Express Action in India

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Rajdhanis with 20 or 21 is the max. There are other expresses that carry 24 and a few these days that even go upto 26 I am told.

But there are about half a dozen effectively daily trains between Delhi and Kolkata that are each 20 cars or more AFAICT.
 
Some more express action this time on Eastern Railway on one of the earliest segments of Main Line of India. This segment went into service before the Mutiny of 1857 or the first Battle for Independence, depending on ones perspective.

It was electrified in the 1950s using a 3kV DC system. The catenary installed then was left in place while replacing the power supply and installing higher voltage insulators, when it was converted to 25kV AC in the 1960s. So what you see is the original 3kV installation duly modified for 25kV.

 
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I hadn't realized that the rails were that old in India (not surprised, just somehow hadn't).
First Broad Gauge service ran on 16th April 1853 from Bombay to Thane (GIPR). By 1857 the then East Indian Railway Main Line (now what is known as the Sahibganj Loop) from Calcutta had reached almost half way to Delhi, and service on the first segment of that started in 1854. So over 500 miles of railway on that one route was put in service in less than four years. The newly built station in Ara (near Patna the capital of Bihar today), was sieged for a while by the "mutineers" and many of the British who had retreated to that defensible structure were killed there before the siege was lifted by troops arriving from Calcutta. Interestingly, the continued construction of the railways was slowed down only slightly by the events of 1857.
 
Cool, thank you! So if I were snarky I would say that India thought it a good idea to have England build and pay for those new-fangled railway things and then boot them out (which took a bit longer than anticipated).

One historical note that I find interesting is that how war, despite it's all encompassing reputation, doesn't really always seem to slow down every day life (or perhaps a better way of saying it is that everyday life manages to keep going, at least up to a point). At least in many cases, especially when battles are fought remote from population.
 
Actually it was investors in the Railway Companies, which included rich folks from both England and India, that funded the initial construction of the railways. It is quite a fascinating history. The primary reason they were built was to support the expansion of the enterprise of the East India Company before 1857 and the Crown after 1857 and support the logistics of managing it. The original bits of IR were all built by private companies mainly interested in extracting wealth from India to transfer it to England (well actually the rich in England and India). After they were progressively nationalized as the fat cats lost the stomach for the risks, it became the Crown's problem to continue to fund. They continued to do so because literally they could not control and manage India without the railways.

The reason UK left India is because the War (WW II) bankrupted them and they simply did not have the means to carry on as before, and because the US used the War as a means to deprive the European powers of their colonies to advance their own agenda. On their way out they (UK) unilaterally cancelled (with the connivance of the U,S since the US did not want to see Silver bullion prices destabilized if the amount owed were actually transferred in the form of Silver - the Brits did not have it available in their vaults anyway. They were broke) outstanding war debts to India of many hundreds of millions of pounds. But that is way beyond the scope of this group.

The Indian Railways angle on that is that many hundreds of miles of trackage were torn up in India to provide materials for building railroads in the middle east and Southest Asia to support the war effort. Rolling stock was commandeered and shipped out where it was deemed necessary never to be returned. Indian Railways really struggled mightily immediately after the War even to keep every day freight movement going to carry essential like grains and coal and such. Recovery was slow and gained steam only after independence.
 
Not high speed action but intense action at Bally on the approach to Kolkata’s Howrah Station from the Eastern Railway side (Northern India including both Northeast and Northwest). Howrah’s other feed (3 soon to become 4 tracks) is from Southeastern Railway (from the South and West India) which is separate from this feed.

The line above is a connection to Kolkata’s other giant terminal station Sealdah on the Kolkata (east) bank of the river.

 
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An interesting triple parallel departure from New Delhi.



In the US you see this sort of thing regularly at LIRR's Jamaica station. This sort of multiple departures and arrivals are very common at several large terminals in India like New Delhi Jn.; Howrah and Sealdah in Kolkata, Mumbai CSMT (previously VT) and Mumbai Central to name a few.
 
You also see that in the UK at the busy London stations such as Clapham Junction.
Indeed, there are many places in the UK. Even at the approach to Manchester Piccadilly for example, not to mention a few of the London terminals in addition to the legendary Clapham Junction.
 
Actually it was investors in the Railway Companies, which included rich folks from both England and India, that funded the initial construction of the railways. It is quite a fascinating history. The primary reason they were built was to support the expansion of the enterprise of the East India Company before 1857 and the Crown after 1857 and support the logistics of managing it. The original bits of IR were all built by private companies mainly interested in extracting wealth from India to transfer it to England (well actually the rich in England and India). After they were progressively nationalized as the fat cats lost the stomach for the risks, it became the Crown's problem to continue to fund. They continued to do so because literally they could not control and manage India without the railways.

The reason UK left India is because the War (WW II) bankrupted them and they simply did not have the means to carry on as before, and because the US used the War as a means to deprive the European powers of their colonies to advance their own agenda. On their way out they (UK) unilaterally cancelled (with the connivance of the U,S since the US did not want to see Silver bullion prices destabilized if the amount owed were actually transferred in the form of Silver - the Brits did not have it available in their vaults anyway. They were broke) outstanding war debts to India of many hundreds of millions of pounds. But that is way beyond the scope of this group.

The Indian Railways angle on that is that many hundreds of miles of trackage were torn up in India to provide materials for building railroads in the middle east and Southest Asia to support the war effort. Rolling stock was commandeered and shipped out where it was deemed necessary never to be returned. Indian Railways really struggled mightily immediately after the War even to keep every day freight movement going to carry essential like grains and coal and such. Recovery was slow and gained steam only after independence.

This is very interesting and I hadn't appreciated this aspect before.

Were the companies that later formed IR nationalized prior to independence, or was this something done by India?

I always imagined Indian independence was largely due to figures such as Gandi who basically created a situation that would have made it untenable for India to remain part of the British Empire for much longer. And thus independence would at that time have become an inevitable certainty, the only questions to be settled being when and how, but not if. Your macro-economic take makes it sound as if the mechanism was totally different.
 
This is very interesting and I hadn't appreciated this aspect before.

Were the companies that later formed IR nationalized prior to independence, or was this something done by India?
All the major companies were brought under the control of some government or the other during the British rule. Many lines were controlled by the Princely States, and the biggies like NWR, EIR, BNR, GIPR, MSMR etc. were brought under the control, of British India government. Some were merged to form larger companies under government control, all under British India.
I always imagined Indian independence was largely due to figures such as Gandi who basically created a situation that would have made it untenable for India to remain part of the British Empire for much longer. And thus independence would at that time have become an inevitable certainty, the only questions to be settled being when and how, but not if. Your macro-economic take makes it sound as if the mechanism was totally different.
Let's take this part on PM or at least in the Lounge. I will try to write up a brief explanation later today in the lounge. It will be my perspective. There is no agreed upon canonical story about it, events that took place 75-85 years back.
 
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It has been over a year since the last post on this thread. I was enjoying one this afternoon and I thought I'd share it with you.

In India almost each of the 28 state capitals is connected with the nation's capital New Delhi by a daily Rajdhani Express service, and a few like Mumbai and Kolkata have multiple ones. All this amounts to 20 something trains each day. On the two major routes to the east and south/west out of Delhi. there is a parade of Rajdhani Expresses each evening outbound, and each morning inbound. Indian Railfans call these flights of Rajdhani that go one after the other possibly intermingled with a few Shatabdis and other fast trains - The Rajdhani Gang.

This video is of the evening Rajdhani Gang bound eastwards from New Delhi at a station named Chola on the Delhi - Kolkata trunk route. This route was completed in the 1860s, and significantly expanded in capacity progressively and then fully electrified in the early to mid 1970s. Anyway, here they are. As a bonus you get to see a freight pulled by one of the massive twin articulated Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo WAG12 Class 12,000 HP behemoths. The Blue Giant.

 
It has been over a year since the last post on this thread. I was enjoying one this afternoon and I thought I'd share it with you.

In India almost each of the 28 state capitals is connected with the nation's capital New Delhi by a daily Rajdhani Express service, and a few like Mumbai and Kolkata have multiple ones. All this amounts to 20 something trains each day. On the two major routes to the east and south/west out of Delhi. there is a parade of Rajdhani Expresses each evening outbound, and each morning inbound. Indian Railfans call these flights of Rajdhani that go one after the other possibly intermingled with a few Shatabdis and other fast trains - The Rajdhani Gang.

This video is of the evening Rajdhani Gang bound eastwards from New Delhi at a station named Chola on the Delhi - Kolkata trunk route. This route was completed in the 1860s, and significantly expanded in capacity progressively and then fully electrified in the early to mid 1970s. Anyway, here they are. As a bonus you get to see a freight pulled by one of the massive twin articulated Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo WAG12 Class 12,000 HP behemoths. The Blue Giant.


Very impressive. It never occurred to me, however, that monkeys would be using the pedestrian overpass. The stray dog wasn't as clever!

It also reminds me that one can find railfans all around the world.
 
Impressive. Do they plan to use the Vande Bharat equipment on any of these trains, or will they remain a conventional formations?

Also I notice some trains have 2 of the generator cars one at the front and one at the rear. Is this because of the length of the train requiring more power, or just for redundancy?
 
I believe the two generator cars are because of the longer trains requiring more power. I was once in the next passenger car to the leading generator car, and the fumes were very unpleasant!

The Rajdhani trains have sleeping berths, I think (not sure!) that the Vande Bharat trains are just all seat daytime trains.

I have seen many diverse animals on the tracks in India, I guess that colliding with dogs, monkeys, etc, would not be seen as reason to halt the train?
 
I believe the two generator cars are because of the longer trains requiring more power. I was once in the next passenger car to the leading generator car, and the fumes were very unpleasant!
Actually the new Generator Cars with MTU diesel engines are capable of powering a full 26 car train. India uses IIRC 1.5kV 3 Phase 50Hz HEP line, so they do not have the capacity limitations that American HEP has due to the use of relatively low voltage. Anyhow two generators per train are just for redundancy. And of late many trains are getting just one Generator Car because they are getting HEP from the so called HOG (Head On Generation) capable electric locomotives. In those cases the Generator Car is just an insurance in case the HOG fails. One needs to understand that specially during the warmer seasons losing power in a sealed AC train it is a life threatening situation. So there will always be redundancy of some sort.
The Rajdhani trains have sleeping berths, I think (not sure!) that the Vande Bharat trains are just all seat daytime trains.
The Vande Bharats are all day trains at present with only two types of accommodation:

C - AC Chair Car
E - AC Executive Chair Car

There are versions of articulated train sets being developed with the accommodations carried by Rajdhanis:

A - AC 2 Sleeper
B - AC 3 Tier Sleeper
H - AC First Class

At present though it is not clear what the manufacturing and deployment schedules are. One must realize that in order to change all the Rajdhanis it requires some 100+ 16 car consists. Theoretically this could be achieved in less than a year when they decide to go for it. But at present they are too busy replacing the remaining ICF Schlieren Coaches that are still rolling along and deploying more 8 and 16 car Vande Bharat expresses.
I have seen many diverse animals on the tracks in India, I guess that colliding with dogs, monkeys, etc, would not be seen as reason to halt the train?
You are correct.
 
Very impressive. It never occurred to me, however, that monkeys would be using the pedestrian overpass. The stray dog wasn't as clever!

It also reminds me that one can find railfans all around the world.
I have seen Monkeys walk across the entire right of way with four tracks, on one of the catenary gantries across the track. Dogs of course can't climb like that. Cats can and do, since they like to be located as high as possible.
Impressive. Do they plan to use the Vande Bharat equipment on any of these trains, or will they remain a conventional formations?
As mentioned in a post above. Sleeper Vande Bharats, or whatever they will be called, are in the works. It is entangled with reducing weight using Aluminum bodies. Contracts have been let for some 200 sets I believe. Haven't seen any details of rake formation.
Also I notice some trains have 2 of the generator cars one at the front and one at the rear. Is this because of the length of the train requiring more power, or just for redundancy?
Again, see discussion in a post above.
Another selection of speeding Indian trains, including 20818, a train I rode from New Delhi to Bhubaneshwar, a few years back!


Good set. I like the way it displays the speed. Some random observations...

1. I always find the EMD WDP4Ds at speed very imposing and impressive.

2. One thing that has changed recently is that now all trains that are equipped with LHB rolling stock are cleared for operating at 130kph in all track sections cleared for such. Select ICF Schlierens are also cleared for such but not all. So a vast number of trains have seen their max speed bumped up by 20-30kph. I am told the next step is to go to 145kph, first with the priority trains (Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Vande Bharat etc.) and then the rest. At present there are two trains cleared for speed higher than 130kph - Gatimaan Express (160kph) and Bhopal Vande Bharat Express (155kph). All LHB rolling stock is 200kph capable but currently tested and certified for 160kph.

3. Notice that each train as it passes through is met by a station agent either waving a green flag or holding up a flashing Green LED lamp or waving a white LED torch. Both the Loco Pilot (actually the ALP) and the Guard reciprocate with either a waving Green flag out of the window or a Green flashing LED lamp visible at the window. This exchange of signal ritual takes place always. Always. In Neale's Ball Token governed segments this is where the Token Exchange took place. Now almost everything is electronic.

3. @caravanman the 5th segment has the Howrah - Kalka Netaji Express, which was previously known as Kalka Mail. You have traveled on this train as have I. It used to be 1 up/2 dn. In standardized 5 digit numbering it became 12311 up/12312 dn. Apparently Netaji Subhash Bose traveled by this train from Gomoh when he escaped from British India and defected to Japan during the Second World War, eventually to lead the Azad Hind Fauj from Burma into Nagaland, where the Axis was finally defeated. He is still a much revered folk hero in India, enough to have one of India's original through mail trains that carried the Rulers of the Raj between their Winter (Calcutta) and Summer (Shimla) Capitals, named after him.

4. You'll notice that many of the Rajdhani Expresses carry one or two Parcels Vans at their tail. This has become standard practice for capturing revenue from high value shipments. They are attached to the fastest trains, and brings in some significant amount of revenue.

5. The Naharlagun AC Express that you see is a substitute for a Rajdhani which does not exist since the capital of Arunachal Pradesh (previously North East Frontier Agency) is not yet served by the railways.

6. Notice that in identifying the locomotives not only is the type mentioned but also the Home Shed. This tradition carries on from the Steam days and the Loco Sheds take immense pride in the Locos homed at them and emblazon the name of the shed prominently somewhere on the Loco.
 
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3. @caravanman the 5th segment has the Howrah - Kalka Netaji Express, which was previously known as Kalka Mail. You have traveled on this train as have I. It used to be 1 up/2 dn. In standardized 5 digit numbering it became 12311 up/12312 dn. Apparently Netaji Subhash Bose traveled by this train from Gomoh when he escaped from British India and defected to Japan during the Second World War, eventually to lead the Azad Hind Fauj from Burma into Nagaland, where the Axis was finally defeated. He is still a much revered folk hero in India, enough to have one of India's original through mail trains that carried the Rulers of the Raj between their Winter (Calcutta) and Summer (Shimla) Capitals, named after him.
Indeed, I know of Bose, and his activities. I see that across the board, India is replacing many westernised names with more ethnic and local honorific names, and can understand the wish to do that. ( It makes travel for us with out of date maps a little more confusing ...;) )
I do have reservations about stirring up nationalism though, but enough said... :cool:
 
Indeed, I know of Bose, and his activities. I see that across the board, India is replacing many westernised names with more ethnic and local honorific names, and can understand the wish to do that. ( It makes travel for us with out of date maps a little more confusing ...;) )
I do have reservations about stirring up nationalism though, but enough said... :cool:
Yes indeed. Though the changes are not necessarily just of Westernized names. The big place name changes on the route of the Netaji Express are the venerable Mughal Sarai Jn. (MGS) changed to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Jn. (DDU) (everyone seems to refer to it as DDU now) , a purely political thing, and Allahabad (ALD) changed to Prayagraj (PRGJ), a more mundane change. Oddly in case of Mughal Sarai apparently only the name of the station was changed, and not of the Railway Colony that it is located in. In case of Allahabad the new name is acatually a pre-existing alternate name which actually predates the previous name. Oh and of course the name of Gomoh Jn. Station was changed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Gomoh Jn. many years back.

Some changes are even more mundane. For example Calcutta was the English transliteration of the Hindi pronunciation of the name of the city in question. Kolkata is the English transliteration of the Bengali pronunciation. The latter is based on the native language of the area where it is located whereas the former is based on the national language. So this is less to do with English and more to do with local politics of resisting forcing Hindi down everyone's throat! This is nothing to mess around with. Afterall a more open clash of wills on this subject of language involving Urdu in the case of Pakistan, eventually caused the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, among many additional factors of course.

As far as names go the real hoot is what they changed the name of what used to be Madras Central station to - "Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Station"!!! Of course just like for DDU the location of the station is completely lost in the shuffle. No one can complain about the endless entertainment inadvertently provided by the combination of politicians and Indian Railways!

'Nuff said about all this, but just wanted to illustrate that it is not just about changing names from Westernized names to something else.
 
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