Train Talk (Chai & Choo Choos)

I just had a quick look at this post - it's delightful, with a nice photo of a motorised trolley! - http://pakistaniat.com/2010/03/29/jo...rail-in-1950s/ - and the links at the end seem to work too.

Great site SMT!

i do recall a similar set of 'treasure boxes' that were transported in vendor compartment of local trains in mumbai along with a set of armed policemen. i understood they carry the card tickets (not sure about cash). it certainly was lifted by 4 persons, who did not look like coolies. again, memory fails me about the locking system used...

I am just reading a book called Frontier of Heaven by Stanley Stewart. It is about a journey through China and into Pakistan that the author unddertook in the early 1990s using various means of transportation. The following episode about securing a train reservation reminds me of the Indian railways before computerized bookings. Instead of quoting verbatim I am cutting an pasting a summary that appeared in Country Life.


The major difference is that in India booking clerks are invariably male. So imagine a woman traveller in India doing the same to get her ticket.

One does not appreciate heritage until it is tagged as obsolete...
During my trip to Chennai about 25 yrs back, I recall 2 types of local trains - BG & MG. I think we went from somewhere to Mambalam on the MG local. I could not imagine that time that I'm being part of history right then...

The memories came flooding back when I saw this at the Chennai Regional Rail Museum. Hope you enjoy the pics (a front view & an inside view - love the 2 seat config)...

Noted this picture in the gallery at Chennai Regional Rail Museum.

Including a blow-up of the text below for clarity...

Has anyone seen the actual coach in any museum???

As far as I know the Madras Beach-Madras Egmore-Tambaram line was the only electrified metre-gauge track in India.

@Julia (another quirky bit of information)
Link no.3 mentions Sir Ganga Ram, whose grandaughter Shreela became Baroness Flather, the first Asian woman peer.

Very true. I was walking around a heritage railway station in UK's Lake District, and when I got on the train, I realised that these were the same carriages from my earliest school journeys.

176 sheeps

I'm glad the attendant had a separate compartment.






Golghar, thanks for the quirky bit. I've heard of Baroness Flather but what link no.3 is this?

The "pakistaniat" link in your post #256 - scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "3.Ghora Tram".

No.20 has a picture of Ava Gardner at Lahore Junction during the shooting of "Bhowani Junction". The contribution of Pakistan Western Railways to the making of the film is acknowledged in the credits. The Govt. of India didn't allow the film to be made in India. After it was made it wasn't released by the censors either. The reason was that M.N.Roy appears as the villian in the (film version of the) story. So a "Raj" story was turned into a cold-war film.
I have found no confirmation of this but rumour had it that his widow obtained a court order stopping the release of the film in India.

There is one train that I'm aware of that has HA, HB & AB coaches, besides regular A & B coaches - 18451/18452 express.

I thought that was funny, until I came across this model of Wooden composite coach for I/II/III class at Chennai Rail museum:


I was wondering if anyone has noted a HAB coach or AS/BS coach (sleeper + AC)? I do recall someone mentioning FS coach (2S + FC) being used somewhere...

Side Note for Steven: Does it make sense to add some more coach layouts (HB, AB, etc.) to your masterpiece???

The official travelled 1st class, his secretarial staff 2nd and his menial staff 3rd. These coaches were still in use in the fifties.

looking at the size of 1st class area, it looks like it can accommodate only 2 passengers (perhaps the official & madam). so in effect, one coach was dedicated to one official - which is pretty much what the rly minister is entitled to in current context, only he/she gets an AC coach...

The Collector with his "Ma'am Sāhab" in the first-class coupé (of course the gentleman took the upper berth), the staff with the land-revenue files and the cash-box (with armed guard) in second and the bearer, ayah etc. with the household linen, china and silver in 3rd. This is how they went "on tour" to collect revenues.

A great set of photos from the Chennai Rail Museum paramiyer!

This one, of the double-decker coach amazed me - I'd never heard of a double decker train. How recently were these in use? Has anyone been on one?

Julia

IR has had double decker trains for some time. Ms Banarjee (Didi) introduced one that runs mainly empty between Dhanbad and Howrah. There is also one called the Flying Rani on the Western Railway between Mumbai and Surat.