IRFCA Mailing List Archive


Messages 1421 - 1440

From: S Pai <Pai>>

Subject: 19th century architecture?

Date: 13 Mar 1995 14:30:00 -0500


Below is a request I received; if anyone has any relevant information or
pointers to it, please post.

-Satish

------- Start of forwarded message -------

I would like to subscribe to the Indian Railways list. I am planning to
write a small monograph on the architecture of nineteenth century Indian
railways. If you have anything in your archives that can be of assistance to
me, could you please send it to me ?

Sugandha

------- End of forwarded message -------

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@iitk.email

Subject: Railway Budget.

Date: 15 Mar 1995 09:37:00 -0500


Here are the highlights of the Railway budget as far as I can
remember from an extremely boring 80 minute speech that I endured.

1. No increase in fares of 2nd class (both ordinary and mail),
and 1st class ordinary.
2. 10 % increase in 1st class mail and AC classes.
3. Instead of deciding each point-to-point fare individually for Rajdhani
and Shatabdi trains, there will be a new fare structure for such trains.
4. MST fare to go up. At the lowest slab (for distances of less than
10 KM), it will increase by 5 Rs. and for distance more than 90 KM,
it will increase by 30 Rs. In the speech he said, that currently,
MST fare for 10 KM or less is the cost of 23 single journeys,
while Railways fare and freight committee had recommended as 25
single journeys. He said that the recommendation has been accepted
but the increase is being done in stages. So I guess this 5 Rs.
increase correspond to making MST as 24 single journeys. Similarly,
for distance 90-110 KM range, the MST is for 9 single journey
tickets, which will be increased in stages to 11 single journeys.
5. Freight charges hiked by 7 % almost across the board.
6. 4 new shatabdis. Two from Calcutta (Rourkela and Bokaro), One
from Madras (to Coimbatore), and one from Bangalore (to Hubli ?)
7. New Delhi - Guwahati Rajdhani to become tri-weekly, and will have
additional stop at New Bongaigaon. I guess this will increase
pressure for increased frequencies of other Rajdhani trains as well.
8. New Delhi - Trivandrum Rajdhani to stop at Palghat.
9. New Delhi - Chandigarh Shatabdi to stop at Ambala.
10. 4 new express trains without any reserved accomodation.
11. A total of 19 new trains, these seemed to benefit Northern Bihar
and Eastern UP the most, though I couldn't catch all the names of
places. There are some trains on the new BG track in Rajasthan.
(Can it be due to elections still pending in Northern Bihar ?)
12. Jaipur-Sealdah will be replaced by Jodhpur-Sealdah.
(I expect that this will become Jaisalmer-Sealdah next year,
Guwahati-Jaisalmer year after that, and Tinsukia-Jaisalmer
later on. This will be finally renamed as East-West express.)
13. 5 trains extended, and service of a few trains increased. One
that would help me most: Purushottam Puri has been made daily.
Extensions include couple of trains to North-east.
14. Once Konkan Railway is open for passenger traffic, hopefully, in
december, some of the south-bound trains will diverted via that route.
A new Shatabdi between Bombay and Malegaon (??) will be started,
and there will be an overnight train between the same two stations.
15. Reservation charges increased, though amount was not mentioned
in the speech.
16. New AC-2T coaches will be introduced this year, which have sliding door
for each coupe of 4 births. Those passengers who get births inside the
coupe in these coaches will pay 5% surcharge with a minimum of 50 Rs.
17. In AC-2T, all passengers will be given bedrolls, and cost of that
will be added to the fare.
18. DMUs, Diesel push-pull trains, Rail-buses to be introduced at lots
of sectors.
19. Several projects in Bombay suburban will be taken up this
year. These were essentially the same projects that I had
mentioned in an earlier mail last month.
20. Calcutta Metro will open its last leg this year.
21. There was something about Madras suburban service as well.
I think they will take up the gauge conversion in Madras suburban.
22. Among the projects that are likely to be completed this year,
(the ones I was interested in) include Delhi-Ahmedabad will become
fully BG, and Delhi-Ambala electrification will be completed.

-dheeraj


PS: In another news item today, the BG Mandor Express will not stop at
Delhi Sarai Rohella, but will stop at Delhi Cantt. I ssupect that
eventually, Delhi Cantt will become a terminus for west-bound
trains. Delhi Sarai Rohella will be only a suburban station.

From: Srikant Subramaniam <srikant@sybase.email

Subject: Re: Railway Budget.

Date: 14 Mar 1995 11:15:00 -0500


> 4. MST fare to go up. At the lowest slab (for distances of less than
> 10 KM), it will increase by 5 Rs. and for distance more than 90 KM,
> it will increase by 30 Rs. In the speech he said, that currently,
> MST fare for 10 KM or less is the cost of 23 single journeys,
> while Railways fare and freight committee had recommended as 25
> single journeys. He said that the recommendation has been accepted
> but the increase is being done in stages. So I guess this 5 Rs.
> increase correspond to making MST as 24 single journeys. Similarly,
> for distance 90-110 KM range, the MST is for 9 single journey
> tickets, which will be increased in stages to 11 single journeys.

What's MST?
--
Srikant Subramaniam.
srikant@sybase.email

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: Railway Budget.

Date: 14 Mar 1995 15:17:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 14-Mar-95 Re: Railway Budget. Srikant
Subramaniam@syba (781*)

> What's MST?

Monthly Season Ticket?

Jishnu
jis@summit.email

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: This and that (Re: Railway Budget.)

Date: 14 Mar 1995 16:02:00 -0500


Thanks a ton to Dheeraj for posting a summary of the budget.

Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 14-Mar-95 Railway Budget. Dheeraj
Sanghi@iitk.email (4034*)

> 6. 4 new shatabdis. Two from Calcutta (Rourkela and Bokaro), One from
> Madras (to Coimbatore), and one from Bangalore (to Hubli ?)

My guess the stops on the Shatabdis from Calcutta!

Rourkela Shatabdi: Tatanagar, Rourkela.
Bokaro Shatabdi: Asansol, Dhanbad, Bokaro.

I am somewhat surpised that they went for a Bokaro Shatabdi rather than
a Patna Shatabdi.

So after these ones are added the total list of Shatabdis becomes:

New Delhi - Bhopal (the granddaddy of them all)
New Delhi - Lucknow
New Delhi - Kalka
New Delhi - Chandigarh
New Delhi - Amritsar
New Delhi - Jaipur
Bombay Ct. - Ahmedabad
Madras Ct. - Bangalore - Mysore(?)
Madras Ct. - Coimbatore
Howrah - Rourkela
Howrah - Bokaro (Steel City?)

Did I miss any?

> 7. New Delhi - Guwahati Rajdhani to become tri-weekly, and will have
> additional stop at New Bongaigaon. I guess this will increase pressure
> for increased frequencies of other Rajdhani trains as well.

Yes indeed it will. The Guwahati Rajdhani is a particularly attractive train
because of its nice timing and the phenomenal amount of effective time that it
saves compared to other trains on that route, specially to places like New
Jalpaiguri (and now New Bongaigaon).

While in Calcutta last month I was talking to someone from the commercial side
of Eastern Railway, and he was saying that there is quite a bit of push for
starting a Calcutta - New Delhi Rajdhani with no intermediate commercial stops
to do the distance in about 14.5 hours thus making it really attractive for
travel by business people. You know like 6:00 pm departure and 8:30 am arrival
sort of train. He was saying that such a train is technically and commercially
feasible. The only problem was getting the necessary rake. He thought that
such a train could be implemented as a train in which the hotel service is
done by a private organization. An interesting idea.

So the list of Rajdhanis remains the same as before:

(5) Howrah - New Delhi (via Grand Chord) ( the granddaddy of them all)
(2) Howrah - New Delhi (via Main Line)
(6) Bombay Ct. - New Delhi
(6) Bombay Ct. - New Delhi August Kranti
(1) Trivandrum - New Delhi
(1) Bangalore - New Delhi
(3) Guwahati - New Delhi
(1) Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi
(1) Jammu - New Delhi

Fantasy time: I was thinking that a neat way to start a Howrah - Bombay
Rjdhani would be to do so on the route Howrah - Dhanbad - MGS - Kanpur -
Tundla - Agra Fort - Bayana - Kota - Vadodara - Bombay Central. I think that a
train on this route given the present speeds of existing Rajdhani's would be a
couple of hours faster than Gitanjali, and also add some unique city pairs
e.g. Howrah-Agra, Howrah-Vadodara, Bombay-Kanpur etc.

This time I travelled around on an AC First Class Indrail Pass. It was truly a
pleasure to travel by Rajdhani AC First Class. AC First Class on Kalka Mail
was not too bad either. Executive Class on Kalka Shatabdi was just so so.

Thats all for now.

Jishnu Mukerji
jis@summit.email

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@iitk.email

Subject: Railway Budget, etc.

Date: 15 Mar 1995 21:35:00 -0500


> So after these ones are added the total list of Shatabdis becomes:
>
> New Delhi - Bhopal (the granddaddy of them all)
> New Delhi - Lucknow
> New Delhi - Kalka
> New Delhi - Chandigarh
> New Delhi - Amritsar
> New Delhi - Jaipur
> Bombay Ct. - Ahmedabad
> Madras Ct. - Bangalore - Mysore(?)
> Madras Ct. - Coimbatore
> Howrah - Rourkela
> Howrah - Bokaro (Steel City?)
>
> Did I miss any?

You missed out New Delhi - Dehradun, and recently proposed Bangalore - Hubli
(I am not sure if this was the place).

Also, I forgot to mention that Jaipur Shatabdi will be extended to Ajmer.

There was also a mention of providing phones in Bombay-New Delhi Rajdhani this
year.

The quarterly season tickets will become 2.7 times the MST, instead of 2.5
times, as of now.


> push for starting a Calcutta - New Delhi Rajdhani with no
> intermediate commercial stops to do the distance in about 14.5 hours
> thus making it really attractive for travel by business people. You
> know like 6:00 pm departure and 8:30 am arrival sort of train.

In last year's budget speech, Railway Minister had said that Railways are
trying to have a non-stop service between New-Delhi and Howrah and Bombay
Central. But we didn't hear about it after that. It was estimated that the
time will be around 14 hours.

> So the list of Rajdhanis remains the same as before:
>
> (5) Howrah - New Delhi (via Grand Chord) ( the granddaddy of them all)
> (2) Howrah - New Delhi (via Main Line)
> (6) Bombay Ct. - New Delhi
> (6) Bombay Ct. - New Delhi August Kranti
> (1) Trivandrum - New Delhi
> (1) Bangalore - New Delhi
> (3) Guwahati - New Delhi
> (1) Bhubaneshwar - New Delhi
> (1) Jammu - New Delhi

We can expect a Rajdhani to Ahmedabad and another one to Goa in the next
year's budget.

-dheeraj

From: Pushkar Apte <apte@spdc.email

Subject: 14 hr Rajdhanis

Date: 15 Mar 1995 09:42:00 -0500


Thanks to Dheeraj for the details of the latest Railway budget. It is
interesting to see that the 14 hr Raj idea has resurfaced. It will be great
if these become reality, but I do not see how they can be feasible technically
unless some infrastructure changes occur. Bombay-Delhi is 1384 kms and
Howrah-Delhi is 1400-odd. So, for a 14 hr Raj, we need an avg speed of 100
kmph all the way, which means a max speed of 130-140 kmph all-the-way. Take
the current Bombay-Delhi Raj: it has 3 commercial halts worth ~40 mins, and it
takes 16.5 hrs (at its fastest) to cover the distance. If the commercial
stoppage was replaced by two 5 min tech. halts, you save a half-hour, but
still that leaves you sitting @ 16 hrs and avg speed of ~86 kmph. And the
reason for this is lower speed capabilities of the tracks on the Bombay-Ratlam
sector, where the Raj averages only ~77 kmph. There is an analogous situation
on the Howrah-MGS sector for the Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani. (Does anyone know the
actual max speed specifications for these two sectors?)

Bottom Line: I cannot see how a 14 hr Rajdhani can occur without significant
track improvements on the above two sectors.

Regards,
Pushkar
-------

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: 14 hr Rajdhanis

Date: 15 Mar 1995 13:17:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 15-Mar-95 14 hr Rajdhanis Pushkar
Apte@spdc.email (1197*)

> It will be great if these become reality, but I do not see how they can be
> feasible technically unless some infrastructure changes occur. Bombay-Delhi
> is 1384 kms and Howrah-Delhi is 1400-odd. So, for a 14 hr Raj, we need an
> avg speed of 100 kmph all the way, which means a max speed of 130-140 kmph
> all-the-way.

Pushkar is right. 14 hours will be hard to do without some work on track
and loco.

The 14.5 hour proposal that appears to be floating around, at least for the
Howrah route is to raise the speed for significant portions of Ghaziabad -
Kanpur - Mughal Sarai - Gaya to 160 kmph, Koderma - Gomoh to 130 kmph, Asansol
- Burdwan - Howrah to 140 kmph. then reduce the number of service stops to
just one i.e. MGS. All this becomes possible only after the induction of the
new asynchronous 3 phase AC motor electric locos (with toilet facilities I
might add!:-)), and some track upgrade. The claim that I heard made was that
15.5 between NDLS and HWH is feasible with tighter signalling and reduction of
service stops with existing track and WAP1 electrics, but 14 is not.

Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 15-Mar-95 14 hr Rajdhanis Pushkar
Apte@spdc.email (1197*)

> There is an analogous situation on the Howrah-MGS sector for the
> Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani. (Does anyone know the actual max speed
> specifications for these two sectors?)

The last time I looked it was something like 130 MGS to Gaya, 120 Koderma -
Gomoh except on curves, 120 Dhanbad - Asansol, 130 Asansol - Burdwan center
two tracks only, 130 Palla Road - Gobra (HB Chord). Of course all this info
should be taken with a due pinch of salt since I have not heard this from
anyone that I would consider an authoritative source.

BTW HWH to MGS in 6.25 hrs. to 6.5 hrs. non-stop (for 661km) was done several
times during trial runs before the introduction of the original Rajdhani, so
it is not as if it cannot be done.

The reason that the train takes as much time as it does is that it spends a
considerable amount of time not running at the speed it is allowed to run at
because of adverse signals and bad traffic control. On my last trip from New
Delhi to Howrah in February this year a full 45 minutes was spent standing
stationary at signals at various places and still the train arrived 15 minutes
early!!! It is this factor that is now (hopefully) starting to get some
attention. Particularly telling was the fact that the train left Dhanbad 15
minutes late, stopped at a signal for 3 minutes at Galsi, 3 minutes at
Shaktigarh, and still, after a solid sprint from Palla Road to Dankuni at what
appeared to be track speed, it got into Howrah 15 minutes ahead of schedule!

Jishnu

From: R. Anand <anand@watson.email

Subject: Suggestions for France trip

Date: 15 Mar 1995 13:31:00 -0500


This is a bit unrelated to Indian Railways but I thought I would check with
this group. I will be going to France (Nice actually) for a few weeks. Any
suggestions on rail related activities which I could do on the weekends?

Jishnu: Does the TGV make it all the way to Nice or does it stop at
Marseilles?

Thanks
R. Anand
anand@watson.email

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: Suggestions for France trip

Date: 15 Mar 1995 13:54:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 15-Mar-95 Suggestions for France trip "R.
Anand"@watson.email (345*)

> This is a bit unrelated to Indian Railways but I thought I would check with
> this group. I will be going to France (Nice actually) for a few weeks. Any
> suggestions on rail related activities which I could do on the weekends?

> Jishnu: Does the TGV make it all the way to Nice or does it stop at
> Marseilles?

TGV's do go to Nice from Paris. many of the Paris Nice TGV's actually bypass
Marseilles. Over a weekend you could take a TGV to Paris and back. I think
Paris is ~6.5 hours from Nice by TGV. Marseilles is now 4.5hours from Paris
since the opening of the LGV Rhone-Alpes between Sathonay(Lyon) and Valence.

I am off to UK and France week after next. I have already gotten my ticket for
a ride on the Eurostar from London to Paris on the 5th of April. From London
to Paris in 2 hrs and 59 minutes through the Channel Tunnel should be an
interesting experience.

Have fun on your trip

Jishnu.
jis@summit.email

From: Sanjiv Narayan <sanjiv@viewlogic.email

Subject: Re: Suggestions for France trip

Date: 15 Mar 1995 14:55:00 -0500


The TGV does go to Nice from Paris.

Another fun thing might be to try out (and report to IRFCA) the CHUNNEL ride
between London and Paris. I read a story in the Boston Globe that the journey
takes about 4 hours each way. Also, they mentioned that the off-season fare,
21-day advance purchase was $160 roundtrip (seems to be a bit low for me to
believe). This fare seems much lower than the air fares between London and
Paris.

They did have a fascinating account of the tunnel section of the journey.
Also mentioned that a lot of people take the early morning train for
business/shopping/museums and are back in London by the last train leaving
Paris.

If get access to a scanner, I will mail the article for everybody. But may be
Anand could get us a more detailed first-hand account :)

Sanjiv Narayan
sanjiv@viewlogic.email

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: Suggestions for France trip

Date: 15 Mar 1995 14:42:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 15-Mar-95 Re: Suggestions for France ..
Sanjiv Narayan@viewlogic (1464*)

> Another fun thing might be to try out (and report to IRFCA) the CHUNNEL
> ride between London and Paris. I read a story in the Boston Globe that
> the journey takes about 4 hours each way. Also, they mentioned that the
> off-season fare, 21-day advance purchase was $160 roundtrip (seems to be
> a bit low for me to believe). This fare seems much lower than the air
> fares between London and Paris.

The Eurostar fares are as follow:

One Way First Class $154
One Way Standard Class $123
Europass One Way First $118
Europass One Way Std $83
Weekends RT Standard $198
Apex Weekend RT Std $134

There are a few other Apex RT fares by Standard Class during the week
for which I don't have the numbers, but it is of the order of $160.

It takes 2hrs and 59 mins. to 3 hrs. 10 mins. between London and Paris.
It takes 3 hrs. 12 mins. to 3 hrs. 20 mins. between London and Brussels.

I am taking the 6:53pm departure from London Waterloo arriving at Paris
Gare du Nord at 10:52pm on the 5th of April. On the way back I am taking
the 12:12pm departure from paris Gare du Nord arriving in London
Waterloo at 2:13pm on the 8th of April.

I will let you all know how it goes.

Jishnu.
jis@summit.email

From: S Pai <Pai>>

Subject: new trains in the south

Date: 15 Mar 1995 19:21:00 -0500


Dheeraj wrote:

> 11. A total of 19 new trains, these seemed to benefit Northern Bihar
> and Eastern UP the most, though I couldn't catch all the names of
> places. There are some trains on the new BG track in Rajasthan.

There are some new trains announced for the south too:

* Bangalore--Quilon weekly express via Alleppey.
* Bangalore--Miraj express. (Frequency?)
* Ernakulam--Trivandrum express via Alleppey. (Frequency?)
* Tirupati--Cuddappah express. (Frequency?)
* Bombay--Tirupati bi-weekly express.
* Bombay VT--Nagercoil weekly express via Madurai.

-Satish

From: glyn_thomas1 <glyn_thomas1@uk.email

Subject: (u) Suggestions for France

Date: 16 Mar 1995 06:06:00 -0500


There is an interesting railway between Nice and Dinant (about 90 miles).
This is meter gauge and privately owned by CF Provence. This is not a
preserved railway, they operate diesel railcars as a public service.
They've had a hard time recently, and parts of the line were washed
away in floods earlier this year, so I don't know how much will be
running when you're there. They run a steam service with a preseved
Portuguese Mallet roughly alternate Sundays in the summer, from about
40 miles outside Nice. From experience, you need to book in advance: I
think you can book at the Nice terminus, and there is a connecting
railcar from Nice.

The coastal lines along the Cote d'Azure (to Monte Carlo) and Cote
d'Estoral (to St Rafael?) are very scenic, and I think most trains, even
locals, are loco-hauled.

Further afield, the preserved line from Tournon-Lamastre is well worth
a visit. It's a meter gauge line running with original 0-4-4-0T Mallets.
I think they run Sundays for the summer season, but I'm not sure when
that starts. Tournon is in the Rhone valley, it maybe possible to do
a round-trip in a long day from Nice. The SNCF station is in a town on
the other side of the river with a different name - I can find out if
you're interested.

The French National Railway Museum is in Mulhouse in the NE, too far away
for a day trip from Nice, but would be possible in a weekend.

Regards,
Glyn Thomas,

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: WAP1A?

Date: 16 Mar 1995 08:34:00 -0500


Can someone enlighten me on what is the difference between a WAP1 class
and a WAP1-A class. Apparently the numbers of these two classes are
from the same sequence, i.e. 22000 series. Both the Rajdhanis (Howrah -
New Delhi and New Delhi - Howrah (WAP1A22059)) that I rode on last month
were pulled by WAP1-A. Is the difference in the type of motors used
(Alsthom TAO 659 vs. Hitachi HS 15250)? Wouldn't this also mean that the
WAP1-A has a higher HP rating than a WAP1?

Thanks much.

Jishnu Mukerji
jis@summit.email

From: J.J. Rainbow <J.J.Rainbow@newcastle.email

Subject: Re: 19th century architecture?

Date: 19 Mar 1995 17:36:00 -0500


I have in my own collection the 1893 rules regarding Indian railways
construction. I published these in various British Overseas Railways
Historical Trust Journals. Their address is 260, Wricklemarsh Road,
Blackheath, London, England. If I have the article on disk I am willing
to post it to the newsgroup if someone can tell me how to convert from a
PC disk on to UNIK. I suggest that other places to try would be the
Public Records Office at Kew, London, The India Office Library at
Blackheath, The Institution Of Civil Engineers, Great George Street,
London. There are certainly more places and it will be a case of trial
and error. If you succeed in writing then BORHT may be interested in
publishing. I am the co-editor of the journal so contact me if you are
successful.


Yours Julian.

On Mon, 13 Mar 1995, S Pai wrote:

>
> Below is a request I received; if anyone has any relevant information or
> pointers to it, please post.
>
> -Satish
>
> ------- Start of forwarded message -------
>
> I would like to subscribe to the Indian Railways list. I am planning to
> write a small monograph on the architecture of nineteenth century Indian
> railways. If you have anything in your archives that can be of assistance to
> me, could you please send it to me ?
>
> Sugandha
>
> ------- End of forwarded message -------

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@iitk.email

Subject: IR magazine.

Date: 21 Mar 1995 01:21:00 -0500


Got the December 1994 issue today. Some of the highlights:

It mentions a large number of projects (new lines, electrification,
change of gauge, doubling, bridges, etc.) for whom private
investment has been invited under Build-Own-Lease-Transfer (BOLT)
scheme.

IR to introduce a Global Enquiry System by March 1995. It can help
people in drawing up itineries (mostly useful for tourists, who
may not know about all the trains and connections to the areas they
want to visit), and also include all kinds of general information,
like quotas from various stations, retiring rooms, train compositions,
circular tours, etc.

(I haven't heard of the above system being actually in place, yet.
For that matter, in the last issue or one before that, there was a
mention of networking all reservation computers, so that from any
terminal, not only can I get reservation on a train in that zone,
but anywhere in India. This was to be tested in Hyderabad in the
beginning of this year. Any news on that ??)

All new coaches to have 110 volt train lighting system, instead
of 24 volt system earlier. All older coaches also get 100 volt
system during periodic overhaul. The new system will have
flourescent lighting instead of incandescent lamps. This project
is in progress since April 1989. (I have seen flourescent lamps
in some new coaches, but hardly any train that I have travelled
by in recent past had flourescent lamps in sleeper class. If this
conversion is going on for 6 years, then I should have come across
flourescent lamps more often.)

The cause of fire in Bombay-Howrah Mail in November was that some
passengers were carrying LPG cylinders and kerosene in the coach,
which caught fire. (How could one load SIX LPG cylinders, 40 litres
of kerosene, and 3 stoves in a coach without being checked by
police ?)

Privatisation of Ancilliary works of Railways is in progress. This
includes, provision of bedrolls to passengers, management of
cloack-rooms, retiring rooms, maintenance and beautification of
stations, etc.

Railways has decided to phase out wooden sleepers completely, and
replace them by concrete sleepers. RDSO has evolved design of several
kinds of sleepers needed by IR.

-dheeraj

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: IR magazine.

Date: 20 Mar 1995 09:18:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 20-Mar-95 IR magazine. Dheeraj
Sanghi@iitk.email (2205*)

> All new coaches to have 110 volt train lighting system, instead of 24 volt
> system earlier. All older coaches also get 100 volt system during periodic
> overhaul. The new system will have flourescent lighting instead of
> incandescent lamps

This brings up a question I have had about the proliferation of letter
suffixes to coach numbers. I know that the suffix A indicates that the
coach has air-brakes as opposed to the normal vacuum brakes. All
Rajdhani and Shatabdi coaches have this suffix, e.g. the First AC coach
that I travelled in was numbererd 1012A. This time I noticed that the
suffixes X and Y have appeared also, and some coaches have both suffixes
e.g. 12394X-Y. I suspect thiese may have something to do with electric
system, but that is just a guess. Anyone know what these suffixes mean?

Thanks.

Jishnu Mukerji
jis@summit.email

From: R. Anand <anand@watson.email

Subject: Thanks

Date: 20 Mar 1995 14:17:00 -0500


Thanks to everyone for your suggestions for my France trip. I will try
a weekend round trip to Paris via TGV and will report my experience (I
think though that Jishnu may have already done this trip).

Regarding the system to help tourists draw up itenararies, I used to do
much of the stuff described since I had memorized much of the IR
timetable. This was about 15 years ago when there were much fewer
trains than there are now though. Timetables of all sorts, train
and airline have always been my secret passion.

An IR question: Has the Itarsi Nagpur section been fully doubled as
yet? Previously, only a few portions of it were doubled, leading
to bottlenecks since the line is quite steeply graded.

R. Anand
anand@watson.email

From: J.J. Rainbow <J.J.Rainbow@newcastle.email

Subject:

Date: 22 Mar 1995 22:54:00 -0500


I forget to mention in my last note that there is or was an Urban
Transport Museum in Paris. My last information was that it was going to
close and move, but this is about two years out of date.

Secondly, I am researching the history of the Sierra Leone railway. In
about 1941 a number of 2-8-0 locomotives were transferred to this railway
from the South Indian Railway. Their details were as follows

SIR no SLR No Builders Number and date
W2 111 SLM 2313/13
W3 112 SLM 2314/13
W1 113 SLM 2312/13
W5 114 SLM 2738/20
W4 115 SLM 2737/20
W6 116 SLM 2739/20

Does anyone have any pictures or drawings of these locomotives or known
where I can find them. For that matter any pictures, articles, or
references to the Sierra Leone railway would be welcomed. Further does
anyone work for the UN or does anyone know the whereabouts of the
transportation consultant's report on Sierra Leone prepared in about 1970.

Thanks Julian