Ticket no. 962 is from a defunct company, but not a notably rare one—the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, in fact which did not finally disappear until 1951. It is however an interesting specimen, as it was issued not at Bombay Victoria Terminus station but at an office in the Taj Mahal Hotel. The letter ‘F’ and the horizontal red line denote a ‘foreign’ booking, i.e. one to a station not on the G.I.P.R, - in this case Jhelum (North Western Rly), which incidentally is now in Pakistan. The ticket is dated 1915.
2. Ticket no.01792 is much more recent. It is from the North East Frontier Railway, and is preprinted for a marathon journey from New Bongaigaon to Ernakulam This is again a ‘foreign’ booking, Ernakulam being on the Southern Railway, and it is interesting to see that the horizontal red line convention mentioned above continues on present-day tickets. The ticket shows a printing date 12/83, and as it was not issued until 1989, the printed fare has been adjusted in manuscript. Note the distance of 3130 kin, the class indication”2 ME “ (2nd class Mail or Express train), and the very precise routing - the codes at the left of the ticket represent Malda Town, Howrah, Waltair (Visakhapatnam), Gudur and Madras. The stations of origin and destination appear in three languages.
3. Ticket no. 00325 is currently not available. although it may well still be stocked at Tiruchirapalli Junction. It is for another ‘foreign’ booking, in this case in more than one sense, as it is a through ticket to Colombo(Sri Lanka)! the ticket covers the basic fare plus supplements for sleeping berth and reservation, using 2nd class ordinary train on the Southern Railway of India( ‘up to RMM’ i.e. Rameshwaram), Lower Class accommodation on ferry (currently suspended), and 3rd class on the C.G.R. (Ceylon Government Railway). It was issued in 1982.

A specific type of ticket which particularly interests me is the Platform Ticket. Not every station in India issues these - but an awful lot do, and it has been my ambition to be able to produce a comprehensive check-list of issuing stations. Platform tickets in India traditionally cost the same as the minimum 2nd class fare, perhaps so as to remove any temptation there might otherwise be for a prospective passenger to buy a platform, rather than a travel ticket. Sometimes elderly stock is held at wayside stations, because it is rarely if ever issued in practice - thus the Baripada ticket(no. 00018) was issued to me in September 1989 even though its printed price (20 paise) indicates that it dates back to early 1974 at the very latest. The Sandhurst Road issue is a rare example of a glaring spelling error, and the Bharatpur ticket illustrates the regrettable trend of Western Railway towards paper, rather than card platform tickets.

News of the great selection of number plates from withdrawn steam locomotives that are available for purchase from the National Railway Museum in New Delhi prompted me to add some wonderful Indian cabside number plates to my ever growing collection of overseas steam locomotive plates.

After much deliberation due to variety of plates on offer, I eventually decided on the following:-

• SGS 0-6-0 No. 34223 (both plates-English & Hindi lettering)
• GE 4-8-2+2-8-4 No. 32094 (1 plate complete with front oval plate)
• YG 2-8-2 No. 3000 (1 plate)

The latter provided a rare opportunity to acquire a plate from the Baldwin Locomotive Works prototype of a popular mixed traffic class on the Indian Railways meter gauge system. WL4-6-2 No. 15055 and BNR’s E 4-4-0 No. 68 were already in my collection.

Over the years, I have been building up a selection of numberplates from Countries as far afield as Australia, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, East Africa, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Poland, Rhodesia, Romania, ‘Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. These plates are more readily available than British numberplates and usually do not command the extortionate prices that British plates reach, hence my enthusiasm to branch out into an overseas numberplate collection.

A storm in the Arabian Sea in July devastated much of the coastal area on this side and railways were also affected. The service to Navlakhi now terminates at Dahinsara In. itself though Maliya Miyana service continues with its daily load of water tankers for this area which is acutely short of potable water. Salt workings were also reported to be in place.

Jetalsar & Junagarh sheds A visitor passing through Jetalsar reported activity in the shed and locos being steamed up as late as the New Year Eve. It is known that the boiler certificates of the locomotives based here were expiring in Jan ‘99. Can any traveler throw light on this subject please?

Mhow shed now uses just two YG steam powers for the banking services on the Patalpani-Kalakund ghat section and shunting duties at Mhow. The steam hauled 89/90 between Mhow and Ratlam finished in May this year. The fate of nearly a dozen condemned locomotives parked in the old shed remains uncertain.

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway works with its allocation of 14 ‘B’ class locomotives for the three daily part-section services. Currently they run between Siliguri In. to Tindharia, Kurseong to Darjeeling and the tourist special between Darjeeling and Ghoom though the timetable is very erratic. This year’s unprecedented rainfall and subsequent landslides at many places had caused total disruption of all services for months which are now limping towards normalcy. However the damage at upper and lower ‘Pagla Jhora’ has been much more severe and it may be months before the track here can be fully restored and the services to be operational between Tindharia and Kurseong.

Nilgiri Mountain Railway utilises the services of diesel YDM-4s on pails of the NMR however the rack section between Mettupalaiyam and Coonoor remains in the able hands of 4 ‘X’ class compound locomotives.

A GUIDE TO THE DIESEL AND ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES OF INDIAN RAILWAYS by Jal E. Daboo with drawings by E.G. Lambert 62 pages, 20 cm x 15 cm, 36 b&w pictures with one colour on the cover, soft paper cover, published by British Overseas Railway Historical Trust. Many diesel and electric traction enthusiasts have for long felt the desire to possess a book covering comprehensive details of these forms of motive power which drive nearly all that moves on the rails in the sub-continent now. This book briefly covers the evolution of these powers, the main technical high points and further developments. The pictures of all the main classes are featured and then there are some excellent diagrams which will be of special interest to the modellers. Much of the technical specs of various locomotives are given in tabular form which makes an interesting comparison with other locomotives. A must for every diesel and electric locomotive enthusiast. Special price of £2.80 + p&p at £0.84 seamail and £ 1.84 airmail has been offered by BORHT, valid only for the members of the FNRM residing in India.

Order for the above two books published by BORHT may be sent with remittance ‘payble to BORHT’ to Mr J.J. Rainbow, 260, Wricklemarsh Road, Blackheath, London SE3 8DW England.