Train Talk (Chai & Choo Choos)

This might fall flat on its face but I thought that I would give it a try.

IM has at least its fair share of railway fans and we love a blether. When I look across the threads in the IM Indian Railways section I see that 90% of them deal with reservation or wait list queries, 5% deal with how to get a 1AC cabin for my dog, and most of the rest ask “How can I get my girlfriend into a 2 berth coupe?”

Is there any interest in a sort of “Chai & Chat” thread for us anoraks where we can talk about trains without anybody mentioning Cleartrip or irctc? I know that there are sites like indiarailinfo and irfca but they are a bit serious. Irfca actually chucked me off for asking about Bollywood numbers on trains.

The sort of thing I had in mind is............

Q1. Which are the best surviving metre gauge train trips?

Q2 Can anybody identify the train in the photo? Picture taken at NJP in March 2011. It's not a great shot as it was taken from the footbridge above the narrow gauge platform which is quite a long way from the main station.

Agree. Most Q's here or on most sites are restricted to the three main types mentioned.


Not an expert in trains that far off from where I am currently, but that should be 75705 NJP-SGUJ Ring Train (circular route): More here: http://indiarailinfo.com/train/15480...634/0/13392000

Thanks. That's a bit disappointing. I thought that it might be some kind of prototype Indian High Speed Train or TGV. I see from the iri site that it is unreserved and the fare for the entire trip is Rs 2/-.

I think Narendra has got it right.

BTW, good initiative, Dave.

I doubt if that would be the train. Looking at the picture it seems that the train reaches NJP during the day.
Dave, do you remember what time did you take this photo?

It could either be Radhikapur New Jalpaiguri DEMU/75707 or BALURGHAT-NEW JALPAIGURI DEMU/75709

Aarosh

It was around 10 or 11 a.m. It wasn't the particular service that I was wondering about but the type of rolling stock. I can't remember seeing anything else like it on our 2 Indian trips but from what has been said it seems to be some kind of DMU. Are they in common use or just around NJP?

I am not sure of that Dave. But we do have EMU's in Mumbai and Chennai. There should be a few in Kolkata also. These are similar to the local trains in Mumbai and Chennai.

I've seen the EMUs in Kolkata and Mumbai. I suppose I was fooled by the train in the photo because nobody was hanging out of the doors.

On searching found quite a few DEMU's

This, this. You can see a few more here

Thanks for posting those links aarosh. Looks like I haven't been getting to enough of the right places to see more of these in action.

I was indeed doubtfull when I looked at the photo and the timimgs of the train 75705 don't seem to match what looked like morning of evening.

However when I looked at http://indiarailinfo.com/imminent/444 there were no DEMU's listed except 75705. I think @aarosh is right.

DEMU's are quite common and we have a few of those here as well. In fact the color scheme is similar too.

Nice thread. Can girls join in too?

I didn't know what a DMU or EMU was but I do now thanks to aarosh's links

This one made me laugh



(sorry )



I would also like to know about metre-gauge trains. Also I remember a thread here a few years ago about a train somewhere in the south, maybe Karnataka, and it was called something like a railbus. It looked like a cross between a train and a bus

Is there really such a thing or is my memory playing tricks on me?

Julia

We'll make you an honorary bloke for the purposes of this thread. Is this the railbus you were thinking of?

Scenic rail trips -- Kangra Valley Railroad and others

good ones... i would also like to add
- the surviving trains with FC coaches (cabin+coupe type)
- trains with FC chair car coaches - 2+3 (or 2+2?) without a/c
- rating of linen & pantry by toutists in relevant trains

i think it is best if we move the WL query to a separate forum - or replicate something like what IRI has (registering predictions & success rates) or just redirect to IRI???

Ha ha ha yes it does look like a bus doesn't it?

I recall a photo where it was full of schoolkids and travelling through lush vegetation but I was right about Karnataka so it could well be that train. I wonder is it still running? That would be a fun trip .

I think I recall a photo of it on one of those turning circles too.



Thanks for the honorary bloke designation . But I don't think I deserve it really . When I was in Katwa, I sat in the sun under a bougainvillea while the train went off to turn round. So I completely missed the turning circle