Riding the Back Beauty

Those steamy, smoky and sooty days

Sometimes I sit back and think of some of those jolly train rides in the Indian railways. I have always liked them, and even though I could opine like most others that it is desirable that those trains be cleaner, punctual and efficient, they still cast a spell on you, from all the way back to the period when the role of the elephant was usurped by this mechanical beast. Today people are richer, are on their own, zipping through in their cars and bikes and planes, but it was not so long ago that a ride in the train was any day better and safer than on the fully laden Ambassador careening through our potholed roads. Or if you were on two wheels, consider the scene where you are perilously perched at an angle on a rickety ‘hand me down’ Bajaj scooter or hunched over, helmetless, on a roaring Jawa motorbike zigzagging through a mass of humanity and a collection of beasts on their two feet. Yeah! The train ride is in comparison so serene, and a great opportunity to study a cross section of humanity.

All that will soon be long forgotten, and I saw that India had just signed up for a Japanese designed bullet train between Ahmedabad and Bombay (I still prefer to term Bombay as Bombay, not Mumbai and Madras as Madras, not Chennai). I might, at least in my thoughts, still prefer the overnight Baroda express from Bombay Central, but then, I can still recall the steam engines from my childhood, till it was taken over by the trustworthy diesel and broad gauge as I entered high school. By the time I was ready for college, electric trains were becoming the norm. Meter gauge travel and steam engines were already considered dated, and conversions to the American gauge were well underway in the remote routes.

Of recent I have been perusing many interesting books like the ones written by Thoreax and Atiken. Vaidyanathan’s book is already in my collection and Venkatraman’s just at hand. The loud whistle, the whoosh of the cylinders letting steam and the boiler belching out dense coal-smoke in bursts as the engine strained to move forward…and the journeys that evoked romance and freedom in the past, only serve to spark nostalgic memories in most of the people today – Can you beat it?

We are a country of disparities and this is a classic one where a metric system, based on a meter width, the meter gauge was converted country wide to the older foot based system called the Indian broad gauge, where the gauge width is 5’ and 6” or 1.676mts. Ever wondered why? In America, we have this in Texas and San Francisco and is popularly known as Texas gauge.

How did it come about?  At first around 1849, the railways in India were to be built on a four feet, eight and half inches gauge. Lord Dalhousie favored a 6 ft gauge while Simms, the consulting engineer favored the five feet and six inches gauge. The five and half feet gauge argument won and the first train which ran from Bombay to Thane used this so called broad gauge. The main technical reasoning was that this could provide greater stability during high winds and unpredictable weather, while also ensuring greater space between the wheels for bigger inside cylinders (older engine design). This continued for 12 years.

Lord Mayo the viceroy (following on the ideas of his predecessor Sir John Lawrence), however was a great enthusiast of the metric system and proceeded on that track. Of course we had some other widths too in India like the narrow gauge (hilly tracks) and the standard gauge (various metros). But in general India today is moving wider with the Unigauge project.

The advent of the railway in India did not take too much time actually, for it was in February 1804 that Richard Trevithick ran the world's first steam engine successfully on rails. The first goods train ran in 1825 and the one with passengers in 1830, in Britain. While there were some private fright lines in India as early as 1851, the first train ran in November 18, 1852, between Bombay and Thane. The commercial run took place on April 16, 1853, a Saturday, at 3:35 pm between Boree Bunder and Thane, traversing a distance just over 20 miles. The train, hauled by three engines -- Sindh, Sahib and Sultan -- carried as many as 400 passengers in its 14 coaches on its debut run. I had covered all this in an earlier article 

While early steam locomotives were made in Britain, after the Second World War, a number of engines were imported from America and Canada. The WP 4-6-2 locomotive drew heavily from the experience drawn from the straightforward American/Canadian design of locomotives used during the war and was later built locally, totaling to some 755 units. The WPs hauled the most important mail trains in the post war era well into the early eighties chugging up to a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Many of us would remember these from their unique whistle and the bullet shaped nose (smokebox cover). That was the original bullet train, the black beauty!!

As the risk of boring you over all these arcane technical details is pretty high, I will not get onto the stories of wood fired engines, diesels, electric and so on…Soon everybody will be talking about the bullet train anyway. But I will now get into some fun stuff (which a few railway men might remember) and take you into the days when the railway station was an architectural delight, when railway stations had bars, and as the traveler relaxed, found time to narrate a few tales, some tall, some short…

It was a time when the common got into the train wearing not his best clothes due to the risk of them becoming black by the time they got off, sweaty and smelly, It was a time when the engine driver had to use the spring of the expansion buffers to get started on a gradient, a time when animals were the risk on the rail and a time when engine drivers were considered demi gods. Do you remember how the bogie bathrooms used to run dry and it was only at an important junction that water was filled from the great looking overhead spigots? Today those are gone and you see hoses being hauled up or water pumped in through the side valves.

How many of you know the real meaning of the words shunting and humping? Well, aside from their sexual overtones, Shunting is not well understood, and if you wanted to know it was the method of moving the train into an alternative course. And what is humping? That was more related to freight train bogie sorting, using a man-made hill or hump. A switch engine gets these bogies or cars to the top of the hump, where the cars are uncoupled one at a time and then pushed down into the right track, to create the right goods train.

OK, now an interesting question. You as a passenger can amble up to the toilet and relive yourself, in a train, though there is some discomfort at times what with the neatness. Did you know that there was no toilet in any of the engines? In the old days the hapless driver had to wait till the train reached a station, then go over to the assistant guard’s compartment right behind the engine where a toilet is available. Or well, they had to use their ingenuity and available resources!  I believe that the situation is being taken care of in new engines and also considering that we have women engine drivers these days!

But engine drivers are known to stop engines if they could get away with it. Such was the case of this driver who stopped his train so he could pick up fish (or something else) from his favorite shop on the way!

How many of you remember the VRR’s and NVRR’s (railway restaurants) in train stations? Each person will have a favorite. For me it was the VRR at Trivandrum, the food there was nothing short of excellent, during the 80’s. But before all that they had some very famous dishes which people remember and try to recreate even today. One such curry is the railway mutton curry with coconut milk, very similar to a Kerala moplah mutton curry with coconut milk. The railway omelet is what went on to become the Indian standard omelet with green chilies, tomatoes and onions and it is said that the longer lasting egg biryani was popularized after the railway packets containing them hit the stations.

Know what - while we did see them in some old steam engines plying the forest routes, the trains in the North always had cattle or cow guards (In America they are also known as pilots). Contrary to what you believe it was not invented for the Indian cow, but for the American cattle which roamed the tracks since the tracks were not fenced off. In the old days, the engine driver would run over cattle but after a few trains derailed, the cow catcher was invented and used for the first time in 1833 in the Camden and Amboy railroad (see that? we have ‘railroads’ in America but ‘railways’ everywhere else!) in their engine named John Bull. There was the Babbage plough type and the Dripps type cow catcher. The well specified cow catcher had to throw a 2,000 pound bull (wow! The measly Indian cow would weigh only a quarter of that!) a distance of 30 feet. Older catchers were made of wood but later substituted in iron. Though this heavy (half a ton) appendage weakened the engine, it was used often and continued till owners of cattle wised up or the cattle developed a better sense of avoiding the speeding iron animal.

I cannot help but quote this classic description by Victor Bayley of the usefulness of the cowcatcher- The slow-moving mind of a cow is quite unable to grasp the rapid movement of a train. Its bovine eyes stare uncomprehending at the smoke-spouting object that darts out from a neighboring cutting. In a moment all is over, the cow-catcher has flung the dead body afar. Many cases have also been reported of the cow catcher saving people who were lying on the rails with suicidal intent. But India is India, for there were reports of little boys and even men riding free on the cow catcher in those early days, out of sight of the engine driver!!

A classic story of the cow catcher being used for a slippery rail situation is recounted by Archibald Spens, dating all the way back to 1914 -We left Simla at one o’clock, reaching Kalka about a quarter to seven. For the greater portion of the time I sat on an improvised seat on the engine thus having an absolutely uninterrupted view of the gorgeous scenery, and enjoying all the manifold sensations of a motor run……We glided down mile after mile, through tunnel after tunnel, from our advanced position as smokeless and eerie as the tube from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square ; hooted advice to wandering sheep and overcurious cattle; till the descent was relieved from monotony by the engine refusing to drag us uphill to the station aforementioned. She was coaxed, fed and cursed in turn, only to retaliate by vibrating your spine and puffing furiously. At last, acknowledging defeat, a coal-black gentleman descended from the tender, climbed down on to the cow-catcher, tied a bucket of sand to a coupling, wound one hand round a stanchion and with the other sprinkled the contents of the pail on to the slippery line. This merely appeared to over-infuriate the mechanical lady, who shook herself into a perfect spasm of rage, until another member of the railway community joined his colleague on the cow-catcher, when both, with fingers all but touching the rails, poured handful after handful of sand upon the wheels and metals. And this, mark you, when we were vibrating with the force of a printing press in Fleet Street. Grunting and ill-humoured, she at last condescended to proceed, while a stoker opened the furnace, heaved shovelfuls of coal into the roaring flames and slammed back the door by jerking a long steel chain connected at the upper end with a cooler portion of her anatomy. And so we started off again, covering mile after mile in giddy crescents and circles and shivering gyrations, till approaching dusk and lowered temperature advised me to return to my toy carriage, soon thereafter to arrive at Kalka, and, later, Umballa, after a perfectly charming trip into the very heart of the Himalayas.

Time to leave the cows and the cowcatchers in peace….Let’s move on and I will not talk too much about tiger proofed windows, for that can be easily understood as a need in the North Eastern terrains…

There was a time when the first class compartment looked different – those early days when the palanquin and coolie, the bullock-cart and pony-post have long been numbered. William Sloane Kennedy explains - As a matter of course the cars are well ventilated, and the conductors rejoice in white jackets and tall pith helmets. On the long trunk lines, such as that between Calcutta and Madras, the first-class cars, which are the only ones that well to-do foreigners ever travel in, are so made that they can be converted into sleeping cars. Each car contains two compartments, and each compartment has a cushioned settee down either side, with a third crosswise along one end; the other end is occupied by a washing closet with shower-bath. Gentlemen always carry with them a counterpane padded with wool, and a small pillow or two. At night the settee is converted into a sleeping berth by the aid of the counterpane and pillows.

Now to the train whistle…So many mimicry artistes still remember that sound of the WP steam whistle, so distinguished, compared to the bleat we hear these days from the electric and diesel engines, so out of character. But did you know that there are formal codes used when the whistle is blown?

For example (see here for details)

3 short toots while running - Guard to apply brakes

4 short toots while running - Train cannot proceed on account of accident, failure or other cause

1 long toot on the run - Acknowledgement of guards signal

1 super long toot while on the run - Approaching level crossing or tunnel area

1 long, 1 short, 1 long, 1 short - Alarm chain pulled

And then again did you know there was something called MST or Madras standard time which was used by all of the Indian railways? IRFCA explains that Madras Time was a time zone established in 1802 by John Goldingham, the first official astronomer of the British East India Company in India when he determined the longitude of Madras as 5 hours, 21 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. In the very early days of railways in India, local time was observed at each large city, in common with practice in most other countries at the time. Bombay and Poona, for instance, had their own local times differing by about 7 minutes. There were anomalies too, such as Ahmedabad which strangely observed Madras local time. Madras Time was, by 1905, effectively used for railway timetables over the whole subcontinent, across Lahore, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. Timetables for Bombay trains usually had the local times for trains printed alongside the Madras Time schedule, and trains arrived and departed according to the Madras Time schedule. Various stations remained synchronized through a 4PM telegraph signal until 1925 when new techniques came into vogue.

Nevertheless, just imagine, before IST came into being, a district administrator in British India had to deal with railway time, telegraph time, office time, cutcherry time, bazaar time and church time, all in the same locale!

There were incessant problems in adopting it, as the officials (RD Oldham GSI) explain - A more potent cause of resistance to the general adoption of the present standard time lies in the fact that it is Madras time. The citizen of Bombay, proud of being ‘primus in Indis ’ and of Calcutta, equally proud of his city being the Capital of India, and—for a part of the year— the Seat of the Supreme Government, alike look down on Madras, and refuse to change the time they are using, for that of what they regard as a benighted Presidency; while Madras, having for long given the standard time to the rest of India, would resist the adoption of any other Indian standard in its place.

The story of book stalls and pocket books in the railways is intimately connected to Higginbothams and AH Wheeler, and a time when they ruled the roost doling out newspapers and pocket books such as James Bond, James Hadley Chase, Nick Carter, Perry Mason and Enid Blyton!! They were just the kind of books to read, when you are all by yourself on the upper berth.

And there are railway stories, going all the way back to Ruskin Bond and Kipling. More recently, Bill Aitken relates the charming story where the colonial Saab snaps out an order in Hindi for ‘toast and marmalade’ to the turbaned railway waiter who vigorously nods, turns on his heels and arrives back through the gauze grilled doors a little later, with his perpetually large eyes and beaming face, carrying a cold greasy plate and with the announcement ‘toast and armlate’, which he gleefully plonks in front of the horrified saahib!!Oh, there are so many railway stories to tell, there has been an instance when a major railway scam ran its course, with 70 lakhs collected ‘to paint a section of rails’!

Many an English usage came from the railways such as ‘Full steam ahead’, ‘on the track’ and ‘drop the lot’. Remember the cockup story from Britain? Quoting Glen Hopkins - Class 150 multiple units in use in the UK have isolating cocks for doors and suspensions, located under the passenger seats in the saloon. On one occasion a driver, having suffered a burst air suspension bellows, asked a lady passenger, sitting on the seat in question, to open her legs, whilst he got to his cock! Then there was the railway stores guy who sent out a 100 soup plates because he had no ‘fish plates’ in stock, and there was the railway man who said to the hunter – when you were hunting and shooting, I was shunting and hooting!!

But some things happen only in India like the time when porters used monkeys, perhaps following the lead from a Ramayana retelling. Recently, the railway police in Calcutta arrested 25 porters and 28 monkeys after breaking up a train seat reservation scam. The officials explained that porters at Calcutta’s Howrah station had trained monkeys to jump through the windows of long-distance trains and plonk themselves down in any available seat. Passengers then had to pay the porters to have the monkeys removed. Initially porters occupied the seats and then sold the space themselves. Noww this was not legal, and when the porters were harried by the police for the wrongdoings, they resorted to this novel method!!

Time to wind up. It is sad that the children of today with their heads stuck into their Ipads will never hear the WP’s whistle, or recall sights of the engine driver with his kerchiefed head sticking out, the grimy fireman shoveling coal into the boiler or the glum looking guard riding alone in the last compartment, or the little coal breaker hunched over the pile of coals. And they will never experience the railway quarters and those lovely Anglo Indian families, especially the pretty damsels and their beaus on java mobikes….…Ah! Those were some days!!!

I cannot resist quoting this classic observation by Aitken – The journey back from Kerala was one of the most delightful train passages I can remember, with charming company, intelligent conversation and exchanges of genuine regard. But the moment we hit the Devanagari script, of N India, the cultural buoyancy of the south dipped and became progressively more submerged. As we neared Delhi, the compartment became crowded with interlopers, loud and nasally aggressive to prove that Hindi at least on the score of noise can claim to be one of the leading languages in the world. From being a spotlessly clean compartment, the litter and mess of Aryan culture soon asserted itself. The conductor had made himself scarce and the level of verbal abuse rose. Better dressed, better educated but pigmented to no advantage, the Kerala Company went into its shell.

Bravo, Bill…well said!!!

The ride is done with, the whistle still blows in your head, the steam whooshes through your ears as the wind rustles your hair, the bones ache after sleeping on the wooden sleepers, the fan took so many prods and spins with your comb to keep running, you keep one mudka (disposable tea cup made of mud) as keepsake in your luggage and you look like Oliver Twist after a chimney sweep, grime stuck all over, smelling of soot and looking bewildered… you are at the end of your journey, but that it was , a jolly good ride…

References

Exploring Indian railways - Bill Aitken

A trainload of Indian Jokes – KR Vaidyanathan

Indian Railway Stories -Ruskin Bond

The complete story of Indian Railways - Rajendra Aklekar (dnaindia-2013)

IRFCA articles 

The WP's steam run for those who have no idea what I am talking about...

For those interested in trains and train paintings, look no further and visit Kishore Partim Biswas's site. They are just wonderful....He also conducts exhibitions in various cities....

pics - from Google images, wikipedia - thanks to all uploaders

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a happy new year......

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The Raj’s Railway

A look back in time

It is going to be interesting, we will soon see driverless or autonomous cars, for Nevada and California have already approved laws permitting their introduction on public roads. A number of car makers have already made prototypes and we have today rear seeing, crash preventing, talking, self-parking and other types of active minded cars. Of course, women will feel happy about many of these developments, and some crabby men will talk about older conventional four gear cars which require, according to them higher amounts of skill and perhaps more intellect. But I am not going to talk about all this; I will instead take you backwards, to recount some interesting anecdotes related to the Railways of the Raj. In no way is the Indian railway of today that bad, but the nostalgic old was perhaps better. As Mark Twain remarked, it was a railway which provided ‘cosiness’.

The smell of the railway station has changed (I am not talking about the bad ones) the coal burning sooty grimy smell was replaced by a faint diesel one and now with electric and diesel locomotives, the stations have become cleaner. Gone are the days when you had lots of coal dust in your hair and a grimy body waiting for a bath. I think you still have to use the comb to get the fan started in normal 2nd class sleeper compartments and the 3rd class has vanished. Every train still has a name, but naming them after Hindu gods and goddesses have stopped, names like Iron Sherpa, flying queen, flying mail etc. have been replaced with benign names like executive express , red ribbon express ( promoting AIDS awareness) and so on. Gone also are the old days as the Raj created it and later when the desi managed it in the raj fashion. Gone are the many Anglo Indians who were associated with the train business, if one may call it that.

You see, it was an era as explained in the Railway gazette in 1911 – They say in the Orient, 'First comes the Bible, then the British and then the railways.' All three generally come to stay. In India the three stayed and the last is still working and keeping a measure of the pulse of the country. Railway enthusiasts in India can find a plethora of information at the IRFCA website or the Railways of the Raj website. But for the occasional reader, this article will provide a collection of facts, figures and fun related to the railways of the British raj.

How was it when it was first created? While the managers, the administrators and supervisors were mostly English or some European, the railway was entirely built by Indians. Every stone, every sleeper, every section and every other component of the track was built or laid on time using raw Indian labor (during the early days, rails sleepers & locomotives were imported). Much of it was done using little machinery. Is that not by itself astounding? Well, not only that, but the railway infrastructure built was even superior to the US rail system of that time. Distance travel had shrunk by a twentieth. When the railways had taken off in 1855, the track was all of 350 KM, but by 1870, it had galloped to 8000km, a feat that cannot be duplicated even today. By 1871, the cities of Bombay, Allahabad, Calcutta, Delhi, and Madras had been linked by rail. The western terminus of Beypore was also linked (see my article covering that subject). In fact some early surveys were conducted by Robert, the son of George Stephenson, the inventor of the steam engine! Curiously the concept was to build only goods train as the British never expected the stringent caste system to break down during railway travel. Eventually they adopted untouchabilty of sorts with class segregation while the Indians themselves managed famously without it!

We had bullock drawn trains, later firewood fired steam locomotives, coal fired, then diesel and now electric. The air-conditioning system in those days used ice blocks, carried in sealed receptacles built beneath the car floor and these were restocked at various stations enroute. A blower blew air into these ice boxes and the cold air circulated into the compartment through vents. And there were even barbers and shoe shine boys in First class. Would you believe that the Bombay Baroda train had double decker compartments as early as1862? And that the first locomotive was named Falkland, running between Bombay & Byculla? By the advent of the 20th century, the compartments were electrified and lights and fans were provided as early as 1907. Dining cars were also added in the S railway. The first class had showers. The days when khus-khus tatties did duty for electric fans and smelling, sometimes leaky castor oil lamps shed a feeble light were soon gone.

But that was also when the hair comb found its new use, when the bored, sweaty and tired passenger on the upper berth jump started the ‘Calcutta’ brand railway fan which was perennially stuck. Three tier sleepers came, then the berths were cushioned and finally the AC coaches arrived in India. Tickets which were the classic cardboard stubs gave way to computer printed sheets with passenger’s names and so on. As time went by, passengers had hordes of well-wishers to see them off and the concept of platform tickets came. The refreshment rooms at the stations became better and better and graduated from the days when they served only the raj, to popular common man’s eating places. The platform vendor became more and more sophisticated; the porter remained the same, while the food service in trains improved to more sanitary ones. Railway institutes, where railway staff met and relaxed soon closed down.



But then the fire carriage as the steam trains were called by Indians – Theevandi in Malayalam, were still awe inspiring. Interestingly, the railways had much to do with bring together the rich and the poor, the upper and the lower caste. They came into closer contact in the 3rd class compartment. People moved far and wide for religious and economical reasons, doing things they had never even imagined before, like going on a pilgrimage to Benares from Calicut. Administrators and sociologists like Marx believed that the railways would unify the large but disconnected country. But for most it was the railway that conveyed the huge might and power of the British over the Indian populace. The greater public did not see it always as a wonderful invention and a great convenience, all the time and in the North West even termed The railways the great Satan. But it was also a place where the conman practiced his trade, so much so that a book was written about it - The history of railway thieves in India by a policeman PR Naidu. The book The Indian Criminal By Hargrave L. Adam has a whole chapter on Indian Rail thieves and make interesting reading. On the other hand, many a traveler found it great. EM Forster was another who extolled (London magazine – Golden Hynde) the virtues of an Indian rail journey.

Soon the romantic and pioneering days were gone, replaced with the terrible days when segregation and prejudice took over. It is not that the railway supervisor was a gentle soul; in fact many of them were violent SOB’s.

Anthony Burton’s book On the Rails provides this insight - A railway foreman stated: “I tell these chaps three times in good plain English, and if they don't understand that, I takes the lurki (the stick) and we get on very well.” But it is also stated in the book that later enquiries indicated that the man was kindhearted and much loved by his work force.

Burton also mentions this - An hour before the time of a train starting, crowds of natives surrounded the booking office clamoring for tickets, and at first there was no keeping them to the inside of the carriage. They clambered up on the roofs of the carriages and I have been obliged to get up on the roofs and whip them.

Manu Goswami explains that the labor came from specific areas thus resulting in some migration and settlement over time. The Sindhi’s were the accountants, the carpenters came from the Kutch and huge numbers of laborers came from the NWFP. Caste determined the hierarchy. And with the railways came about the development of the Anglo Indian. Upper management was closed to the absolutely unpunctual and undependable Indian. They also lacked presence of mind and courage, the British said, so were never given the engine drivers post. But they accorded over 50% of available jobs to the large Anglo Indian population and he was clearly listed above the lower classes. Over time even more segregation occurred, in the compartments and outside in the station and offices.

Each train for passenger service is made up of four classes: First class, second class, intermediate class and third class. The first and second classes are used by Government officials and the wealthy. The intermediate is used by middle class Indians and the poorer Europeans. The third class is used almost exclusively by the Indian travelling public. In both the intermediate and third classes, separate compartments are provided for Europeans and women.

Distances were bridged and as people started to travel. Initially cotton farming issues in US meant that cotton of the Deccan could be quickly transported for export using the railways. Nevertheless, it also resulted in the development of towns and cities and the decline of the self-sustenance of the village. However that resulted in a decline for the cotton handloom industry. The situation improved by the last decade of the 19th century and Indians were moving into positions such as Guards and engine drivers. People moved, visitors came to India and saw the large and magnificent ecosystem of the country and its active railway. Booksellers like Higginbotham’s and AH Wheeler thrived and book writers like Rudyard Kipling who tied up with Wheeler, prospered. One such visitor was Mark Twain. His impressions of India were covered by me in a previous article, and he did find the Indian railway fascinating. He said “In other countries a long wait at the train station is a dull thing and tedious, but one has no right to have that feeling in India. You have the monster crowd of bejeweled natives, the stir, the bustle, the confusion, the shifting splendors of costumes-dear me, the delight of it, the charm of it are beyond speech.”

The Madras based Higginbotham’s was present at almost all big South Indian railway stations and I still recall my early book purchases, books like Perry Mason, James Hadley chase – all those pocket books that relatives came with after a lengthy train travel. Well, Abel Joshua who was apparently a stowaway on a British steamer did good, he established this book chain and later became the sheriff of madras. But I thank him for fostering my reading habit too. Wheeler, founded by a Frenchman together with a Bengali specialized in North Indian railway stations. The story of TK Banerjee and Emile Moreau is fascinating, how they hoarded some 45,000 books and facing eviction hit on a plan of selling them at a fraction of the cost at Allahabad railway station. Later they created the massive network we read about. 'Plain Tales from the Hills' and six other stories of Anglo-Indian written by Rudyard Kipling were issued as the "Indian Railway Library Series" by Wheeler. These were the first publications of Kipling's collection of stories. These books were sold on railway stations. They cost One rupee, then fifteenth part of a pound, the earliest paperbacks. Wheeler incidentally had a monopoly in the station bookshop business. In 2004, Lallu Prasada Yadav, the railway minister who otherwise did sterling service in rehabilitating the railway, made a fool of himself when he thundered "Wheeler! Wheeler! Wheeler! Angrez chala gaya lekin Wheeler rah gaya," Lalu had thundered in his Rail Budget speech. "Wheeler, Wheeler, Wheeler. Why do we have a Wheeler bookstall everywhere? He decided to stop the monopoly, thinking it was still British. It took the next Bengali minister Trivedi to reverse the situation.

Then again, the trains did not necessarily bode well for the native – Not wrongly was the name Satan given to the steaming locomotive, for the large speeding animal was a cause of death to the unwary. During the late 1880’s, natives of India were by far the largest sufferers from railway accidents, though the number of accidents was happily on the decline. As a paper report put it “In England these casualties would represent a large sum in damages, but in India the only penalty they entail is a loss in rolling stock, in injury done to the line, and in the temporary interruption of traffic”. Here you can also detect a significant amount of callousness on the part of the British in control.

But as they said, a train ride was a delight to the new entrant. As somebody wrote in the Railway gazette - The traveler will return to his village, and, as the people gossip at the noon hour under the spreading banyan tree in the middle of the village, will relate his experiences as something of surpassing wonder; and his fellows will look up to him as one who has entered a field outside the realms of human labour and invention, and straightway he gains a prestige in the community: even a reputation for wisdom, as one who has ridden in a train and seen something of the vast world beyond the shades of the village roofs.

Back to Mark Twain, he also said "The most enjoyable day I've spent on earth is of mixed ecstasy of deadly fright and unimaginable joy." This was after his ride on the Toy Train in 1895 at Darjeeling. Remember the Kasto Mazza song from Parineeta? Or the Rajesh Khanna song Mere sapnon ko in Aradhana?

William Sloane Kennedy, an American author wrote the wittiest introduction to travel on the Indian railways during the years of the raj. He gave a comparison of the two classes

Gentlemen always carry with them a counterpane padded with wool, and a small pillow or two. At night the settee is converted into a sleeping berth by the aid of the counterpane and pillows. At daybreak the train stops to allow passengers time to eat the chota-hazare, or early breakfast, and inhale the cool, dewy air before the intolerable heat begins. Etiquette permits ladies and gentlemen to appear during this meal in the light sleeping costume always worn by through travellers. After the early breakfast comes the bath, dressing, and reading of the novel or newspaper. Native gentlemen used to travel first-class, but they made themselves such a nuisance to the English lady passengers by chewing pan, smoking their hookahs, and removing their clothing above their waists, that they were quarrelled with by English gentlemen, and soon by tacit agreement they learned to take the second-class cars, where they make themselves disagreeable to English clerks and soldiers only.

The swart Hindoos arrive at the station four or five hours before the starting of the train. They are always accompanied to the depot by friends, or dependants, numbering from two hundred to three hundred, and the peasant, if his stay abroad is to be for a week or so, often fetches along a bag of rice, one of flour, a supply of ghee (or clarified butter), and a small donkey-load of sugar-cane; for he has heard that provisions are dear where he is going, and he chuckles at his foresight in taking his supplies with him. But the poor fellow finds at the last moment that the freight charges are such as to turn the scales the other way; he cannot, however, throw away his provisions, and so pays the bill with a heavy heart, and many groans and maledictions. There are often as many as one or two thousand natives at a station awaiting the arrival of a train. They are not admitted within doors until about an hour before the train starts. So they squat on their hams outside in the sun, chewing sugar-cane, eating sweatmeats, and chatting with those who have come to see them off. The noise, confusion, and stench are something wonderful. When the ticket office is opened the clatter of voices rises into a wild uproar as the crowd rushes in, each man fighting his way forward as best he can. When a native from the back country presents himself at the ticket-window he is told that his fare to such a place is, say one rupee six annas. Now he has all his life been accustomed to have one price asked him, and to pay another, and the state of mind of the English official may be imagined when he is asked if he will not take one rupee two annas for the ticket. If the native does not come instantly to terms he gets a rap from the stick of the policeman who stands nearby in order to expedite matters. The Hindoo next rushes to the freight agent to get his baggage weighed; and there again he tries to beat down the price asked. In the meantime the train has arrived, and is now ready to start. But the locomotive whistles and the station-bell rings in vain; only one half of the crowd is yet aboard. If one of them wishes to find a friend in the crowd he raises so terrific a yell for him — calling him by name — that the sound drowns even the locomotive whistle. It is usually half an hour after the advertised time before the last man is in his place and the train moves off. There are no seats in the cars occupied by the natives; they all squat on the floor, first stripping themselves to the waist. "The third and fourth-class cars," says an anonymous writer, "are one and all distinguished by the quiet and the fragrance of a monkey-house, the roominess of a herring-barrel, and all the picturesqueness derivable from an endless welter of bare brown arms and legs, shaven crowns, and shaggy black hair, white cloaks,red wrappers, blue or scarlet caps and turbans, grinning teeth, rolling black eyes, and sharp-pointed noses adorned with silver rings so huge that you feel tempted to seize them and give them a double knock,— all exhaling a mingled perfume of cocoanut oil and overheated humanity sufficient to knock down a fireman."

Ah! Those were the early days. But who will forget the Travelling ticket examiner or the railway conductor? He was a guy who would arrange your seat if you wanted one, but had no reservation. He could override systems and allocate an available seat. In old days he could allow you to take his berth while he sat or moved to another compartment. But he was the one who introduced you to the bribing system early in life. The railways had so many oddities, which we never understood. What by the way, is a line box that you see being lugged around as a new driver comes to take over a train’s engine?

IRFCA.org website explains - A Line Box is a box or trunk that is taken on board the locomotive for every trip. It contains the working timetable, and essential equipment such as detonators and flares, perhaps the driver's log and a few personal items should he wish to keep them there. (Most drivers have a separate bag with a change of clothes and other personal items.) It may also hold drawings of the pneumatic and electrical systems and other basic essentials that the driver might need to troubleshoot the loco in case any problems arise. The box also used to contain a couple of spare lamps for the headlights, although this is no longer necessary with the twin beam sealed headlamps.

The box follows the locomotive driver rather than being assigned to a specific locomotive, so it moves with him as he switches to different locos during his normal duty links.

Have you ever seen this in the old days (post 1906)? A steaming rail engine has the driver leaning out with his hand stretched, he passes another standing at the beginning of the platform or on a stone pedestal holding a hoop, the driver hooks his hand through the hoop taking it and drops another hoop as it steams through. Well that is the single line token, and the hoop allowed you to target it as the train came into the platform or sped by. The token is a Neale’s ball token. Token balls (the authority permitting a driver to leave a station for the next) are to be delivered to the engine drivers in token. Every station on a single line section must have at least six hoops in stock to deliver tokens to trains passing through. The tokens take the form of metal balls which he fed into an S.L.T. machine. These balls were fitted into a pouch which in turn went into an odd looking loop before being given to the driver

As they say, each person took his job seriously. The token porter also had his own idea of his prestige as a Railway servant for it would not do for him to run with a token from one end of the platform to the engine at its end. It would look so undignified, you see... Anyway check this link to see how the system works, the video is self explanatory.

How about the railway porter? Did you know that the porter's license for any Indian railway station is granted on the behalf of no less a person than the President of India? In the New Delhi railway station, a porter's license can command a price of over Rs 200,000. In return for that, he gets two sets of uniforms; a complimentary travel pass in a second/sleeper class from his station of work to any station in India and back, once a year; medical facilities for himself and his family in the Railways hospital; free use of waiting halls, canteens, latrines and, in some cases, the porter's rest house (the coolie shelter). According to the Railway board policy, a licensed porter's badge may be transferred to his son, or, if he has no son, to his near relatives in the event of his death or when he becomes too old or infirm to carry on with his duties properly. The list of near relatives specified includes the porter's brother, his brother's son, and even his brother-in-law!!

How about the holdall that one had to carry in the early 20th century? I used to possess one for over 15 years and it accompanied me till I got to Bangalore in 1987. It was waterproof, had many compartments could fit a light bed, a small pillow, sheet, blanket and a change of clothes, and was ideal for a long train journey in India. But about 20 years back they started offering all of this for a fee in sleepers, so the holdall died its natural death.

In the early days and even today the lowest level was the khalasi or helper, doing cleaning, menial and odd jobs. The word came from the Khalasis of Calicut, the ones who released a constructed boat into water, who at many a time assisted the railways in water related diving activity, like retrieving bodies after a lake or river accident.

But then again the railway was also one huge bureaucracy. Look at this example of a letter from a manager to his subordinate. The manager of one of the great Indian railways addresses a European subordinate given to indulge in needlessly strong language.

"Dear Sir," wrote he, “it is with extreme regret that I have to bring to your notice that I observed very unprofessional conduct on your part this morning when making a trial trip. I allude to the abusive language you used to the drivers and others. This I consider an unwarrantable assumption of my duties and functions, and I may say rights and privileges. Should you wish to abuse any of our employees, I think it will be best in future to do so in regular form, and I beg to point out what I consider this to be. You will please submit to me in writing the form of oath you wish to use; when, if it meets my approval, I shall at once sanction it; but if not, I shall refer the same to the Directors; and in the course of a few weeks, their decision will be known. Perhaps, to save time, it might be as well for you to submit a list of expletives generally in use by you, and I can then at once refer those to which I object to the Directors for their decision. But, pending that, you will please to understand that all cursing and swearing at drivers and others engaged on the traffic arrangements in which you may wish to indulge must be done in writing, and through me. By adopting this course you will perceive how much responsibility you will save yourself, and how very much the business of the Company will be expedited, and its interests promoted." Extracted from - The Living Age, Volume 151

Interesting right? how you had to get approval from higher up’s. This is also characterized by the famous Yeats retort to an actress who had a wild temperament (Mrs. Campbell). Once she indulged in one of her famous tantrums and then walked down to see the pacing author Yeats. Asking him what he thought about her outburst, Yeats replied – I was thinking of the master of a wayside Indian railway who sent a message to HQ stating ‘Tigress on the line, wire instructions’.

So that was it. If you ask me, the Kohinoor was actually not the jewel of the British crown, but the Indian railway was the jewel and it remained here.

Today the fastest train travels at 150kmph, the longest run is well over4,200 km, the station with the longest name is called Venkatanarasimharajuvariipeta and the Guwahati Trivandrum express has an average delay of 10 hours!! The most powerful locomotive in the fleet is the 6350 HP ABB Electric locomotive WAG9. The first woman diesel locomotive engine driver Tilagavathi took over controls in 2009 at Chennai, a good 150 plus years after the first train took off in Bombay in 1853.

Today it covers 115,000KM and has 7500 stations, transporting 25 million passengers daily and employing 1.4 million people (Walmart employs 2.1 Million and the US DOD employs 3.2 million. The Indian army employs 1.3 Million).

And finally a look at something some of us may have heard of, the railway mutton curry. People stated - This very popular and slightly spicy dish was served in Railway Refreshment Rooms and on long distance trains, with Bread or Dinner Rolls. The curry was not too spicy keeping in mind the delicate palates of the British. It was also popular with the Railway staff who had to be on duty for long periods at a stretch. The vinegar or Tamarind juice used in its preparation would ensure that the curry would last for quite a few days and was an ideal accompaniment with rice as well……..

Is that right? This appears to have originated with the P&O voyages as well as the railway and though standard in one sense, pleased nobody on the other hand. Why so? Because it was made with mutton or chicken, and not pork which the British upper class favored and not beef which the Muslims favored. It was made in such a way that no palate was offended on these large and moving transport systems. Available as hot, medium or mild…it survived the day, today even Sanjay Kapoor touts it in his video series.

References

Railways of the Raj – M Satow and R Desmond
Engines of Change – Ian J Kerr
Railways of the raj – Ian J Kerr
150 Glorious years of Indian railways – KR Vaidyanathan
Indian Engineering, Volume 42 edited by Patrick Doyle
Producing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space - By Manu Goswami

IRFCA website
Railways of the Raj site


Recommended reads for the railway enthusiast- The Great Railway Bazaar - By Paul Theroux

Khus Khus tattie – see my article on Punkhas – the KKT was An indigenous cooling device adopted by the sahibs was the installation of tatties made of khus-khus grass over all openings — windows and doors — of a house. Tatties were kept continually wet by a bhishtee, or a water carrier, engaged to throw water against these from outside. This was very effective in cooling when winds, hot or cool, blew. The rapid evaporation of sprinkled water and the refreshing odour of khus-khus made the inner spaces both cool and comfortable. The khus-khus tatties were highly valued in the upper provinces, which had far more hot winds than in Calcutta. The use of tatties, however, was also prevalent during the Mughal times and the invention of this device is attributed to the Mughal emperor Akbar.

Other railway articles by me

The king’s railway
Those were the days – train rides part 1

Those were the days – train rides part 2

The Ahmedpur train story

The Madras Railway’s Western Terminus

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Those were the days – Train rides - Part 2

I hope at least some of the readers understand Malayalam and can follow the lines sung by Mehboob in the movie ‘Doctor’. The song is Vandee, pukavandi…..Those who have speakers, turn the volume up..Though this is more apt for my earlier blog, I could find this song only recently.



The train journey I remember the most is the long – was it 6 days then? from Olavakkot to Howrah. Around 1969, we decided on summer holidays in Calcutta at my aunt’s place, so another aunt escorted us in a steam engine driven second class sleeper compartment to Calcutta. We were like ruffians when we reached there, hungry, black as coal, hot and miserable…But I can still remember the food at stations (this was before in-train catering) where tea was drunk off a the tiny mudka, the poori’s with potato curry served in a stiff leaf cup, the potato skins still in place…the grime and the misery in the compartment, the stinky toilets with taps that ran dry, but we were kids then, and it was all very enjoyable…

For somebody vacationing in Pallavur, arrival of long lost cousins was always a great event. Vast stretches of land, huge areas to play meant a lot of fooling around and games provided cousins were around. They usually arrived in droves for the 7th lamp or Ezham Vilakku festival at the local Thrippallavurappan temple. Big temple, big event for all and sundry in the locality, especially for us children.

Elayachan was always doubly welcome; his children arrived from Madras, adding to the group at home. These Madras imports were an interesting lot, they spoke highly accented and broken Malayalam, and lots of English…that’s how we picked up the lingo (English) during childhood actually, listening to my Madras cousins. Written English & grammar were taught in schools, hardly anybody spoke it though. In college we even had a split between English speaking ‘guys’ who came after studying in English medium or ‘higher secondary’ schools and the post PDC lot.

Well, after a few of those vacations, we got a chance to visit Elayachan at Madras, in Mint as it was then called. The area had the money minting factory, hence the name Mint. It was originally Vannarapettai, the English established a railway colony there, created Anglo Indians and renamed it Washermanpet (Used to have many a dhobi ghat). It was not very far from the Central station. Valiachan was in Pallavur for the Vilakku and he told us one evening, come and spend the rest of your holidays in Madras, well; it caught us by complete surprise. Did we really get permission to travel? Yes, the two of us, my brother and me were allowed to go. Since we were traveling with Elayachan, it was not an issue with tickets etc. Elayachan was the engine driver on that day for the Madras mail from Olavakkot station to Erode (or was it Arkonam?). They had I think 5 hour driving shifts, so they never took the train all the way from Olavakkot to Central!!

Off we went to Olavakkot, after a dinner, I was actually hoping that we will get something to eat in the train or the station, but the elders in Palakkad don’t really think that way then or now…eat at home, not outside was the motto – save money, don’t get sick eating rubbish food was the other reason…When we got to the station, Elayachan met up with his pals in the running room (where train staff prepared themselves, met & chatted, stored their ‘trunk’ petti etc) and it was decided that we will not travel in the main coaches, but in the Engine – it will be jolly for the kids he said. Elayachan was like that, he did not care about some of the rules…He told us that we should sit quietly and not run around, keep a low profile, was what he meant..

Elayachan had come up the tough way, up the ranks to become a steam engine driver with the kerchief/bandana knotted around his forehead (remember Adoorbhasi in Chattakari or Premnath in Julie?)…then took exams and became a diesel engine driver. I remember that, as a small kid, he did show us around a steam engine, but this time it was a monstrous diesel engine that we were going to actually ride in!!! We were trembling with excitement. The train came soon after, the engine drivers changed and my uncle led us into the engine.

It was no longer the smell of coal and fire that greeted us, but the acrid smell of diesel and it was reasonably quiet in there, unlike the steam engine were the steam release valve usually blew up often with deafening noise, or it was the whistle…The engine – WDM2 locomotive was some 125,000KG’s in weight, producing a huge power of 2600HP (well, sort of, my new car produces 260HP!!!). It has now completed 4 decades in the IR.

The diesel engine never had a characteristic whistle, I have always wondered about that, why did it come with a bbrooooobroooah sounding horn instead? Research tells me that the classic steam whistle was made to work with steam, and since steam at that pressure was no longer available in diesel’s they developed the bleating horn.

No place to sit, actually the diesel engine cab had two small seats on either side and next to windows where the driver could lean out. It had few controls, a few dials and a recording device for the trip, (like a drum or disc if I recall right) the diesel engine’s black box…

Soon the engine started and within seconds we had hit around 70kmph. Now my friends, it felt 200kmph sitting there, right in front of the train, rushing into total darkness, illuminated by a small tunnel of light from the headlamp. It was truly exhilarating…like a roller coaster ride in darkness that you guys would scream at today…The accelerator was a small handle on the desk…

My uncle told us about some of the other controls…and we were on the top of the world…screaming through the night, peering into the darkness, we could see animals running off the track as we sped by, dogs, cats…other birds of the night…foxes, mongoose…cattle and the such. Now and then we would scream past dimly lit houses lining the track, seeing into their meager living areas, people having supper, chatting and reclining on easy chairs set in the area in between the tracks and their houses……watching the speeding train go by, remarking possibly, Oh! Today the Madras mail is on time…wonder if it is a blue moon today??

Soon we were tired and it was cold like hell inside the engine, we just found a nice corner and napped till we were woken up towards the wee hours of the morning. It was time for the shift change and my uncle had to hand over the wheel to the new chap. We moved out of the engine and to the sleeper compartment for the last part of the ride to Central…

We were woken up as the train closed in on Basin Bridge, the power plant’s big grey concrete cooling towers towered by the skyline to welcome us to Central….getting off at the great big Madras Central station; we caught the local to Mint and went home…

My aunt was waiting for us with steaming hot food, I will always remember her cooking, what a fascinating lady she was, the lady who once saved me, as a small kid, from drowning (that is another long story). She always had much to say about everything…

After that trip, many years later, I spent some days at their place while I was settling into a new job in Madras, and I learnt the railway colony style of life, the various types living there; Mallus, Tamilians, Goltis, and of course the Anglo Indian household across the road, where we all collectively eyed the pretty pretty girls – there were three to be eyed, two were older but the third was our age…

They are all gone now, settled in different parts of the world, Elayachan and Elayamma are no more, the cousins are spread around India…I don’t know if the railway colony continues to exist in Mint, I am sure it still does, the railways have changed little since then ...a little bit of electrification on some tracks, but the trunk trains are pretty much the same – stock diesel engines….

Almost every year, when I go back to India, I travel by a train from Kozhikode to Palakkad. I love every minute of that ride, though I nap a bit even today, what with that even rocking and the train track rhythmic noise ‘clack clack’ which you can only feel on Indian trains. The ceiling fans are still the same, you need a comb to start some of them…the seats are mercifully cushioned, not the yellow rock solid wooden reapers lined up….The trains look messy though, never an even color, you have green, red and blue bogies..Wish they spruced up the bogies, and compartments…

After all we have one of the best run railways in the world, considering the size…Yes, it is still a hole you shit or pee into…the longest toilet in the word…but well, time will slowly catch up with the Indian railways, what with all the wealth generated in India today.. On the other hand, Laloo seems to have done a great job turning around the IR, already!! Kudos man!! Go for it….


Whistle talk – a nice article for train horn/whistle enthusiasts – Amongst other details (American) it provides - Many an engineer would signal ahead to his wife by playing “Polly Put the Kettle On.” One, whose spouse had divorced him to marry another, kept her mindful of him by whistling what sounded like her name every time he passed through town. Another, more happily married, would whistle something recognizable to the hearer as “I love you” from across the valley. Gay blades would signal ahead to their girl friends to be ready for a date.

An article on engine drivers
A nice interactive website on India’s stock diesel WDM2
If you like listening to engine, locomotive & horn sounds go no further
Cab photos – Thanks Jimmy Jose

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Those were the days – Train rides - Part 1

I was riding on the airport link between Portland airport and Lloyd’s centre in downtown Portland, today. The train was one of those light rail transit services serving the city much akin to the Frisco Bart, though a considerably smaller network. It had no character, there were just three jokers in my compartment including me, all looking equally bored. And I remembered days traveling on our Indian railway system. How eventful they were!

When it comes to statistics, IR stands tall, serving many a thousand mile, largest network, longest tracks, largest freight haulage…..least revenue collected, biggest loss maker…whatever. But for me, it all started way back in the early 60’s.

The first time we got introduced to them was the very first lesson in the first standard.

Koo koo kookoo theevandi, kooki ppayum theevandi
Kalkari thinnum thevandi, vellam monthum theevandi...

Every child dreamed of traveling on a steam locomotive mugging those lines and my first rail ride was not far away...sitting in the meter gauge passenger between Calicut and Shornur, enroute Olavakkot (now Palakkad Jn) ..in a choclate brown colored second class bogey with yellow wooden seats. I did not remember much of the train or the journey, but I can approximate it all now…

The first thing that hits you is the smell of the station and the sounds. Grime was everywhere and the floor was full of black dust from the coal. The Jutka (horse cart) dropped you at the entrance of Calicut station and as you would see today a red shirted (was he red shirted then? I don’t recall) coolie or porter comes rushing towards you. For a few annas he would hoist your suitcase (Long journey’s meant lugging another bit of baggage called holdalls where you packed your bed & pillow). The Calicut station has changed little from those days, it was quite the same, high ceilings, big British made ceiling fans turning slowly, hardly a wisp of air generated. People from better families traveled second (government officers and very rich Settu’s were the only first class travelers) and others traveled third. The coolie takes one look and then automatically directs you towards the second class waiting room. The children run out and along the platform, taking in the huddling passengers, the shops selling good books in English, newspapers, banana chips, red and green slabs of the famous Calicut halva waiting to be sliced and devoured or oil paper packed for presenting to relatives in distant locations (i.e. if you have forgotten to buy from Maharaj’s at SM street). The shops had Perry Mason, Tolstoy, Woodhouse, Conan Doyle….Days old Indian express or the Hindu and the daily Mathrubhumi and Manorama newspapers ( the Hindu was delivered from Madras by a Fokker airplane to the Tenhipalam airstrip much later!!). Then there were those trolleys that had fresh cooked food (the elders always asked us to stay well clear of them, unhygienic, adulterated, made by lesser classes…) that beckoned you to try them out – Bajjis, bondas, Vadas, Pazham pori….or if it were closer to lunch or dinner, curd rice, biryani….My mouth waters as I think of all this, and then the din created by the tea and coffee sellers with their chaaaaayeee, chaya chayyeeeee and kopi kooooopi kooppppi echoing all around.

Almost always there were a few military Jawans or officers with their steel trunks waiting to board and go somewhere. The policeman walked around majestically with his stiff starched shorts and patties and boots and peaked caps, swinging his bamboo lathi and maintaining a semblance of order. They fitted well into uniforms those days and were the hefty rough sort, not like the thin emancipated or potbellied lot that floated in the uniforms since then and made a mockery of the police force.

Then of course there was the trolley with the ice fruit and multi colored sodas..the soda bottle was opened with the vendors dirty thumb pressing down on a marble..or it was a small wooden opener and it would go “biiiiish’. How we kids wished we could got one. I must have tried a few on blue moon days probably; in any case I never got hooked on sodas or drank them since then. My dentist is still in awe looking at my teeth, the dental hygienist asked me, I heard you don’t drink soda’s how do you manage without one? No wonder you have good teeth…Have you ever tried one? Is it religious something? I had to smile hearing all that…

You could smell fish – they transported fish baskets in the goods compartment, Beggars were everywhere, singing beggars, guys without limbs all begging for a paisa or less (today they want many rupees – that is inflation for you). I darted to the edge of the platform and looked down, all kinds of rubbish on the tracks and a few rats bounding by…before I could observe further I was pulled back by my uncle. But by then I had found a bit of coal on the platform edge that I pocketed with gusto.

Pretty soon a rumble sounded, the floor vibrating to announce the arriving train. The train was past Feroke, people said. The first bell was sounded by the smartly attired station master (oh! We all wanted to become station masters or engine drivers after that first ride) which meant the train was due to arrive soon. Some time late he sounded the second one- a double bell which meant the train was imminent on the platform. He would in the meantime conduct a conversation (or morse in those days?) over the wind up phone to the next station. We saw the jet black smoke and the steam clouds before the giant lumbered in…The SM ran up to the beginning of the platform (in bigger stations an assistant did it) and as the train steamed in got the key bamboo yoke/ring from the engine driver and handed over the key to the next station (or whatever it was) all in one fluid motion.

The kids strained towards the train, the elders held them back with rough hands, the coolie (nowadays referred to only as porter) was the first to board and we trotted along with the train till it stooped. The porter had in the meantime located seats for us and we all clambered in…exited chatter, who wanted the window seat, who wanted to go see the toilet….arguments, much crying and cajoling took place for the window seat…

The engine, you should have seen it, it was awe inspring. Bellowing steam all around and making the characteristic noise, pistons pumping furiously – all working in unison and controlled by the great engine driver who had his hands on the throttle and commanding the shrieking whistle. All the while the boiler firemen kept shoveling coals into the furnace…if I recall there were three or four able bodied men in the engine. All of them looking as black as the coal that went in and glistening in sweat from all the tough work. But when the boss man looked out, head craning along the platform and pulled the whistle cord…boy o boy – that was it, I wanted to become an engine driver from the first day.

The train was a powerful machine, pulling bogey after bogey, crammed with people. It would take hours to traverse those hundreds of miles, sometimes days. The newer steam engines pulled express trains that got priority and traveled faster. They stopped often on the tracks with some problem or the other. Never have I reached any place on time those days. But I would not trade that travel to a faster bus or a car trip and I still travel by train when in India. Such was the power of that first experience.

Fifteen to thirty minutes later, the train pulled out from the platform. And I took in the compartment and the occupants. Two three seaters, and two single seaters separating the aisle. Two fans droned on the ceiling, the other two were stuck and required some guy’s comb to restart it. Above the seats were luggage racks. But many more than three sat on the three seaters during rush days. A mandatory visit to the toilet or lavatory as they call it revealed a hole on the floor showing the tracks speeding by. My uncle stood guard outside with the door open to ensure I was not terrified. Back to the seat, there was a Gujrati trader and his family on one side, soon they started to unpack one of the smaller bags to pull out a tiffin carrier containing pooris and masala and other dishes that I had no clue about. My mouth watered, I looked with pleading eyes at my Valiamma, and she sternly issued a warning with her eyes for me to look elsewhere. My drooling continued, the food smelt heavenly….A little further sat a Brahmin family, and they started consuming their pungent smelling curd rice & lime pickles. A Koya across dressed in his checkered Lungi, half sleeved baniyan and massive multi pocket money belt over his pot belly opened his Biryani packet, much to the Brahmin family’s disgust..(those days they did not have the train ‘meals’ service, but they stopped for more time at stations)

I was in tears, even though I had finished an early lunch at home before boarding the train, I felt terribly hungry, I wanted something even if it was a portion of the kaka’s biryani. I tried eyeing the Gujju’s wife, she seemed more pliable, yes, it worked, she offered me a poori with some rolled in masala. I greedily accepted it before my Valiamma even knew what was going on, and munched on. Valiamma looked down and was livid, I got a cuss over the ears and she apologized to the Settu family…he just ate lunch, you know…Ah! who cared, train hunger satiated, I was looking out of the window at the rushing fields, the kids sitting on the embankments, the houses on the track side, wishing I was living closer to the tracks as well, like them – I could then see trains every day. Now what, I am thirsty, Valiamma, I want something to drink, she took out her bottle and gave me a tumbler of bright red Chukkuvellam which I sipped. And then I slept, in her warm lap…waking up now and then, as we passed stations, mercifully without any signal stops or mechanical failure stops…My eyes smarted with coal dust that came in through the window, my hair was sticky and dirty with the grime..

Olavakkot, at last- I was tired groggy, moody and sleepy, We had finally reached our destination.

Snippets:

For an Indian, the train always evokes powerful memories, not necessarily those of Lallu.
Starting from the first trains that started to ply from various cities in India during the Raj, to the new locomotives, little has changed. The first train ran on 16th April 1853 between Bombay and Thane…Today 11000 trains run every day, 7000 of them being passenger trains over 108000 track kilometers. The department employs 1.54 million personnel and covers 6853 stations. 13 million passengers use it everyday! The Indian railway history is well documented and supported by rail enthusiasts at the IRFCA. Development of the IR after 1853 was pretty rapid and Calicut was connected before 1900 if I read it right.

There are some who still remember the train sounds from real life or later day mimicries. If you really want to hear a great recording, download & play this link (won't play by just clicking). It is not actually from an Indian train, but they sounded the same and so, thanks to the owner D Bailey…

The backbone of the railway was the Anglo Indian…remember Adoor bhasi in Chattakari? I remember staying at my engine driver uncle’s house at the Railway quarters it Mint – (Washermanpet) Madras, they had their share of Anglo’s and naturally for us adolescents, the girls were the cynosure of all eyes -pretty, bob cut haired, skirt clad girls you would never see anywhere else, English speaking boys who played the guitar and dreamt of going to Britain (my brother’s friend Joe did exactly that – he is an engine driver somewhere in the UK now).

But all of that and much more will follow in Part 2 detailing my experience of riding in a Diesel engine of the Madras Mail with my uncle.

The Kerala Express has the longest daily run time. The Kerala Express has daily service and covers 3054km in its run (in 42.5 hours). In second place is the Mangala Exp. covering 2750km in 52 hours

Calicut Railway station has a cyber café now!!

By the way readers, Wish you all a happy & prosperous new year!!!

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