IRFCA Mailing List Archive


Messages 7021 - 7040

From: poras p.saklatwalla <>

Subject: Re: Renaming and other trivia

Date: 06 Jul 1999 20:36:27 -0500


On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, S.Shankar wrote:

> Hello,
> Indeed. I agree with you in toto. Renaming has reached sickening
> proportions. Thats what happens if you have lunatics like Bal Thakeray
> and Mulayam Singh YAdav on the loose. And the public actually
listening
> to and encouraging such sick-in-the-head, wet,cynical and fanatical
> elements.
> But quite frankly, I do not seem to recall too many trains having been
> renamed.From historical times, well, Imperial Mail and Poona Mail and
> Punjab Limited have all disappeared.
> In recent times, I remember Frontier Mail being renamed as Golden
Temple
> Mail,
> Bombay-Poona Janata as Sinhagad Exp.,
> Mangala Exp as Lakshwadeep Exp,thats all.
> Actually, the Jayanti Janata was a series of trains (the first one was
> Delhi-Ahmedabad?). Like the Shatabdi or Rajdhani, there were several
of
> them.
> Actually, for our overseas friends, Janata Express (common man's
express
> or people's express) was a concept introduced in the 1960s to denote
an
> express train carrying only second class accommodation. Of course,
most
> were frightfully slow, and used ot call at every third station.
> The concept worked splendidly for several decades till two things
> happened.
> 1. The advent of Air Conditioned 2-tier sleeper cars, which were
treated
> as a.c. second class. In fact, the official IR terminology for these
was
> 2AC 2-Tier. These began to be hooked onto Janata Express trains.The
> Janatas were hence no longer common man's trains: with a.c. car and
all.
> 2.Another reason for the downfall of Janatas happened in the late
1970s
> with the then Railway Minister Madhu Dandavate hitting upon the idea
of
> introducing fast 2nd class-only trains. Being fast, some of these
trains
> were named.Bombay-Secunderabad Minar Express is one which comes to
mind.
> Several fast, sometimes superfast 2nd only trains bearing exotic names
> started hitting the rails, due to which the 2nd only status did not
> leave any meaning to the 'Janata' (common man) name tag at all.
> Due to this, several Janata Express trains started getting re-named,or
> had the Janata tag dropped altogether.
> The Bombay-trivandrum (oops: Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram) Jayanti Janata
> was renamed as BBVT-TVC Jayanti Exp, and later simply as BBVT-TVC Exp.
> MAQ-NDLS J.J was re-named Mangala Exp, BBVT-PA Janata was re-named
> Sinhagad Exp, of course, with new DD cars.
> Today, you have the name Janata added only to avoid confusion with
> duplicated names, if you have two similar trains running over the same
> route. Hence, you have Saurashtra Exp and Saurashtra Janata Exp (or
else
> you will have two Saurashtra Exps), similarly Hwh-Delhi Exp and
> HWH-Delhi Janata (actually, the HWH-Delhi Exp starts from Sealdah).
> You used to have the HWH-MAS MAil, HWH-MAS Janata and the super slow
> HWH-MAS Exp till some time ago. THe Janata was withdrawn altogether.
> Just some interesting snippets. The topic came up as several trains
> were re-named after the Janata concept was dropped.
> Best regards,and profound apologies to those who have fallen asleep.
> Shankar
>
>
>
> Nitin Joshi wrote:
> >
> > A lot of writing is going in to Food on the Indian Railways.
> >
> > As a kid I remember the Roast Chicken being served in the Frontier
> > Mail (Name now changed
> > for God knows what). It was by far the best - by railway standards.
> >
> > I will agree with the list of other items being sold at various
> > stations and each station does have
> > a speciality of its own.
> >
> > However, can anybody explain the recent spate of name changes to
> > several locations, train names
> > etc. back home (India). I always felt Victoria Terminus (V.T.) was
> > nice now renamed as Chatrapati
> > Shivaji Terminus. Bombay Sahar International Airport renamed as
> > Chatrapati Shivaji International
> > Airport. If they really did want to change the name of the Airport,
it
> > would have been appropriate to
> > have named it after J R D Tata, after all he was the aviator who
> > brought aviation to India.
> >
> > How long are we going to tag along with names like Indira Gandhi,
> > Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi
> > and I am SURE that very soon we will have Sonia Gandhi International
> > Airport, New Delhi. Which
> > in a way of speaking would be apt.
> >
> > The Frontier Mail had a charm of its own. I remember seeing a
> > documentary on TV about the Frontier
> > when it had completed 50 years of running. It was a nice one. Any
> > suggestions as how could one
> > procure this firm. Another one was on the Jayanti Janata Express
> > Mangalore/CHTS to NZM.
> >
> > Any comments?
> >
> > Nitin Joshi
>

PORAS P.SAKLATWALLA
TEL :5773535/3636
EXT :4226/4232/4237



Hi Gang

Another only 2nd class fast train introduced along with Minar Express
was
Bom - Howrah Gitanjali Exp. THe 2nd Ac was introduced only in 1995/96.

Now it has 3 ac also.

From: SHRINIVAS V. JOSHI <>

Subject: Smell of steam!

Date: 06 Jul 1999 22:46:56 -0500


Hi!

On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, S.Shankar wrote:

> Hello,
> Remember the steam whistle and the unbeatable smell of coal when
> travelling by steam hauled trains? If you have managed to experience
it
> in the very recent past,(eg. the group that went to Wankaner and
Morbi),
> then lucky, lucky you. I last caught the whiff of steam smoke and coal
> burning way back in 1992, that too for a few moments only.

The group, you mention here was of Apurva, Viraf , Sarosh & myself. For
the first three it was one of the many experiences.But I was the first
timer.

And what a experience it was! Standing on the steam engine with Apurva,
Viraf, Sarosh & the loco drivers. All these experts , were giving in
lots
of info all thru the rides. We had even a night ride from Wankaner to
Morbi. Pushed few kilos of coal in the fire, pulled the hoot string near
approaching crossings. All too good!

On our morning ride from Morbi to Mailya-miyana the driver cooked his
mutton ,
on the plate near the door of the fire box. He packed all the
masalas,onions,
chillies ,oil, haldi & mutton chunks & closed the lid of the vessel. And
after
few minutes, I sensed the aroma of the masalas coming out of the lid.
So,
the crew's lunch was getting ready by the time we reached the
destination.

Really a most memorable trip we had.

Shrinivas

From: John Lacey <>

Subject: Janata Expresses

Date: 07 Jul 1999 01:47:29 -0500


The only pre-1980 timetables to which I have access are CR 1952 and WR
1953. Both have Janata Expresses in the tables.
On the CR there is a Bombay-Poona Janata in 3'35", a weekly Madras
Janata in 3'39' ( onto Raichur in 13'15' from Bombay compared to 17'15"
on the Mail and 15'30" on the Express) and a weekly Delhi- Madras train.
This train was allowed 24'10" from Delhi to Nagpur while the Grand Trunk
Express took 5 minutes longer. The Grand Trunk took 49'15" overall to
reach Madras, but the Janata does not appear in the Abstract Timetable.
The WR had a Bombay-Ahmedabad Janata Expresss( sic) which departed 30
minutes before the Gujarat Mail and arrived 30 minutes before, in a
total time of 9'15".
However the Saurashtra Mail was faster, leaving Bombay 30 minutes in
advance of the Janata, but arriving in Ahmedabad 48 minutes earlier.
Both Mails conveyed AC, 1,2, Int and 3 coaches.

John Lacey

From: hvc <>

Subject: Re: Janata Expresses

Date: 07 Jul 1999 06:06:15 -0500


Indeed the `Janata Expresses' arrived long before Madhu Dandwate became
the
Railway Minister. The credit he can take however is that of modifying
the
name to `Jayanti Janata Express' and relaunching the old wine in a new
bottle.

And guess what, `Jayanti' is the name of his daughter. Well, tell me if
that
is any better than renaming of any kind.

Harsh


-----Original Message-----
From: John Lacey <jlacey@zeta.email
To: irfca <irfca@cs.email
Date: Thursday, July 08, 1999 12:50 AM
Subject: Janata Expresses


>The only pre-1980 timetables to which I have access are CR 1952 and WR
>1953. Both have Janata Expresses in the tables.
>On the CR there is a Bombay-Poona Janata in 3'35", a weekly Madras
>Janata in 3'39' ( onto Raichur in 13'15' from Bombay compared to 17'15"
>on the Mail and 15'30" on the Express) and a weekly Delhi- Madras
train.
>This train was allowed 24'10" from Delhi to Nagpur while the Grand
Trunk
>Express took 5 minutes longer. The Grand Trunk took 49'15" overall to
>reach Madras, but the Janata does not appear in the Abstract
Timetable.
>The WR had a Bombay-Ahmedabad Janata Expresss( sic) which departed 30
>minutes before the Gujarat Mail and arrived 30 minutes before, in a
>total time of 9'15".
>However the Saurashtra Mail was faster, leaving Bombay 30 minutes in
>advance of the Janata, but arriving in Ahmedabad 48 minutes earlier.
>Both Mails conveyed AC, 1,2, Int and 3 coaches.
>
>John Lacey
>
>

From: Vijay Balasubramanian <>

Subject: News from Rediff

Date: 07 Jul 1999 07:33:35 -0500


When are the new timetables going to be published? Vijay
**************************************************************8
Trains cancellations
Northern Railways has cancelled the following four trains, till further
notice, due to operational reasons:
* The Delhi-Sultanpur Sadbhavana Express.
* The Flying Mail between Delhi and Amritsar.
* The Sriganganagar-Kalka-Haridwar Intercity Express.
* The Lucknow-Saharanpur Express.

Seven new trains from Southern Railways
Southern Railways has introduced seven new trains. These new trains will
be operational by the end of the financial year.
* The Bangalore-Jaipur will depart from Bangalore/Jaipur twice a
week.
* The Ernakulam-Pune will depart Ernakulam/Pune once a week.
* The Madras-Tirupati Shatabdi will depart Madras/Tirupati once a
week.
* The Coimbatore-Nizamuddin Express will depart
Coimbatore/Nizamuddin
once a week.
* The Guwahati-Madras Egmore will depart from Guwahari/Madras
twice a
week
Revised timings <1999/jul/trsch.htm>
The following schedule changes have been made:
* The 9775 Bangalore City-Jaipur Express will now run on
Thursdays. The
additional service introduced on Saturdays is suspended.
* 2643/2644 Ernakulam Nizamuddin Express will now run to and from
Ernakulam. The extension of service to and from Trivandrum Central is
suspended.
* 6305/6306 Guruvayur-Nagercoil Junction Express will now run
between
Guruvayur and Nagercoil. The extension of service to and from Madurai is
suspended.
* The 6350 Parsuram Express will now run to and from Cannanore
instead
of Mangalore.
* The Mangalore-Gorakhpur Slip coaches and Mangalore-Barauni Slip
coaches will now be hauled by 6628 West Coast Express on the previous
day up to Cannanore and attached to the 6350 Parsuram Express at
Cannanore the following day.

Changes from South Eastern Railways
The South Eastern Railways has introduced two new trains:
* The 8019 up, Intercity Express will depart Shalimar
station/Haldia
daily.
* The 241/242 Passenger train will run between Rayagada and
Koraput.
Other changes introduced by South Eastern Railways:
* The 2102/2101 Howrah-Kurla Super Deluxe Express will run thrice
a week
instead of once a week.
* The 8563/8564 Vishakhapatnam-Bangalore City Express will run
four days
a week instead of twice a week.
* The 8301/8302 Sambalpur-Hazarat Nizamuddin Hirakud Express will
be
extended to run between Bhubaneshwar and Hazrat Nizamuddin.
* The 8451/8452 Bhubaneshwar-Rourkela Tapaswini Express will be
extended
to run between Puri and Rourkela.

Nothern Railways revises train timings
Northern Railways has revised the timings of the following trains:
* The 2497, Shane-E-Punjab Express will depart from New Delhi at
0600
hours, instead of 0650 hours and reach Amritsar at 1350 hours, instead
of 1400 hours.
* The 4164, Sangam Express will depart from Meerut City at 1845
hours,
instead of 1910 hours.
* The 2404, Pooja Express will depart from Jammu Tawi at 1805
hours,
instead of 1835 hours and reach New Delhi at 0420 hours, instead of 0435
hours.
* The 2434/2438, Nizamuddin-Madras/Secunderabad Rajdhani Express
will
depart from Nizamuddin at 1530 hours, instead of 1555 hours.
* The 4311, Bareilly-New Delhi Express will depart from Bareilly
at 0530
hours, instead of 0600 hours and reach New Delhi at 1130 hours, instead
of 1145 hours.
* The 9020, Dehra Dun-Bombay Central Express will depart from
Dehra Dun
at 1035 hours, instead of 1110 hours for maintaing connection at Meerut
City of the 4164, Sangam Express.
* The 4095, Himalayan Queen will depart from New Delhi at 0610
hours,
instead of 0600 hours and reach Kalka at 1130 hours, instead of 1115
hours.
* The 2029, 2031, New Delhi-Amritsar Swarna Shatabdi will depart
from
New Delhi at 0720 hours, instead of 0630 hours and reach Amritsar at
1300 hours, instead of 1155 hours.
* The 4517 Unchahar Express will depart from New Delhi at 0630
hours,
instead of 0610 hours and reach Ambala at 1040 hours, instead of 1035
hours.
* The 2011, Chandigarh Shatabdi will depart from New Delhi at 0735
hours, instead of 0730 hours and reach Chandigarh at 1045 hours, instead
of 1040 hours.
* The 3007, Udyan Abha Express will arrive at Sriganganagar at
0810
hours, instead of 0730 hours.

From: Vijay Balasubramanian <>

Subject: More news from Rediff

Date: 07 Jul 1999 07:34:31 -0500


Tele-book your rail tickets.
Northern Railways has for the first time in India introduced a rail
credit card and railway tele-booking service.
The rail credit card, which will be issued by Standard Chartered Bank,
will enable passengers to book their tickets over the phone. The tickets
will have to be collected at special counters at least 48 hours before
the time of departure of the train. This facility is available in New
Delhi only for now.
Besides train reservation, the Standard Chartered rail credit card, a
Visa classic card, can be used at 15 million outlets and 450,000 ATMs
around the world. The card will be offered at an annual fee of Rs 700.
Rs 100 will be charged as joining fee.
Application forms will be available in the second week of July at
Standard Chartered banks in New Delhi.
Other services offered:
* 'Inter-Active Status Kiosks' (I-ASK) at railway stations, where
one
can obtain the reservation and train status directly from the computer
without the assistance of an operator.
* The 'Touch Screen Based Enquiry System', at railway stations,
where
the reservation status of a booking can be obtained in three seconds by
keying the PNR number.
* The 'National Train Enquiry System', installed at booking
centres,
provides seat availability and time position of important trains.

From: Vijay Balasubramanian <>

Subject: Longest distance between consecutive halts

Date: 07 Jul 1999 07:44:06 -0500


As expected, the TVC Raj now officially halts at Kota (changed from
technical to regular halt for passengers) - so the longest distance
between consecutive passenger halts now goes to the Chennai Rajdhani
(between Nagpur and Vijayawada). Satish, you may want to add this as an
update to the Trivia section.

Vijay

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: Greetings to our American friends

Date: 07 Jul 1999 12:11:02 -0500


Apurva Bahadur wrote:
>
> Independence day greetings to our dear American friends.
>
> Apurva


From a railway perspective independance day this year has been
intersting in the North-Eastern part of the USA. Because of relatively
high temperatures (generally > 100 degrees F) Amtrak's North-East
Corridor was running under Form D speed restrictions, mostly at 80mph,
so there were considerable delays. There was a report that Metro-North
actually slapped a 60mph restriction between New York and New Haven.

These speed restrictions are put into effect in order to minimize
potential damage from two high temperature caused eventualities - (1)
rail kinks, i.e. buckling of rails due to high temperature - this can
potentially cause derailment, and (2) loose catenaries - the looseness
is due to expansion of catenary wires. Areas that do not have constant
tension catenary (all the way from New York to Washington DC) are most
affected by this - this can potentially cause pantographs to get fouled
in the catenary and bring the whole thing down. Add to those woes a
couple of power failures in the New York area due to system overload -
apprently overall power consumption during daytime was 10% greater than
anything ever experienced or planned for - and life was not generally
happy over the last several days. Rumor has it that power was imported
into the North-East from as far away as Florida!

Finally today, after 4 days of relatively high 100+ degree F the
temperatures have come down sufficiently to remove the Form D
restrictions, and things are running at their usual 125mph again.

Jishnu.

From: Sankaran Kumar <>

Subject: jayanthi janata express

Date: 07 Jul 1999 14:59:03 -0500


Actually the first Jayanthi Janata Express was introduced by T.A. Pai
when
he was the railway minister in the early 70's and the train ran from
NDLS/Nizammuddin to Mangalore. Rumor has it that the decision to
introduce
the Jayanthi Janata was made by the previous Rly minister Kengal
Hanumanthaiyya; the train was to run to Bangalore (Hanumanthaiyya's home

town). However there was a rather unpleasant incident between
Hanumanthaiyya and the then chairman of the Rly Board. Hanumanthaiyya
was
forced to resign, and T.A. Pai who took over as the Rly minister simply
changed the "B" to "M" and had the train terminate in Mangalore near his

home town. Hanumanthaiyya and Pai predate Dandavate as Rly minister.

Incidentally Dandavate's home town is Rajapur near Ratnagiri; and he may

have given an initial push to build the Konkan Rly. Also padded 3-tier
sleepers were first introduced when Dandavate was the Rly minister. I
believe the first train to have them was the BBVT-HWH Gitanjali Express.

By the way, Janata Expresses are even older, and I have travelled on the

great!! erstwhile Delhi-Madras Janata Express in the sixties.

Kumar






>From: "hvc" <champa@del3.email
>Reply-To: "hvc" <hvc@vsnl.email
>To: "S.Shankar" <shankie@emirates.email "irfca" <irfca@cs.email

> "John Lacey" <jlacey@zeta.email
>Subject: Re: Janata Expresses
>Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 18:36:15 +0530
>
>Indeed the `Janata Expresses' arrived long before Madhu Dandwate became
the
>Railway Minister. The credit he can take however is that of modifying
the
>name to `Jayanti Janata Express' and relaunching the old wine in a new
>bottle.
>
>And guess what, `Jayanti' is the name of his daughter. Well, tell me if

>that
>is any better than renaming of any kind.
>
>Harsh
>


_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit <A HREF="http://www.msn.com">http://www.msn.com</A>

From: Srikant Subramaniam <>

Subject: The Royal Hudson Steam Train

Date: 07 Jul 1999 15:07:13 -0500



Check out the following link:

<A HREF="http://www.bcrail.com/bcrpass/bcrhudsn.htm">http://www.bcrail.com/bcrpass/bcrhudsn.htm</A>

-- Srikant.

_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at <A HREF="http://mail.yahoo.com">http://mail.yahoo.com</A>

From: Vdate <>

Subject: Re: jayanthi janata express

Date: 07 Jul 1999 18:51:41 -0500


The Janatas were introduced to celebrate the centennial of railways in
India.
These were mostly faster than mails and expresses running on the same
tracks
with fewer stops. Amenities like drinking water in coaches, widespread
uses
of sleepers, good dining cars were introduced for then third class
passengers. Once these arrived our family elected to switch from first
to
third on our travels. The only thing we did not get in Janata was a
huge tub
of ice in summer.

From: S Pai <>

Subject: Re: UNSUBSCRIBE/SUBSCRIBE

Date: 07 Jul 1999 19:22:13 -0500


I agree with Harsh: most of the messages we have seen in this category
have nothing in the nature of a goodbye or any kind of message other
than the unsubscription request itself.

Then again, there is nothing much to be gained by complaining about
this, as the person in question is leaving the list, after all. I have
been on mailing lists of different kinds for 10 years now, and this is a
problem on all lists that are unmoderated. People misplace the
information they get when they join the list, and/or don't know how to
find it again. :-(

--Satish

From: S Pai <>

Subject: Re: Greetings to our American friends

Date: 07 Jul 1999 19:43:47 -0500


Hello, Jishnu,

> There was a report that Metro-North
> actually slapped a 60mph restriction between New York and New Haven.

Interesting. I suppose a big part of the problem is the fact that
between the cold winters and the hot summers there's a huge range of
temperatures for which the rails and catenaries, etc., have to be
designed. In addition to the sagging of catenaries in the case of
non-constant-tension OHE systems as you pointed out, is there also any
kind of effect due to changes in mechanical properties of the catenary
over the temperatures it is exposed to? There's usually a critical
speed for the pantograph brushing past on the surface of the catenary
beyond which the stresses of the induced shock wave will exceed the
mechanical strength of the cable. Does this critical speed change much
with temperature? (I'm guessing it might go down with temperature...)
What happens with really high-speed trains (TGV style, or the proposed
Acela in the US) -- do they have to install new catenaries to get over
this problem of a critical speed? Different tensions, different
materials, different cross-section, different construction, shorter
sections?

Are there instances in India in the summer of rails kinking or buckling
in the heat and disrupting train services? I don't recall hearing of
such problems, at least not recently. What are the temperature
tolerances of IR track? Do they simply allow for really large expansion
movements at the joints?

--Satish

(By the way, it appears that the new electrification north of New Haven
all the way to Boston has constant-tension catenaries?)

From: S Pai <>

Subject: Re: Longest distance between consecutive halts

Date: 07 Jul 1999 19:50:56 -0500


> Satish, you may want to add this as an
> update to the Trivia section.

Will do. Thanks for all your updates. Folks, this is a reminder to
keep sending in information for inclusion in or correction of the FAQ as
and when you come across any -- the FAQ still has many large and small
holes in it. Vijay, Apurva, and several others have done a sterling job
in contributing to it so far, but we can always do with much more!

<A HREF="http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/syria/716">http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/syria/716</A>

--Satish

From: Mike Brooker <>

Subject: Re: jayanthi janata express

Date: 07 Jul 1999 20:25:06 -0500


So if Jayanti Janata Express is not named after the former Railway
Minister's daughter, is the name Jayanti taken from the opening word in
the
Devi sloka:

Jayanti mangala kali bhadrakali kapalini
Durga kshama shiva dhatri svaha svadha namo'stu te.

Jai Ma!
********************************************************************
Mike Brooker
99 Wychcrest Ave.,
Toronto, ON M6G 3X8
CANADA
(416) 536-7406
********************************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Sankaran Kumar <sankaran_kumar@hotmail.email
To: irfca@cs.email <irfca@cs.email
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 6:00 PM
Subject: jayanthi janata express


>Actually the first Jayanthi Janata Express was introduced by T.A. Pai
when
>he was the railway minister in the early 70's and the train ran from
>NDLS/Nizammuddin to Mangalore. Rumor has it that the decision to
introduce
>the Jayanthi Janata was made by the previous Rly minister Kengal
>Hanumanthaiyya; the train was to run to Bangalore (Hanumanthaiyya's
home
>town). However there was a rather unpleasant incident between
>Hanumanthaiyya and the then chairman of the Rly Board. Hanumanthaiyya
was
>forced to resign, and T.A. Pai who took over as the Rly minister simply
>changed the "B" to "M" and had the train terminate in Mangalore near
his
>home town. Hanumanthaiyya and Pai predate Dandavate as Rly minister.
>
>Incidentally Dandavate's home town is Rajapur near Ratnagiri; and he
may
>have given an initial push to build the Konkan Rly. Also padded 3-tier
>sleepers were first introduced when Dandavate was the Rly minister. I
>believe the first train to have them was the BBVT-HWH Gitanjali
Express.
>
>By the way, Janata Expresses are even older, and I have travelled on
the
>great!! erstwhile Delhi-Madras Janata Express in the sixties.
>
>Kumar
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>From: "hvc" <champa@del3.email
>>Reply-To: "hvc" <hvc@vsnl.email
>>To: "S.Shankar" <shankie@emirates.email "irfca" <irfca@cs.email
>> "John Lacey" <jlacey@zeta.email
>>Subject: Re: Janata Expresses
>>Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 18:36:15 +0530
>>
>>Indeed the `Janata Expresses' arrived long before Madhu Dandwate
became
the
>>Railway Minister. The credit he can take however is that of modifying
the
>>name to `Jayanti Janata Express' and relaunching the old wine in a new
>>bottle.
>>
>>And guess what, `Jayanti' is the name of his daughter. Well, tell me
if
>>that
>>is any better than renaming of any kind.
>>
>>Harsh
>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________________
>Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit <A HREF="http://www.msn.com">http://www.msn.com</A>

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Pune shed WDM 2 duty link

Date: 08 Jul 1999 06:42:51 -0500


Gang !

Check out how the WDM 2 powers from Pune shed get assigned.
This is a loco link from 1997 but still is very exciting and
informative.
Have a look and get back with your comments. Go to:
<A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~ApuB/index.htm">http://members.tripod.com/~ApuB/index.htm</A>

and click on the loco links at the bottom.
The CSTM yard layout will be up tomorrow.

Apurva

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: VT yard map up as well

Date: 08 Jul 1999 07:10:47 -0500


Gang ! please check out the CSTM yard map on my site.

From: Vdate <>

Subject: Re: VT yard map up as well

Date: 08 Jul 1999 19:01:59 -0500


Wonderful and very informative. I have two questions. What is the
purpose
of running an empty rake? In airline industry it is called relocation
flights and tickets on these are sold at cheap rates. Could rlys do
something like it? Secondly, Does the driver stay the loco for seven
days or
how does it work?

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: VT yard map up as well

Date: 08 Jul 1999 19:42:06 -0500




Vdate@aol.email wrote:

> Wonderful and very informative. I have two questions. What is the
purpose
> of running an empty rake? In airline industry it is called relocation
> flights and tickets on these are sold at cheap rates. Could rlys do
> something like it? Secondly, Does the driver stay the loco for seven
days or
> how does it work?

The rake is run empty so that it can start another trains somewhere
else. I would put
up the duty links of drivers of Mumbai, Solapur and Hubli divisions
drivers soon.

Apurva

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: VT yard map up as well

Date: 09 Jul 1999 08:39:48 -0500


Vdate@aol.email wrote:
>
> Wonderful and very informative. I have two questions. What is the
purpose
> of running an empty rake? In airline industry it is called relocation
> flights and tickets on these are sold at cheap rates.

Sometimes a aircraft positioning flight is an advertized flight in which
case it carries passengers, and at other times it is an unadvertized
flight in which case it doesn't carry a cabin crew and hence no
passengers. Unless there is an expectation that the revenues generated
from the cheap tickets will pay for the added cost of staffing the cabin
on the flight, and the cost of gate fees etc. at the airports at the two
ends, airlines tend to avoid advertizing equipment positioning flights.

> Could rlys do something like it?

Amtrak has at least one equipment positioning train which runs from
Albany-Rennsalear NY to Rutland VT to position equipment at Rutland for
the Ethan Allen Express to New York, which carries passengers. This
makes sense because the crew is also positioned with the equipment and
they are already being paid at that time whether there are any
passengers or not.

Railways do equipment positioning without revenue traffic all the time,
at least in the USA. Amtrak for example runs equipment positioning
trains in the middle of the night on the North East Corridor, which
consist of incredibly long string of Amfleet cars, with no lights on,
with two, three, or four AEM-7s pulling them, running non-stop from say
Sunnyside Yard in New York to Ivy City Yard in Washington DC. Amtrak
also runs equipment positioning trains consisting of empty MHCs
(Material Handling Cars, i.e. goods vans with high speed wheel bogies
and electrical air brakes), to position empty MHC equipment at the point
of originating express goods traffic. Typically these empty MHC trains
run under speed restrictions that makes them considerably slower than
what would be considered express freight, and carrying revenue traffic
on them would run Amtrak afoul of the freight railroads, who have the
franchise for carrying non-scheduled freight.

New Jersey Transit runs several equipment positioning trains at night
between the Meadowlands Maintenance Facility and Dover Yard. I see them
go by my window almost every night.

Needless to say all these examples above fall in the category of trips
on which allowing passengers would not get anywhere near paying for the
additional cost of staffing the train.

Jishnu.