Articles on Indian Railways
Opinions expressed in these articles are solely the authors'. Presentation of a particular viewpoint in an article here does not constitute an endorsement for that viewpoint.
Articles by IRFCA members
The following articles were contributed by IRFCA members. NOTE: Many trip reports and travelogues are available in the members' trip reports section.
Also see the section on clippings and miscellany.
- Dr. Ian Manning on the Indian Railways (1965-1969)
- Metric Musings, a series of articles by R. Sivaramakrishnan, 2006
- A Closet Admirer of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway by Mohan Bhuyan
- A Tribute to the Darjeeling Mail by Joydeep Dutta, 2004
- Ticketless Travel -- A Perspective by P V S Praveen, 2002
- Cochin Harbour Terminus by Jimmy Jose, 2003
- Quilon by Jimmy Jose, 2005
- A Journal on the Cochin State Forest Tramway by Devan Varma, 2005 (MS Word, 1MB)
- Wayside Stations of Old by Vinod Nanekar, 2007
- Working of a Junction Station by Vinod Nanekar, 2007
- The WDM-2 loco - A Tribute by Joydeep Dutta, 2001
- Inspection Report -- Kalluru by P V S Praveen, 2002
- Inspection Report -- Hagari by P V S Praveen, 2002
- Inspection Report -- Juturu by P V S Praveen, 2002
- Inspection Report -- Accident Van at Gooty by P V S Praveen, 2002
- Bridge Across the River Saryu by Rajeev Shrivastava, 2004
- Battle Scars - A Motor Trolley Accident by Rajeev Shrivastava, 2005
- Crisis in Jodhpur Division by Rajeev Shrivastava, 2004
- Solving the Water Crisis in Degana by Rajeev Shrivastava, 2004
- Mumbai EMUs Overshooting Platforms by Prakash Tendulkar, 2006
- Vernacular Languages in Indian Railways by Rajendra Aklekar, 2002
- A Disaster Recovery Operation - a Photo-Essay by S Srinivas, 2002
- A Study of Major Accidents of IR in 2004-2005 by Ajai Banerji, 2006
- Renaming of Stations by Ajai Banerji, 2006
- Station Code Oddities by Ajai Banerji, 2007
- Colonial Place Names in the Subcontinent by Ajai Banerjee, 2006
- A Pantograph Breaks at Nagpur by Alok Patel, 2004
- Modelling Indian Railways in LEGO® by Samarth Moray, 2004
- Indian Railways in Postal Stamps by Vikas Singh, 2005
- Indian Railways in postal First Day Covers by Vikas Singh, 2005
- Indian Railways in Coins and Cards by Vikas Singh, 2005
- Philatelic Celebrations of the DHR's 125th Year by Vikas Singh, 2006
- The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and its Locomotives by Vikas Singh, 2007
- Indian Steam in Cinema by Harsh Vardhan, 2006
- A note on the Zonal Reorganization of IR by Ajai Banerji
- WPs in Mumbai for IR's 150-year celebration by Rajendra Aklekar, 2002
- IR's 150-year Celebrations & Plans by Rajendra Aklekar, 2002
- Indian Railways' 150th-Year Celebrations. More articles on the sesquicentennial festivities, by various IRFCA members, 2002-2003.
- Reminiscences of Mr Janardhanan, SE, ERS loco shed, 2005
- Anglo-Indians' Contributions to Indian Railways by V Anand, 2003
- Making Surface Rail a Viable Mode for Urban Mass Transit by M. Ravibabu, 2006
- Travelling in Sleeper Coaches by P V S Praveen, 2004
- How does one join Indian Railways? by P V S Praveen, 2004
- K R Vaidyanathan: Railwayman and Writer - a biography, by Ravindra Bhalerao, 2008
- The Metre Gauge Diesel Railcar (YRD-1) - by Harsh Vardhan, 2008
Trip reports and Travelogues
Trip reports can be found under the members section.
Newspaper and periodical articles
The following articles originally appeared in newspapers or journals and were contributed to the IRFCA site by the authors or are reproduced here by permission of the publishers.
- Parlakimedi Light Railway and its Locomotives by Vikas Singh, 2007
- The Heritage of Royapuram Railway Station by Vikas Singh, 2007
- The Life-lines of Mumbai by Shirish B Paranjape, 2001
- Doing a Dr. Beeching on Indian Railways! (The Pioneer, 22.02.02) by R C Acharya
- Railways' ROR Debacle (Business Line, 25.02.02) by R C Acharya
- New Zones of Crises (Business Standard, 09.07.02) by R C Acharya
- The folly of Hajipurisation (Business Line, date?) by R C Acharya
- The Pink Book Syndrome (Business Standard, date?) by R C Acharya
- Railways Since Independence by Shirish B Paranjape, 1998
- The Felicitous Rajdhani Journey by Shirish B Paranjape, 1997
- What's in a name! by Shirish B Paranjape, 1994
- Loco Nomenclature on IR by Shirish B Paranjape, 2000
- An Indian "Might-Have-Been", subtitled "A Transient History of the Patiala State Monorail Tramway" by H. R. Ambler, The Railway Magazine, Feb. 1969.
- Pakistan Tour Steam Loco Report - Jan/Feb 2006, by Thomas Kautzor. Includes lists of steam locos and other rolling stock observed during a trip to Pakistan.
- Diesel vs. Electric, a presentation from IRSME (MS PowerPoint file, 1.4MB!)
Articles from the FNRM and ISRS
The articles below are from newsletters of the Indian Steam Railway Society (ISRS) and its predecessor organization, the Friends of the National Railway Museum. The complete newsletter archive for the ISRS can be found here.
Also see The Indian Steam Pages.
- Preserving the rail road by Joydeep Dutta, 1998
- Nilgiri Mountain Railway by Dr GVJA Harshavardhan, 1998
- Why I am a steam fan by R C Dubey, 1998
- Travel notes by Bill Aitken, 1998
- A dream comes true by R Thumanivannan, 1998
- A trip down memory lane by Harsh Vardhan, 1998
- Preservation priorities - A suggested top ten by Bill Aitken, 1998
- Diesel traction in India -- When did it all begin? by S Shankar, 1998
- Aspects of modern Edmondson tickets in India - Part 1 by John L King, 1998
- Aspects of modern Edmondson tickets in India - Part 2 by John L King, 1998
- Trains of fame and locos with a name - Part 1 by Joydeep Dutta and Harsh Vardhan, 1998
- Trains of fame and locos with a name - Part 2 by Joydeep Dutta and Harsh Vardhan, 1998
- Trains of fame and locos with a name - Part 3 by Harsh Vardhan and Joydeep Dutta, 1999
- The Darjeeling Streamliner - A mystery solved by David Barrie, 1999
- Our tryst with steam by Sarosh B Mehta and Viraf Mulla, 1999
- Down by the station by Bill Aitken, 2000
- The romance of steam by Joydeep Dutta, 2000
- Whither steam, the preservation moment... and the DHR itself? by Terry Martin, 2000
- Branch line to Farukh Nagar by John Lacey, 2000
- Pushpak for speed - the new WDP-2 loco by Joydeep Dutta and Harsh Vardhan, 2001
- Getting the railways back on track by M N Prasad, 2001
- Steam in History by R R Bhandari, 2004
Steam and Heritage news bulletins
The following news bulletins on the steam survivors, heritage and preservation activities, and the National Railway Museum were published in the newsletters of the Indian Steam Railway Society and its predecessor organization, the Friends of the National Railway Museum. It is hoped that these are of some interest to railfans as they cover the period 1998-2000 when the last of normal timetabled steam was disappearing from India.