IRFCA Mailing List Archive

Messages 5401 - 5420

From: Bapa Rao <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights contd.!

Date: 01 Mar 1999 17:42:45 -0500

>>> Kovvur-Bhadrachalam Road

...

>>Kovvur is two stations south of Rajahmudry - after Godavari. This
would

I may be wrong but as far as I remember, Kovvur has been the next
southbound station after Rajahmundry on the "new" Godavari bridge (which

has been operational for nearly 20 years now). On the "old" bridge, it
was Rajahmundry-Godavari-Kovvur, and till recently, some slow trains
were still plying on that route. But I understand the "old" bridge is
now fully decommissioned, so I am not sure what that does to Godavari
station.

Bapa Rao

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at <A HREF="http://www.hotmail.com">http://www.hotmail.com</A>

From: Sankaran Kumar <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights contd.!

Date: 01 Mar 1999 17:53:56 -0500

Renigunta-Erode-Karur-Dindigul-Madurai-Nagercoil

Kumar

P.S. From Tiruchi, one can also do Tiruchi-Karur-Dindigul-Madurai.
However the shortest route is Tiruchi-Manapparai-Dindigul-Madurai which
is the subject of our discussion.

>> > Tiruchchirappalli-Dindigul
>> Apurva, this wasn't finished 4 years ago. In fact this section was
>> closed last August for conversion work. Must have opened recently.
>
>Then which route does the Mumbai - Nagercoil Express take ? It
>does not use
>the same route taken by the 1081 CSTM - Cape express.
>
>Apurva
>

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at <A HREF="http://www.hotmail.com">http://www.hotmail.com</A>

From: Harsh Vardhan <>

Subject: Re: Thanks

Date: 01 Mar 1999 22:54:27 -0500

>Thanks to Harsh on telling me that the Anand-Godhra passenger line is
alive
>and kicking. He says that it is now hauled by an electric loco. Is it
still
>making the 51 KM in 2 hours, like in the past?

Anand - Godhra is 79 Km and average time taken is 2 Hrs. & 30- 45 Min.
which I think is pretty good by IR standards for a BG stopping
passenger.

For the worst of the lot, you should refer NER TT.

Harsh

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 00:52:27 -0500

Shanku Niyogi wrote:

> Some notes:
>
> 1. Shalimar is the name of the newest extension to Howrah (it's
technically
> a new station, but in reality, it's just a Howrah extension, since it
is so
> close to HWH). All SER trains from Howrah will eventually end up in
Shalimar
> platforms instead. I think Kharagpur locals may already be using these
> platforms.

Shalimar is 'owned' by SER while the HWH is operated by ER ?

3. The Bangladesh link is very interesting, because there is currently a
bus

Is Bangladesh fully BG ? I remember a picture in a newspaper long time
ago about
a regular freight service to Bangladesh, the loco shown in that was a
WDM 2.

Apurva

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 00:52:27 -0500

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: Thanks - Slowest of them all

Date: 02 Mar 1999 01:14:07 -0500

Harsh Vardhan wrote:

> >Thanks to Harsh on telling me that the Anand-Godhra passenger line is
alive
> >and kicking. He says that it is now hauled by an electric loco. Is it
still
> >making the 51 KM in 2 hours, like in the past?
>
> Anand - Godhra is 79 Km and average time taken is 2 Hrs. & 30- 45
Min.
> which I think is pretty good by IR standards for a BG stopping
passenger.
>
> For the worst of the lot, you should refer NER TT.

Shock us ! The debate about the slowest train in India is
still very much
open. My candidates are any of the 5 pairs of passenger trains
working the
Nagpur - Ajni route. They take 20 minutes to do the 4 Kms run.
The NGP - AJ
passengers also hold the record for the shortest listed
journey on the IR.
However the 1998 timetable does not carry this entry any more.

Apurva

>
>
> Harsh

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: How to move a loco

Date: 02 Mar 1999 01:53:16 -0500

The page is a great resource for the large American locos
steam as well as diesel like the Big Boy and the EMD
Centennials.

Diesel lovers check out
<A HREF="http://www.steamlocomotive.com/centennials/">http://www.steamlocomotive.com/centennials/</A>

Jayant S wrote:

> <A HREF="http://utahdepot.railfan.net/">http://utahdepot.railfan.net/</A>
>
> Check this for an absolutely flabbergasting
> recent operation in the US.
>
> -JS

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 07:31:03 -0500

Apurva Bahadur wrote:
>
> Is Bangladesh fully BG ? I remember a picture in a newspaper long time
ago about
> a regular freight service to Bangladesh, the loco shown in that was a
WDM 2.

Bangladesh has some BG, all of it to the West of Padma/Jamuna.
Everything on the East is MG. Connections to India are feasible at
various points where there was through service in the past. On BG those
would be Benapole - Petrapole, Gede - Darsana, south of Haldibari.
Additionally, there were several MG crossover points that I cannot
recall off the top of my head.

Immediately after partition there was through BG service from Calcutta
to Jessore, Gualondo Ghat (for steamer to Dhaka) and Parbatipur(?). All
trains to (then) East Pakistan arrived and departed from Sealdah. the
name of the three trains were - Barisal Express, East Bengal Mail and
East Bengal Express.

Jishnu.

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 07:31:03 -0500

From: Shanku Niyogi <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 07:50:12 -0500

The other day while I was in Calcutta, there was a picture in the paper
of a
"peace train" that had travelled from Dhaka to the Indian border, and it
was
a locomotive dressed brightly in colors of both countries - and it was a
WDM2. Unfortunately, the picture was of terrible quality, so I did not
bring
it with me to scan.

Shanku

-----Original Message-----
From: Apurva Bahadur [mailto:iti@vsnl.email
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 1999 12:52 AM
To: Shanku Niyogi
Cc: 'Vijay Balasubramanian'; 'Sankaran Kumar'; 'irfca@cs.email
'pushkar_apte@hotmail.email
Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Shanku Niyogi wrote:

> Some notes:
>
> 1. Shalimar is the name of the newest extension to Howrah (it's
technically
> a new station, but in reality, it's just a Howrah extension, since it
is
so
> close to HWH). All SER trains from Howrah will eventually end up in
Shalimar
> platforms instead. I think Kharagpur locals may already be using these
> platforms.

Shalimar is 'owned' by SER while the HWH is operated by ER ?

3. The Bangladesh link is very interesting, because there is currently a
bus

Is Bangladesh fully BG ? I remember a picture in a newspaper long time
ago
about
a regular freight service to Bangladesh, the loco shown in that was a
WDM 2.

Apurva

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 08:13:57 -0500

> The other day while I was in Calcutta, there was a picture in the
paper of a
> "peace train" that had travelled from Dhaka to the Indian border, and
it was
> a locomotive dressed brightly in colors of both countries - and it was
a
> WDM2. Unfortunately, the picture was of terrible quality, so I did not
bring
> it with me to scan.
>

Getting a Broad Gauge loco to Dhaka would be a neat trick. Could be done
on a boat I suppose. You see Dhaka is all MG (unless of course
Bangladesh has also caught the gauge conversion fever from India
recently)! But then newspapers typically are not terribly concerned with
technical accuracy of reports. As long as it sounds nice and mushy it is
fit to print.:-)

In likelihood it had travelled from Goalondo (the place where ferries
from Dhaka come in), or some other such ferry ghat.

Jishnu.

From: Jishnu Mukerji <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 08:13:57 -0500

From: Joydeep Dutta <>

Subject: To all diesel drivers

Date: 02 Mar 1999 08:47:12 -0500

Dear Fellow Locomen
I think in january Apurva proposed a game on the net on diesel
simulation. There has been since then some talk on the dyamic braking
technique on the US locos. The game used a EMD built SD-45 where in
during dynamic braking one had to bring the throttle handle to idle
and then press the dyanmic braking switch and then use the throttle
handle once again to apply dyanmic brakes. Though the game is bit
simplified but in the EMD locos one have to first bring the selector
handle to OFF and then wait for 10 seconds for slack bunching and then
bring the selector handle to the braking position. After that use the
throttle to provide the dyamic brake power.
There is a web site which provides the EMd loco manuals. Check out the
GP-35 one
<A HREF="http://gelwood.el.wny.org/manual/gp35-sec3.html">http://gelwood.el.wny.org/manual/gp35-sec3.html</A>
So gang let me know about your opinion
Thanks
Joydeep Dutta
Driver (WDM2)

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at <A HREF="http://www.hotmail.com">http://www.hotmail.com</A>

From: Dr. K.J. Walker & Mrs. M.E, Heath <>

Subject: Re: Thanks - Slowest of them all

Date: 02 Mar 1999 16:00:32 -0500

Apurva,
Don't forget the Nagpur-Ajni passngers are "limericks" -- trains
put on
to carry shift workers to an from the works at Ajni. Of course they
don't
really take 20 minutes for four kilometers -- but they need a loose slot
to
allow for late running and variable shift endings.
For some really slow runs, check the "recovery times" allowed in
some
tables, some of which allow 60-90 minutes for the last 10k into a
terminal
station. No wonder the trains dawdle!
Cheers
Ken Walker

P.S. If anyone is interested, I have just released a 53-minute video of
the
DHR. It sells at $A35, plus postage. E-mail me if interested.

-----Original Message-----
From: Apurva Bahadur <iti@vsnl.email
To: Harsh Vardhan <hvc@vsnl.email
Cc: Pradip613@aol.email <Pradip613@aol.email irfca@cs.email
<irfca@cs.email
Date: Tuesday, 2 March 1999 7:24
Subject: Re: Thanks - Slowest of them all

>Harsh Vardhan wrote:
>
>> >Thanks to Harsh on telling me that the Anand-Godhra passenger line
is
alive
>> >and kicking. He says that it is now hauled by an electric loco. Is
it
still
>> >making the 51 KM in 2 hours, like in the past?
>>
>> Anand - Godhra is 79 Km and average time taken is 2 Hrs. & 30- 45
Min.
>> which I think is pretty good by IR standards for a BG stopping
passenger.
>>
>> For the worst of the lot, you should refer NER TT.
>
>Shock us ! The debate about the slowest train in India is
>still very much
>open. My candidates are any of the 5 pairs of passenger trains
>working the
>Nagpur - Ajni route. They take 20 minutes to do the 4 Kms run.
>The NGP - AJ
>passengers also hold the record for the shortest listed
>journey on the IR.
>However the 1998 timetable does not carry this entry any more.
>
>Apurva
>
>>
>>
>> Harsh
>
>

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 23:41:12 -0500

> Getting a Broad Gauge loco to Dhaka would be a neat trick. Could be
done
> on a boat I suppose. You see Dhaka is all MG (unless of course
> Bangladesh has also caught the gauge conversion fever from India
> recently)! But then newspapers typically are not terribly concerned
with
> technical accuracy of reports. As long as it sounds nice and mushy it
is
> fit to print.:-)

The picture I saw was of a WDM 2 being DRIVEN into B'desh. There were a
lot of
official looking persons standing on the long hood of the loco (the
innaugural
train has a long hood leading loco !).I don't think the Indian Govt,
would take
the trouble of actually carrying a WDM 2 by ferry so that a 'peace
train' could be
worked into Dhaka, how would they get the loco back into India ?
My guess is B'desh also has converted to BG and a through track exists
to Dhaka.
Afterall they too want to trade with India and a rail link would be
invaluable.
Maybe the B'desh website would give more details.

Apurva

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: Re: Railway budget highlights!

Date: 02 Mar 1999 23:41:12 -0500

From: Harsh Vardhan <>

Subject: Slowest of them all

Date: 03 Mar 1999 04:34:29 -0500

>Shock us ! The debate about the slowest train in India is
>still very much
>open. My candidates are any of the 5 pairs of passenger trains
>working the
>Nagpur - Ajni route. They take 20 minutes to do the 4 Kms run.
>The NGP - AJ
>passengers also hold the record for the shortest listed
>journey on the IR.
>However the 1998 timetable does not carry this entry any more.
>

That is a disqualified candidate. Because if you start looking at short
distances, there are trains which cover the 4 Km Delhi-New Delhi and 6
Km
Nizammudin-new delhi stretch in as much as 45 Min. Few other minor facts
of
course are that Nagpur-Ajni is 3 Km and average time taken by stopping
passenger is 08 Min. For you information such special trains between
workshop and township are also run on many other parts on IR but they
are
rarely listed in the TT. Few examples are Jagadhari - Jagadhari w/s(5
Km),
Bareilly Jn/City - Izzatnagar w/s(5 Km) and Shahjahanpur - Roza(8 km)
and
many more.

To be fair it has to be average speed over atleast 30 Km route(50 is
still
better) or total journey average speed whichever is the worst! Different
gauges should form different catagories. There will be a special
catagory
about inordinate delays experienced on IR due to whatever reasons. So
let's
have your candidates once more.

Harsh

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: CR's ad in the TOI of 2nd March

Date: 03 Mar 1999 04:52:46 -0500

Gang !

Look at this ad of yestrday.
The CR mentions an EMU (?) service of Roha. Electrification
ends at Panvel to the best of my knowledge. When was 1071/72
renamed as Kamayani Express ? Will check out the voice
enquiery numbers and let you know how they work, they are
unified for CR and WR.
Did the Netravati Express via KR always go to ERS and not MAQ,
or is that a recent change ?

Apurva

CENTRAL RAILWAY BAGS 84 PRIZES
at the Vegetable, Fruit and Flower Show
Central Railway has been awarded 84 Prizes including 20 First
Prizes and 24 Second Prizes during the Annual Vegetable, Fruit
and Flower Show organised by National Society of the Friends
of Trees at Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute at
-Matunga, on 13th and 14th February, '99. Central Railway has
also won the Chief Minister's Rolling Trophy and Palbor &
Company Rolling Trophy for the best arrangements in All India
Class.

DELICIOUS KERALA TRIPS
With effect from 19.2.99, Pantry Car Service has been
introduced by Central Railway on 6635/6636 Kurla (T) -
Ernakulam Netravati Express.

SUMMER SPECIAL- TIME TABLE

A Summer Special Time Table having detailed timings of summer
holiday specials both for Central and Western Railways, is
available at all the book stalls, at a cost of Rs.2/- onlv.

Infotrack (Rail Information Services)

Additional number Reservation Status Enquiery

The Interactive Voice Response System Computer Enquiry for
finding reservation status of both Central and Western Railway
trains have a new telephone number - 5375959
Now there are three numbers for this purpose; 2635959, 2695959
and 5375959

RAILWAY WOMEN'S FETE
Railway Women's Welfare Central Organisation, New Delhi,
organised a two day FETE on 6th and 7th February, '99 at
Karnail Sindh Stadium New Delhi. The FETE was inaugurated by
Shri Nitish Kumar; Hon ble Minister for Railways. The Women's
Social Service Committees of all the Zonal Railways and
Production Units participated in the event and put their
stalls in which various items manufactured and produced in
their jurisdiction were displayed for sale.

I Shri Nitish Kumar Hon'ble Minister for Railways, seen with
Mrs. Lalitha Sankaran, President, Central Railway's Women's
Social Services Committee, at Central Railway Stall 'Kalyani'

HUM HINI)USTANI - Celebrating Hindi Week
Hindi Week Celebrations began in Central Railway on 22.2.99.
An Exhibition organised by the Hindi Department of Central
Railway in the Auditorium was inaugurated by Shri K.B.
Sankaran, General Manager, Central Railway. At the end of the
cultural programme Shri K.B. Sankaran announced an award of
Rs. 5,000/- to the Hindi Department for its praiseworthy
efforts.

1695 DN/1692 Up DIVA-ROHA EMU SERVICES RESCHEDULED
For convenient harbour line connection at Panvel, Central
Railway has rescheduled Diva-Roha EMU services. 1695 Dn
Diva-Roha Passenger will start at 1940 hrs ex Diva instead of
1930 hrs and will arrive at Roha at 2225 hrs instead of
2215 hrs In the return direction, 1692 Up Roha-Diva passenger
will leave Roha at 0510 hrs instead of 0520 hrs and will
arrive at Diva at 0755 hrs instead of 0815 hrs.There is no
change in the halts and composition of the train.

KAMAYANI EXPRESS GETS ADDITIONAL GENERAL SECOND CLASS COACH.
One additional General Second Class coach has been attached
to 1072 Kurla (T) - Varanasi -Kamayani Express via Bina,
Katni. With this addition, the train will have 18 coaches
instead of 17 coaches

From: Harsh Vardhan <>

Subject: Re: Smoke Deflectors

Date: 03 Mar 1999 04:55:20 -0500

> I think smoke deflectors were invented in Germany, around the
second
>decade of the century, though I'm open to correction. The problem is
that
as
>loco boilers get larger and start to fill up the loading gauge,
chimneys --
>funnels, stacks -- get shorter and they are unable to eject the smoke
>effectively. This is made worse by modern front-end design, which
attempts
>to increase efficiency by reducing back-pressure at the exhaust
orifices
>from the cylinders. The result is a slow-moving mass of smoke, which,
>especially in damp, humid, or still weather, can cling lovingly about
the
>front of the loco and impede vision very seriously.

It also had something to do with the the new found love for spped in
those
times. Railways around the world then were competing with each other to
produce the fastest thing on rails. It is difficult to say who invented
the
smoke deflectors because different locomotives required different
measures
to tackle drifting smoke of which `Elephant Ears' is just one. But every
locomotive builder faced this problem and did his own experiments with
different type of smoke deflectors. Nigel Gresley, the inventer of the
A-4
Pacific(better known as the `Mallard' type) too faced this peculiar
problem
with his streamlined locomotive and after conducting several experiments
in
the wind tunnel, found that the problem could be eliminated by just
providing a depression in rear part of the stack. This is one reason why
every locomotive does not require an external smoke deflector(like the
WP)
as manyatimes the design of the stack itself takes care of the drifting
smoke.

>Compare the
>smoke-lifting on a DHR "B" class, an inefficient 19th-century design
with a
>small boiler and tall funnel, with say a YG or YP, where the boiler
nearly
>fills the loading gauge.
> The Southern Railway in UK was especailly afflicted with this
>problem in the 1920s, and conducted a long series of tests. They didn't
like
>the large, square, German deflectors of the time, and tried various
other
>expedients (including "wings" round the funnels) before settling on a
>rounded, half-height design that was quite attractive. The SR had
simliar
>problems with Oliver Bulleid's semi-streamlined "Merchant Navy" and
"West
>Country" class Pacifics in the 1940s, and actually conducted
wind-tunnel
>tests on them.
> Smoke deflectors work by trapping the air at the front of the
>smokebox, and forcing it up and over, rather than letting it escape
round
>the sides. That makes it lift up, and clear the cab. Note that because
the
>deflector is thin and edge-on to the driver, it presents quite a small
>impediment to vision.
> I guess the WPs and WGs didn't need deflectors.
> The final German design, incidentally, was a small deflector
about
>on the boiler centreline, and only about 1/3 the boiler height. They
looked
>very smart indeed, and were adopted on Victorian Railways here in
Australia
>as well as in Turkey and parts of Europe outside Germany.
> Personally, I prefer my WPs without smoke deflectors!

Ditto

Harsh

From: Apurva Bahadur <>

Subject: [Fwd: To all diesel drivers

Date: 03 Mar 1999 05:07:08 -0500

IRFCA Mailing List Archive

Messages 5401 - 5420

Related Sections