B M Damania: Vintage Railway Photographs
By Dr Ardeshir B Damania, with additions by Ravindra Bhalerao and Rajendra Aklekar
This material has appeared previously on the Railways of the Raj blog maintained by Ravindra Bhalerao.
The vintage photographs here are from the collection of the late Behramji M Damania, LEE, an engineer, aviator, entrepreneur, adventurer, and businessman. He was born in 1893 and died in 1982. These photographs from his collection have been provided here by his son, Dr Ardeshir B Damania. See also Dr Damania's account of Dorabji Damania, his uncle, on the railways.
Some of my father's relatives and my uncle worked for the railways in the 1930s and 40s. In the 1830s and 40s the railways were well established in England and they tried to do the same for Bombay. Poona being the cultural capital even at that time and a good hill station with a nice climate for the gora sahibs attempts were made to build a railway Bombay-Poona first. But the sheer wall of the western ghats made it a daunting task which the equipment available then could not surmount in the beginning. Steam power (even with 3 engines) was barely able to pull a train in the early days and instances of the train rolling backwards were common. My father (1893-1982) who had actually seen steam engines pulling the train up the ghats told me that the locomotives strained very hard (with very thick black smoke) and their heavy puffing made a sound which he narrated to me in Marathi "Ghata saathi, pota saathi, Khandala cha ghata saathi". He would repeat this 3-5 times in quick succession to make me understand how difficult it was for the steam engines to pull the train up the ghats even though there was reversing which he had also seen being used and would tell me how it all worked when we went each time by car below the viaduct before the last climb to Khandala on the old Bombay-Poona road.
The Punjab Mail in 1930
This is a picture of the Punjab Mail (1930) at halt due to some reason at a small station with platform only for stopping at all stations trains. The Punjab Mail is on the fast track going out of Bombay I think. This is definitely GIP railway and the electric masts are of the same type as the railway inspection photo below.
Dadar Station with Steam Local Trains, 1923
This is a 1923 photo of the BB&CI railway Dadar Station (the area on the west side of the station is still called "BB Dadar"). Notice that the local trains are being pulled by steam engines. There are no electric traction masts. This was at a time when there were no houses north of Dadar. It was all vacant land with targola and mango trees and infested with monkeys!
The photo is taken from the south side of the station. The newly constructed "Tilak Bridge" can be seen faintly in the background. Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak Bridge is the oldest railway bridge in Mumbai. The amazing thing about this bridge is that it is made of only hard granite rock and hard English steel. The bridge is very important as it connects the east side to the west side of the city at a critical junction.
Rail Inspection Pictures
These are a couple of old photos of rail inspection, (1) during 1895, the earliest days, and (2) during the 1930s, between Matunga and Sion stations on GIP railway. About the second picture, we can't be sure, it could have been taken beyond Bandra on the BB&CI railway, and not on the GIP. The targola trees always grow in the interior and not close to the sea, so I am thinking that the photo is beyond Bandra, perhaps somewhere around Goregaon.
Tata Power station in Dharavi, 1930s
I have a picture of the Receiving Station of the Tata Power Company Ltd, Dharavi, of which my father was the Superintendent (he also held a pilot's license and was simultaneously also the Secretary of the Bombay Flying Club and hence his access to aircraft). The rail lines just happened to be in the picture because they run very close to the Power Station (there were no slums at that time and Dharavi was just an extension of Matunga). The Power Station had a railway siding too. Whenever a wagon containing machinery or cables for the Power Station was to be delivered, a small shunting engine would bring the wagon and place it on the siding outside the gates. The engine would depart quickly because it would be holding up the up and down lines between Matunga and Sion stations. After that my father would order that the wagon be hand-pushed in to the Power Station. For this about 30-40 labourers would be hired. They would sing in unison so that all of them push the heavy 22 tons railway wagon in to the Power Station. I can still remember their cries and the strain their poor thin bodies had to be put to move the wagon inch by inch. As a young boy I felt very sorry for them as they sweated in the hot sun their bodies glistening. After the wagon was unloaded inside the Power Station, they would have to push it back outside the gates the same or next day (to avoid paying penalties to the railway) and wait for an engine to come and take it away. Sometimes the empty wagon would lie there for days, but outside the gate. The GIP or CR workshop was just next door and so finding an engine was never a problem, but once the wagon had left the Power Station's premises and the gates were shut it was the railways responsibility to take away the wagon. I wonder if the siding still exists? It was just after the level-crossing (which has now been canceled) on Bhaudaji Road. The Harbor line passes across on the top.
Notice there are no slums on the left or the right except some government barracks. Also note that the GIP railway line had just been electrified. Also notice on the right a railway siding, between the targola trees, where a railway goods wagon would be hand pushed right up to the workshop on the extreme left by 30-40 labourers.
Tata Power station, Dharavi - Rajendra Aklekar's updates
Note: Rajendra Aklekar is a noted railway heritage enthusiast and preservation activist. The following addendum was written by Ravindra Bhalerao (who maintains the Railways of the Raj blog).
Raj was as excited over this picture as I was. On 23 October he wrote to me with a copy to Dr. Damania:
The siding between Sion and Matunga still exists. Will go there today and take a pic and mail it to you. There's a small substation just below the point where the harbour line crosses the main line on CR. And there is a BG line going in there. The crossovers have now been removed, but the tracks exists, all covered with bushes. The loco used to enter this small garage-like substation. Shall get pics. -- Rajendra.
Raj is a perfect gentleman and when he promises you a thing, he keeps his word. I am reproducing two of the pictures he's sent us. The first picture on the left shows the exact gate/iron fence where the siding used to enter the garage-like substation. All these pics were taken from a fast train moving towards Matunga station. The picture below shows the old sidings as they continue towards Matunga station. The small patch of white painted wall seen behind the middle OHE mast stands at the site where the rail link used to enter the Matunga workshop. Many thanks Raj for this bit of quick research.
Copies of these pictures were also sent to Dr. Damania and this is what the good doctor said in reply:
Yes Rajendra, the Tata Power siding started just after the point where the Harbor line crosses over the GIP (CR) main line. The siding tracks entered the Tata Power Company Receiving station through a metal gate. The gate may not exist today but there may be a wall. The tracks if any would be rusted and covered with bushes. The level crossing on the Matunga side of the GIP/Harbour crossover point does not exist now and has been walled over. My father and I would wait for the level crossing to open for sometimes half an hour if it was a busy time. The level crossing used to be operated manually through a key system. There were two large keys as big as the palm of a hand. There was a very small kholi or cabin where both keys (one of each level crossing gate) had to be inserted for the signal to change to green on eitheir side of the level crossing. Similarly, the keys would only be released from the lock AFTER the signal had changed to red on both sides (up and down lines) for the gateman to pull them out of the lock and with each key in hand run to open the level crossing gates on either sides.
For many many years the man who operated the gates had only one leg, having lost the other leg during a shunting accident. Any railway yard employee who would lose a leg was given a level-crossing keeping job. There were many accidents during shunting of goods wagon at the railway yards like Wadala, Kurla, etc. as the shunting engine would push/pull before the man who was detaching or attaching a wagon had time to move out from between the wagons. Victims of such accidents were kept employed by the railways. The man at this Dharavi level crossing ran with one wooden leg from one gate to another across 4 track lines to open the gate, giving a stiff salute to my father as we drove across in our big black car (1930s to 1959). Then a bell would start ringing and the gateman would start to close one gate at a time and lock them. Only AFTER he had removed the keys from the gates and re-inserted them in to the lock in the cabin would signals on both sides turn to green/yellow. This fail safe system designed by the British prevented from any accident happening on the level crossing. Most of the leveling crossings with gates were manned by gatemen with only one good leg, the other would be a wooden one!
Devlali and Bhandup Stations
(This section is by Dr Ardeshir B Damania.)
Last week I was in Mumbai, and went through my father's photo album and also found pictures of Devlali Station and Bhandup station from 1925. Devlali was one of my father's favorite hill stations and Bhandup was where my father and his college (VJTI) friends would go for excellent toddy from the date palm trees.
Notice that Bhandup had overhead electric traction already installed in 1925. There was no electric traction at Devlali in 1925.
Ravindra Bhalerao adds:
Readers may wish to compare the view of Bhandup station with what it looks like now. Here's a colour snap provided very kindly by Rajendra Aklekar, which shows the same tiled office which is the Stations Master's office now.
