Train Talk (Chai & Choo Choos)

I shall let Madame W loose on that subject. What she has to say about bed linen on the North West Zone couldn't possibly be repeated on a polite forum like this.

I wasn't suggesting that we bin the waitlist queries. Just trying to add a bit of light relief.


Now. Back to railbuses. Or to be precise a Railcar.
This beauty runs daily on the Kalka-Shimla. I believe that in the US this style of vehicle is kn own as a Galloping Goose.

Apparently not as the line has been rebuilt to standard gauge. So where is everybody with those metre gauge suggestions while there are still a few left.

That would be a turntable. Although Matheran has a full circle of track called a reverse loop to turn locos.

I loved the Jerk Free Journey comment. It would make a great title for a thread.

When I was a kid, the turntable at Vizag station (VSKP), Waltair in those days i think, was a must see when we used travel BBSR-HYB during summer vacations. Was a time of full awe, wonder and amazement. Had, I think seen it a few years ago while passing by on a train. Wonder if it is still there now. Was required there as VSKP is a dead end station.

Dave are you aware of what happened to a lot of Indian rolling stock during WWII, interesting for rail buffs have a google.

Klompen

Google took me here

http://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2010/08...ritish-legacy/

Not my specialised subject but I don't know what use 5'6" gauge stock would have been in the Middle East. Plenty of UK built locos went there, recently a few were repatriated from Turkey.

The guy also makes a point that the British handed over only 20 diesel locos. There weren't many more than than that operating in the UK in 1947.

I had hoped to keep this thread pretty light hearted so I think that I will sign off here on his one.

you are referring to the rail-bus (more like a lorry on tracks) which was running between shimoga to jog falls. it has been closed down as part of unigauge project & the heritage stuff will be replaced with the standard rolling stock.

somehow i feel IR is very partial to certain routes where tourism MUST be promoted & without political/bureaucratic support other options without the 'potential' are let to die. case in point is the narrow guage tracks & coaches in shimla & darjeeling routes that are favorites, but one like this is well ignored. also, meter gauge trains in rajasthan are still preserved for tourism sake, while the ones in east & south are just being eliminated in droves. sorry for the long rant, just needed this outlet...

Politics aside I just thought what amazing journeys these Train Drivers must have undertaken to get their rolling stock TO the middle east. And I'm pretty sure some troops must have also been on board to help the allied war effort, The Romantic in me finds these journeys facinating.
What landscapes, what culture, what distances.....Sure would like to do that..Have done ever since I read the Great Railway Bazaar

Thanks for the correction. Here is vonkla's photo of the turntable at Katwa which I missed.



This is probably gone now as I believe the line is closed for gauge conversion.

Does anyone know any turntables which are still working?

And any more funny railbus/railcar photos?

There's definitely one at Shimla and there must be one at Kalka although I didn't see it.

Neral, at the bottom end of the Matheran, has a triangle layout for turning locos.

Darjeeling has a turntable but I'm not sure how much use it gets.

Railbus between Siliguri-Bagdogra

Railbus between Dasturi Naka-Matheran Station

Kakinada-Kotipalli Rail Bus

@JuliaF
Is this what it looked like? It used to run on the narrow-gauge line from Yelahanka to Bangarapet via Chikballapur and Kolar. I see now that the Yelahanka-Chikballapur section has been converted to broad-gauge and the rest of the line is not on erail. Is it in the process of being converted?

And a question about non-AC first class: till the 1970s (when my everyday experience of Indian Railways came to an end) one didn't need a reservation (just a 1st class ticket) to travel non-AC 1st class. During daytime it was perfectly legal, at night the reservation rule wasn't really enforced. The TTEs let you spread out your bed-roll on the floor of a compartment as long as the people with reseved berths didn't mind.
Is this still the case?

A similar contraption is still in working order in Germany. Fast-forward the first 36 seconds for it to come into the picture.

I see that it solves the need for turntables by having 2 front ends.

As regards your question about First Class. I don't think that you can buy an unreserved FC ticket any more. It would either be confirmed or wait listed and the ticketing rules prohibit travel on WL tickets.

In those days even passenger trains on rural lines used to have at least one 1st class compartment. Back in 1979 I travelled from Patna to Gaya on a passenger train in a worn out 1st class compartment. In fact I still have the ticket with me - a piece of cardboard (remember those! - I used to collect them.). In his Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux describes a journey from Madras Egmore to Rameshwaram in a first class compartment on the Madras-Rameshwaram Passenger (metre gauge!). And he travelled on a cardboard ticket with "Madras Egmore - Colombo Fort" printed on it. I'd love to have that piece for my collection.

I get into terrible trouble at home for filling the house with used tickets. The cardboard ones are real train tickets - some preserved lines in the UK still use them. A printout of an e ticket lacks romance somehow.

Many of the cardboard tickets were issued using the Edmondson system. There is (or was) a factory making the ticket blanks at Kurseong on the Darjeeling Himalayan.