IRFCA Mailing List Archive
Messages 941 - 960
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject: Multiple stns, etc.
Date: 10 Aug 1992 10:31:00 -0500
Hi Folks,
Adding to the list of multiple terminii, Allahabad City serves as the
terminus for MG trains from Varanasi and beyond. This is located midway
between the Allahabad-Prayag and Allahabad-Naini lines, and can be sighted
from both the routes.
And then we have New Jalpaiguri which is, in reality, a suburb of Siliguri,
and is reasonably far from the town of Jalpaiguri. This town can be reached
from three other stns. viz., Jalpaiguri (located on the New Jalpaiguri -
Haldibari section), Raninagar-Jalpaiguri and Jalpaiguri Rd.
Varanasi is served by four stns. viz., Varanasi Jn., Kashi, Varanasi
City and Manduadih. The main stn. is located close to the Cantonment
area and was, in fact, referred to as the Cant stn. (till the stn. was
renovated, thanks to the then rly. minster, Kamalapathi Tripathi)
Kashi is the next stn. after Varanasi as one proceeds towards Mughal
Sarai and marks the end of the city. As soon as one crosses this stn., one
is treated to a spectacular view of the Ghats as the train encounters the
Malviya bridge across the Ganga (earlier known as the Dufferin Bridge).
Varanasi City (locally known as the City stn.) is one stn. away from
Varanasi as one proceeds towards Aunrihar - Bhatni/Chhapra. During my recent
trip to Varanasi, I confirmed that that Varanasi - Aunrihar has both
MG and BG. Earlier, the first two platforms of the main stn. were
devoted to the MG services, the layout being:-
Varanasi stn.
-------------
Platform | Track1 T2 T3 T4 T5 Track6 | Platform | BG-Track1........
After the convertion, four of these tracks viz. T3 - T6, have been replaced
by BG tracks. As one leaves Varanasi stn., the two MG tracks and the four BG
tracks merge into one MG and one BG track, respectively. These then merge
into one another to form a triple rail configuration. Very soon a BG track from
the Varanasi - Mughal Sarai line joins this triple-rail line (this line would be
used by trains landing on platforms 3 to 6, and going towards Aunrihar).
Immediately, the three-rail layout changes to a four-rail one with the BG track
now enclosing the MG track. It's possible that the BG track was laid out
around the existing MG track (altough I am not sure whether the MG sleepers can
support BG loads). This four-rail line hugs the Varanasi-Mughal Sarai line for
about 2 kms. before it leans away towards Varanasi City, and then splits into
separate BG and MG tracks.
Manduadih (locally known as Madvadi) is on the Varanasi - Allahabad City MG
line, and is the next stn. after Varanasi. This is actually the continuation
of the Varanasi goods yard, and is located close to the Diesel Loco. Works (DLW)
and the DLW colony.
REGARDS,
VIJAY
From: THS1 <THS1@PSUVM.EMAIL
Subject: Multiple terminals
Date: 11 Aug 1992 16:06:00 -0500
> Also, Colaba used to be the terminal for all locals and long-distance trains
>until about 1930. In the very early days the BBCI terminal was at Grant Road
>and the GIP terminal was at Bori Bunder.
Isn't Bori Bunder just another name for the Victoria Terminus?
>Shalimar (will open sometime in the future as SER's terminal for
>long-distance)
Maybe well into the future.
> Perhaps you may consider Sealdah (South) as a separate terminal, but it is
>a short walk from Sealdah proper. For that matter, wasn't there a separate
>Sealdah (North) at one time?
Sealdah North and Main were really two separate buildings side by
side, but handled the same lines of traffic. These two buildings
were replaced by a new building. Parts of the old "main" station
still exists, and there is still a Station Master North at Sealdah.
Sealdah South handles completely different streams of traffic and
could be considered a separate station, but it is under Station
Supdt Sealdah, so Rail Admin does consider all these to be just one
station (or so it seems to me).
Incidentally, the cabin controlling traffic in and out of Sealdah
South used to have a nameplate "Calcutta South". Is this the only
instance where a Calcutta terminus carried the name of the city?
[The nameplate has been changed to read Sealdah South, I don't
know when].
> I remember that auto drivers in Hyderabad look blank when you ask for
>Hyderabad station-all the locals call it Nampalli.
In Lucknow, the magic word to get to the station known in the time
table as Lucknow Jn is Charbagh.
Tamisra Sanyal.
From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email
Subject:
Date: 13 Aug 1992 10:21:00 -0500
MORE NEWS AND TRIVIA
Tamisra pointed out that Sealdah (South) comes under the same
SS as Sealdah and is thus administratively the same station. However, the
ER timetable shows Sealdah and Sealdah (South) separately, so I suppose
that from the traffic viewpoint they are different stations.
If anyone has an SR timetable on hand, they can check if the Madras
(Moore Market) terminal is listed as a separate station.
This station has an interesting history. There used to be a thriving
market on this spot (though perhaps not as well-known as Burma Bazar:-)
which the railways had been trying to get hold of for years. One night
in the early 1980s there was a mysterious fire which levelled the market.
The railways promptly took it over. One wonders who or what caused the fire.
Anyway, this terminal is now a multi-storied building which houses,
among other things, the computer reservation centre. It is a nice place
to pass time.
Some more timetable changes which have come into force: The Punjab
Mail from Bombay to Ferozepore has been substantially speeded up. So
has the Himsagar Express. This train along with the Madras-Jammu and the
Navyug now run on the logical route via Ambala instead of Jakhal-Dhuri.
I suspect that this change in routing may have something to do with
terrorism in Punjab. Anyway, a lot of minor stops of the Himsagar on CR
have been eliminated now. The Chauri Chaura Express from Gorakhpur to
Allahabad is now extended to Kanpur.
The Ganga-Yamuna Express, which used to run from Bhiwani (and a
few coaches from Mathura) to Danapur has been extended to Malda and is
called the Farakka Express. This is another train which has been extended
many times. In the early 70s it used to be the Delhi-Lucknow Express. Then
Tripathiji extended it to Varanasi; it used to run via Faizabad on 4 days
and Sultanpur on 3 days. The name changed to the Ganga-Yamuna Express when
a connecting link from Mathura via Tundla was added. By and by it was
extended to Bhiwani (probably in Bansi Lal's time) and Danapur and now
Malda.
Finally, Jammu is no longer the northern-most station. The line
to Udhampur has been partly opened up to Bajalta, 12 km north of Jammu.
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject: July '91 Western Rly. time-table!
Date: 13 Aug 1992 17:23:00 -0500
Hi Folks,
Some info from the recent WR time-table:-
1. A new daily Inter City Exp. between Valsad and Vadodara (with I and II class
) has a lone halt at Surat and has a run-time of around 3 hrs. However,
the addendum at the beginning of the time-table indicates that the timings
are to be treated as deleted. Wonder what that means!
2. A new daily Indore - Nizamuddin Exp. (having I and II class) has halts at
Dewas, Ujjain, Nagda, Kota, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur, and Mathura. So,
Shamgarh, Gangapur City and Bayana have been ignored. This takes about
3 hrs. less than the Malwa Exp. (which follows the Bhopal - Jhansi route)
inspite of being overtaken by the Rajdhani Exp. and the AC exp. in both
the directions. Note than Indore - Delhi via Nagda is about 130 km.
shorter than the route via Bhopal.
3. The Karnvati Exp., the Sayaji Nagri Exp. and the Avantika Exp. now originate
from Bandra. There is no mention of the Bandra Ahmedabad Exp. which
Pushkar referred to in an earlier mail.
4. Other new trains include the Vadodara - Gandhidham Exp., the Ahmedab
d - Hapa Inter City Exp. and the Trivandrum - Gandhidham Exp.
5. The AC exp. has been given a passenger halt at Vadodara. Earlier, this
was just a technical halt for change of locos. The AC exp. consumes an
avg. of 40 mts. more than the Rajdhani between Bombay Central and Vadodara
which indicates that it is probably being hauled by a WCAM1 in this stretch.
Quotas at Surat, Vadodara and Sawai Madhopur are as follows:-
I AC AC Chair Car
Surat - Delhi 6 65
Surat - Bombay 2 20
Vadodara - Delhi 2 30
Vadodara - Bombay 2 30
S. Madhopur - Delhi 2 30
S. Madhopur - Bombay - 4
Jaipur - Bombay 2 30 *Ex Sawai Madhopur
Looks like the Sawai Madhopur halt is mainly for Bombay - Jaipur commuters.
In fact, the Sawai Madhopur - Loharu Fast Passenger departs from S. Madhopur
15 mts. after the AC exp. arrives at this stn. A similar connection exists
in the other direction.
6. Quotas for the Rajdhani Exp. are as follows:-
I AC AC Chair Car AC Sleeper
Vadodara - Delhi 4 30 12
Surat - Delhi - 10 - *Ex Vadodara
Vadodara - Bombay 4 26 4
Ratlam - Delhi - 10 -
Ratlam - Bombay - 4 -
Kota - Delhi - 4 -
Kota - Bombay - 6 2
I am surprised that passengers are willing to travel from Surat to Vadodara
just to catch the Rajdhani Exp., when they could very well board the AC Exp.
at Surat itself. Maybe, the fact that the Rajdhani Exp. runs on six days
(as opposed to the tri-weekly AC Exp.) has something to do with this
assignment. Also, it is irritating that the Rajdhani Exp. has been made to
halt at Kota for a mere 4 seats to Delhi, and a total of 8 seats to Bombay.
Why not convert the Kota halt for the AC Exp. from a technical to a passenger
halt, assign sufficient no. of seats, and remove Kota from the halt list of
the Rajdhani Exp.?
7. The Bombay bound Rajdhani Exp. now halts at Vadodara for 8 mts. (2 mts. less
than the earlier halt duration).
8. The Paschim Exp. has been given a halt at Hindaun City :-( , thus, further
screwing up this train. It is interesting to note than the Paschim Exp.
and the Frontier Mail (both bound for Amritsar) have certain complementary
halts -> the former halts at Dahanu Rd. (Dn. only), Valsad, Bharuch,
Meghnagar, Ramganj Mandi and Hindaun City, but not the latter. On the
other hand, the latter has halts at Shri Mahabirji, Bayana and Faridabad
but not the former. Hence, each of the above stns. has the services of
at least one direct, superfast train to Bombay/Amritsar.
9. The Pink City Exp./Gharib Nawaz Exp. now halt at Rewari and Bandikui.
The Ashram Exp./Mandor Exp. have a halt at Dausa, between Bandikui and
Jaipur.
10. A lone passenger train runs on the BG Kota - Chittaurgarh - Nimach line.
11.The Bhuj - Naliya MG line is operational and is used by the Gandhidham -
Naliya passenger. Incidently, Naliya is the "Westernmost" stn. in India.
India.
12. The Avadh Exp. halts at Kiraoli between Fatehpur-Sikri and Idgah
Agra. The time-table shows this train as having its terminus at
Ratlam.
Regards,
Vijay
From: THS1 <THS1@PSUVM.EMAIL
Subject: Re: Teminals and this and that
Date: 14 Aug 1992 12:30:00 -0500
Jishnu Mukerji wrote: (regarding rail termini in Calcutta)
>In addition to the stations mentioned above, if you count terminals for
>local trains within what is considered the Greater Calcutta area then
>the following come to mind:
> Dankuni - terminus for Sealdah Dankuni locals
> Princeps Ghat - terminus for circular railway
> Dum Dum Jct - was supposed to become the other terminal for
> circular railway has this happened yet? There
> used to be temporary terminal near Ultadanga
> Road for the circular railway which was
> supposed to become just a station when the
> connection to Dum Dum was completed.
> Budge Budge - terminus for Budge Budge locals.
Dum Dum Jn now is the northern terminal for circular railway. What is
more, there are people who do commute to their jobs in the BBD Bag
area using the circular railway. The number of trains continue to be
rather few. Last I saw them (May/June 1992) these trains were still
diesel hauled.
>In general I think one should not count stations where only locals
>terminate as terminals. It gets very difficult very soon if the city has
>a rich and dense local rail service. For instance in cities like London
>or Paris, the whole process goes entirely out of control if you count
>all stations where locals terminate within the greater city limits. Of
>course, in Paris it gets even worse because one has to first determine
>whether the RERs are suburban trains or subway trains. In cities like
>Zurich there is a similar problem with S-Bahns. But that is another
>story.
How about counting only "inbound" local terminals as city
terminals? That will eliminate Dankuni and Dum Dum, but will save
Prinsep Ghat in the list. This proposal also saves Bombay's
Churchgate. Somehow, I like that. It would be a pity if an elegant
station like Churchgate has to be disallowed from being considered
a city terminal.
[Interesting "Roman Holiday" experience of Jishnu.... deleted....]
Tamisra Sanyal.
From: Mohan Ramakrishna <mohan@alantec.email
Subject:
Date: 15 Aug 1992 09:46:00 -0500
To add to Ajai's article 'MORE NEWS AND TRIVIA' :
> If anyone has an SR timetable on hand, they can check if the Madras
>(Moore Market) terminal is listed as a separate station.
- The Moore Market terminal is currently part of the Madras Central Station.
In fact, the platform numbers at the Moore Market terminal follow from those at
the main Central station.
The following might have been posted on the net already; if so, please ignore :
The Madras Beach station (a Jn.) has both B.G. as well as M.G. tracks. In
addition to a few long distance trains starting from (and terminating at)
Madras Beach, several local trains run between Beach and Central (B.G. - a
distance of 7 k.m.) as well as between Beach and Chengalpattu (M.G.).
> Finally, Jammu is no longer the northern-most station. The line
>to Udhampur has been partly opened up to Bajalta, 12 km north of Jammu.
Press Trust of India reports that the above line to Bajalta has 40 bridges
and three tunnels, each of them 450 meters long. Seems to be a fun ride
from Jammu!!!
-- Mohan.
From: aravind <aravind@vax135.email
Subject: priorities ...
Date: 16 Aug 1992 23:08:00 -0500
I was looking at my favorite (and one and only) IR timetable
(july '91) today and ...
it seems that the powers-that-be are giving a lot of
priority to electrification and gauge conversion and less to
doubling of track (even where it's sorely needed).
In 1980, it seemed that the Jolarpettai-Bangalore line would be
doubled soon, with doubling proceeding at both ends ...
However, this stopped in ~1982, leaving the section from
Whitefield to Kuppam (~75 km out of 145 km) still single.
Now the entire stretch has been electrified, probably the
only BG single-line to enjoy electric traction (this is
probably not 100% true, but I can't find too many such cases).
If the Guntakal-Renigunta electrification proceeds as reported in these
columns earlier, that's another instance of single-line
electrification .... (I've given up hope on seeing this section
completely doubled) ...
Comments??
Regards,
Aravind
From: Mohan Ramakrishna <mohan@alantec.email
Subject: Re: priorities ...
Date: 17 Aug 1992 09:26:00 -0500
> Now the entire stretch has been electrified, probably the
> only BG single-line to enjoy electric traction (this is
> probably not 100% true, but I can't find too many such cases).
> If the Guntakal-Renigunta electrification proceeds as reported in these
> columns earlier, that's another instance of single-line
> electrification .... (I've given up hope on seeing this section
> completely doubled) ...
> Comments??
The Renigunta-Gudur section on the SCR is another example of single-line
electrification. There may be other instances of single-line electrification
in other places too.
Regards,
Mohan.
From: Manish Malhotra <malhotra@cs.email
Subject: Trans-Asian
Date: 17 Aug 1992 14:44:00 -0500
I was reading in a rather old book that UN undertook the
project of developing a trans-asian route from Istanbul to
Peking. Parts of the planned route had no railway tracks
(such as part of Burma) and the project was supposed to
develop those and establish a rail link across Asia
although no direct train could be run because of many different
gauges in use in different countries.
So a trivia question is that how would you go from Istanbul
to Shangai (or Peking) if you were to travel today ? Which
lines exist and are operational ? And what would be the
hypothetical route you would take assuming operational
railroads across asia ?
What would be the shortest feasible route ? (Assuming you can't
cross Himalayas !)
Mnaish
From: aravind <aravind@vax135.email
Subject: Trans-Asia train ride ..
Date: 17 Aug 1992 22:32:00 -0500
There appears to be no way of going from Turkey to the Pacific through
India. However, one could go from Istanbul to Moscow and catch the
Trans-Siberian train there, I suppose .. assuming that this famous
express still makes its week-long(?) run.
There is a short-cut to Beijing via Ulan Bator in Mongolia, accoring
to a not-too-old edition of the Thomas Cook timetable.
The journey thus appears to be do-able, and not hypothetical.
However, I do not see any easy rail route from India to China ...
Aravind
From: Manish Malhotra <malhotra@cs.email
Subject: Re: Trans-Asian
Date: 18 Aug 1992 11:56:00 -0500
This is what I recall form the world atlas of railways regarding
the route from Istanbul to Peking:
>From Istanbul, cross Turkey and reach the eastern border of Turkey.
(Rail lines exist and are operational).
Then cross the border to Iraq (rail lines exist here as well),
then to Iran (lines exist), and from Iran to Pakistan (lines exist),
and from Pakistan to India (Lahore-Amritsar), In India, go from
Amritsar to Delhi to Patna to Calcutta and the cross the border
and go to Bangladesh (lines exist, is there a direct link from
India to Dhaka ???). Rail lines exist in Bangladesh as well, so one could
travel to east border of Bangladesh.
Now the route shows a planned development of rail lines in Burma.
Apparently, there are some rail lines in Burma but there is no
way to cross Burma-Bangladesh border, unless these lines have been
developed as they were supposed to be under this project.
Burma does not have a link at its eastern border either. This was
alos planned to be constructed. I wonder what happened to the project
or is it still underway ?
Then from Burma, the route goes to China where a fairly good network
of rail lines exists.
manish
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject:
Date: 18 Aug 1992 17:14:00 -0500
Here are some other single-line electrified sections :-
Anand - Godhra
Bayana - Tundla
Vasai Rd. - Diva
Chengalpattu - Villupuram
Kottavalasa - Kirandul
Electrified sections in the coal belt of the South Eastern Rly. such as
Rajkharsawan - Gua and Gamharia - Kandra
Single line patches in the Delhi - Madras trunk route such as
Gher - Hetampur (b'coz of the Chambal bridge)
Basai - Matatila (bridge across the Betwa river)
Bina - Kurwai Kethora (bridge across the Bina river)
Budni - Hoshangabad (bridge across the Narmada river)
Kiratgarh - Dhodramohar
Narkher - Bharatwada
BTW, the Nagda - Ujjain section has been doubled and electrified.
Regards,
Vijay
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@pk705vmg.email
Subject:
Date: 19 Aug 1992 12:20:00 -0500
Electrified sections in the coal belt of the South Eastern Rly. such as
Rajkharsawan - Gua and Gamharia - Kandra
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The major SER line which is single/electrified is the Tatanagar-Asansol line.
Siddhartha
From: Manish Malhotra <malhotra@cs.email
Subject: Trans-Asian again
Date: 19 Aug 1992 12:57:00 -0500
I made some mistakes in my earlier posting.
The depicted route is
Turkey -> Iran -> Pakistan -> India -> Bangladesh -> Burma ->
Cambodia -> Vietnam -> China
There is direct connection between Saigon and Peking. (Could
Aravind please check it from Thomas cook timetable ?)
A link was supposed to be developed between Phnom-Penh and
Saigon. A link was also to be developed between Burma and
Cambodia.
Is there currently an operational rail link between Iran
and Pakistan ?
Manish
From: apte <apte@glacier.email
Subject: Latest WR Time-table Changes
Date: 19 Aug 1992 08:32:00 -0500
By making Vadodara a proper passenger halt for the A/C Express, WR has
done the sensible thing, no big surprise though! The A/c Express is
hauled by a Raj-type single diesel (WDM-4 ?) from Bombay to Vadodara, where a
WAP-1 takes over to take it to N. Delhi. It looks like 2 WAP-1's run
on the N. Delhi-Ratlam-Vadodara sector -> one that takes the Up Raj to
Ratlam and brings the Dn Raj from Ratlam back to N. Delhi; and the
second WAP-1 which makes an overnight run N-Delhi-Vadodara-N.Delhi, 6
nights a week, hauling the A/C Express.
The addition of Hindaun City halt drives another nail into the
coffin of the once mighty "Deluxe Express".
It has lost:
- its regal Red-n-white color
- its name--there is no Deluxe Exp now, only a Paschim Exp.
... and has had the indignity of several halts added
(Borivali, Navsari, Bharuch, Meghnagar, Shamgarh, Ramganj Mandi,
Hindaun City.)
This train was my favorite, with many childhood memories, and its
current pathetic status is sad, to say the least.
Its partner, the Frontier Mail has been luckier, with
only Bhawani Mandi being added to its stops. When will WR realize the
need to have an intermediate train between the Dehradun-Janata and the
Frontier-Paschim, so that the latter two can maintain their speed?
RE: The Trans-Asian Route
It seems like people have proposed two routes:
1. Russia-Mongolia-China
2. Iraq-Iran-Afg.-Pak.-Ind.-Bur.-Thai.-Cam.-Vietnam-China
Question: Which of these routes is shorter, and what are the distances?
Pushkar
-------
From: Ajai Banarji <banarji@unixg.email
Subject:
Date: 19 Aug 1992 10:47:00 -0500
A FEW POINTS
While on the subject of single-line electrified sections, do not
forget the Tambaran-Villupuram section. I think the first few miles out
of Tambaran have now been doubled.
The Indian sub-continent is not linked to any other railway network.
There is no link between the railway systems of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
You might like to know more about the Quetta-Zahidan line. Now, the last
50-odd miles after Mirjawa are in Iran and are nominally under the Iranian
railways, though the trains are operated by Pakistan Railways. As of today
Zahidan is not connected to the rest of the Iranian network. It is reported
that a line from the nearest railhead Kerman to Zahidan is under construction.
It may also be noted that the Pakistan-Iran service was suspended
for many years and was restarted only last year. The trains used to terminate
at Kuhi-Taftan, about 10 miles inside the border.
This might be a rather boring trip to make. The 1942 Bradshaw indicates
that there are distances of over 100 miles between some stations (Ahmedwal-
Dalbandin 102 miles, Dalbandin-Nok Kundi 104 miles.)
You might find it an interesting exercise to find the longest spacing
between stations in India. Do NOT use Bradshaw to check this out, as the
distance tables are frequently missing and also do not distinguish between
the actual and chargable distance.
Many years ago (when the Railway Board used to publish an All-India
timetable) I found that the record was held by the stations Ait and Orai
on the Jhansi-Kanpur section which were 25 km apart.
Since then there have been many changes. I will try to post some
likely candidates for this record, but those who have an actual timetable
(rather than Bradshaw) may like to post the longest gaps they could find.
Do read the timetable carefully-otherwise you may think that Neral
and Matheran are 126 km apart. It is actually only 21 km, but you pay for
126 km. The other mountain lines like the ones to Ooty and Shimla are not
so bad, they only charge you for around twice the distance.
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject:
Date: 20 Aug 1992 18:07:00 -0500
Siddharta writes:
> The major SER line which is single/electrified is the Tatanagar-Asansol line.
Except for Asansol - Burnpur and Kandra - Gamharia, the entire route is
double-tracked. I found this out during my Chittaranjan to Tata trip on the
South Bihar Exp. (sometime in the late 70s).
Pushkar writes:
> done the sensible thing, no big surprise though! The A/c Express is
> hauled by a Raj-type single diesel (WDM-4 ?) from Bombay to Vadodara, where a
> WAP-1 takes over to take it to N. Delhi. It looks like 2 WAP-1's run
That's interesting. Since the AC exp. is nearly 30 mts. slower than the
Rajdhani Exp. in the Bombay - Vadodara section, and about 20 mts. faster than
other superfast exps. (Jammu Tawi exp., Frontier Mail), I would assume
that the AC exp. rake consists of 11-13 coaches. This is based on the fol:
1. The 18 coach Rajdhani is hauled by two WDM2s (w/ higher gearing) so that the
load per loco. is 9 coaches.
2. A single WCAM1 hauls the 18 coach Frontier Mail between Bombay and Vadodara
(as observed during my recent trip to Mithapur on the Saurashtra Mail)
Since a single WAP1 is capable of hauling the 18 coach Rajdhani Exp. at a max.
speed of 130 kmph., one could increase the AC exp. coach strength to 18 without
adversely affecting its avg. speed between Vadodara and N. Delhi. In addition,
a WCAM1 elec. loco. could be employed between Bombay and Vadodara, thus, saving
valuable diesel fuel. The resultant increase in run-time would be atmost 20
mts. I can only think of two reasons why this is not the case at present:-
-Shortage of dual-current elec. locos.
-Traffic between Bombay and Delhi does not justify an 18 coach AC exp.
Any comments?
> The addition of Hindaun City halt drives another nail into the
> coffin of the once mighty "Deluxe Express".
> ..... and has had the indignity of several halts added
> (Borivali, Navsari, Bharuch, Meghnagar, Shamgarh, Ramganj Mandi,
> Hindaun City.)
Some more have been added in the Amritsar - Delhi stretch such as Jullundhar
Cant., Sirhind, Sonepat and Subzi Mandi.
> Its partner, the Frontier Mail has been luckier, with
> only Bhawani Mandi being added to its stops. When will WR realize the
Borivali is other stn. to have acquired the services of this train.
Ajai writes:
> You might find it an interesting exercise to find the longest spacing
> between stations in India. Do NOT use Bradshaw to check this out, as the
> distance tables are frequently missing and also do not distinguish between
> the actual and chargable distance.
> Many years ago (when the Railway Board used to publish an All-India
> timetable) I found that the record was held by the stations Ait and Orai
> on the Jhansi-Kanpur section which were 25 km apart.
Here are a couple of long spacings between stations (Ajai and I had discussed
this a while ago)
Bhadrachalam Rd. - Manuguru 50 kms.
Castle Rock - Dudhsagar Water Falls Halt 27 kms.
Regards,
Vijay
From: aravind <aravind@vax135.email
Subject: se asia
Date: 20 Aug 1992 23:36:00 -0500
>From the Dec 90 Thomas Cook timetable, it appears that there is
a (tenuous) link between Hanoi and China.... although the
timetables do not say if passenger service is available
across the border.
The sad news is that the rail systems of Burma, Thailand
and Vietnam appear to be completely disconnected.
I wouldn't count on any link between Phnom Penh and
Saigon in the near future.
Moral of the story: the trans-asian route through Siberia
exists today, while a route through India is a flight of
fancy and not likely to materialize given today's political
realities.
aravind
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject: 2nd IRFCA convention!
Date: 31 Aug 1992 18:01:00 -0500
Hi Folks,
We are planning a get-together at my place (Poughkeepsie, NY) on the weekend
of Sept. 12-13. Besides the usual stuff - railway books, time-tables,
magazines, photos, videos, ....., I hope to show my video-coverage of various
Indian train journeys** during my recent trip to India -> this has consumed
nearly four VHS tapes. The fact that these have been recorded in stereo
and I happen to possess a hifi VCR should add to the entertainment value :-)
**
Dadar to Madras on the Dadar - Madras Exp.
Madras to Kodaikkanal Rd. and back on the Pandyan Exp.
Bombay Central to Mithapur on the Saurashtra Mail
Bombay V.T. to Varanasi on the Mahanagri Exp. (including WAM4 and WDM2 loco.
rides)
Varanasi to Bhusaval on the Mahanagari Exp.
Bhusaval to Dadar on the Amritsar - Dadar Exp.
**
So far, Aravind, Dheeraj and Jishnu have responded in the positive. How
about the rest of you folks? BTW, Poughkeepsie is about 80 miles north of
New York City which means that the East-Coast dwellers shouldn't have much of
a problem as far as transportation is concerned. In fact, if the response
is sufficiently high, we could consider changing the venue to a more central
location.
I'll post the directions shortly depending on the nature of the responses.
Regards,
Vijay
From: VIJAYB <VIJAYB@PK705VMG.EMAIL
Subject:
Date: 09 Sep 1992 16:11:00 -0500
>From SCI:-
**********************************************************************
Article 83139 of soc.culture.indian
Path: panews!uunet!uunet!caen!sdd.hp.com!cs.utexas.edu!gateway
From: sudhama@engin.email (Sudhama Gopalan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: At least 41 killed, dozens hurt in India train collision
Date: 4 Sep 1992 13:32:09 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Lines: 15
Sender: daemon@cs.email
Message-ID: <5af8cd38e.003b97e@agar.email
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
NEW DELHI, India (UPI) -- A train packed with sleeping passengers
slammed into a parked freight train early Friday in central India,
killing at least 41 people and leaving scores injured.
A Railways Ministry spokesman said many of the injured remained in
critical condition following the accident, which occurred shortly after
midnight near the city of Raigarh, 625 miles southwest of New Delhi.
The collision wrecked the passenger train's locomotive and first
three cars.
The passenger train was traveling 470 miles from Nagpur city to the
steel-producing city of Jamshedpur when the accident occurred.
Medical teams quickly rushed to the remote area, while senior
railroad officials flew to the site aboard an Air Force jet.
However, authorities did not immediately know the cause of the
catastrophe.
(lifted without permission from clari.news.trouble --- so sue me!!!)
***************************************************************************
Is there a Nagpur-Tata passenger? Have to check my SE time-table.
This is for Siddharta:-
Did you get my earlier mail regarding transportation from Rochester to
Poughkeepsie? You can ring me up at (914) 473-4836 (Home), (914) 435-5854
(Office), for details regarding the various trains or driving directions.
Vijay