IRFCA Mailing List Archive


Messages 1141 - 1160

From: S. Kumar <kumar@quandsn.email

Subject: Mail Trains

Date: 24 May 1994 18:17:00 -0500


It is interesting to review the status of Mail trains on IR.
Generally Mails were the fastest trains on a given route; they are
also among the oldest. Their status as the fastest trains on a given
route was gradually challenged by fast "prestige" express trains.
With the introduction of the Rajdhanis and the Shatabdis, many of the
mails and the erstwhile prestigeous expresses have become the "second
level" trains on their routes. However, in my opinion mails have
generally held up well to competition and are still considered "good"
trains on many routes. Here are some mail trains on a few routes:

(1) Delhi-Howrah: The Kalka Mail is still an excellent train even
though it has a large number of halts in the Delhi-Kanpur stretch.
In addition it avoids both the Janghai/Varanasi and the Patna/Jhajha
routes (which its competitor, the A/C express uses). I used to be
amazed at the speed of this train in the Grand Chord given its halt
frequency. The Kalka is a "superfast" train.

(2) Delhi-Bombay: The Frontier Mail is nearly in the same situation
as the Kalka Mail, except that it is significantly slower than the
Jammu Tawi-Bombay Super Express (apart from the two R'dhanis). The
Frontier Mail has a lower halt frequency than the Kalka, and, in
fact, has less halts than the Paschim express in the B'bay-Vadodara
section. The Frontier is also a "superfast" train.

(3) Howrah-Bombay: The Mail via Nagpur is, I believe, classified as a
superfast train. The Gitanjali, its displacer to the title of the
fastest train has had so many halts added that it is only marginaly
faster. The Mail via Allahabad is not a "superfast" train and seems
to have suffered over the years.

(4) Howrah-Madras: Used to be Queen. "This is the Mail" used to be
the magic words to clear one's compartment of passengers without
reservation. Also the early morning ride at full speed along Chilka
lake on the southbound train is one of the most wonderful experiences
on IR. Still a good train, but slower than Coromandel, Konarak etc.

Kumar

From: Pushkar Apte <apte@spdc.email

Subject: Mails

Date: 25 May 1994 14:48:00 -0500


Augmenting Kumar's summary of the Mail trains:

1. Howrah-Allahabad-Bombay Mail. This train is still among the
fastest trains on the Allahabad-Bombay sector. I have fond memories
of travelling on this train between Mughalsarai-Bombay. While it may
not be officially "Superfast", I have routinely clocked it doing 110
kmph - especially if it was late. I also noticed that it gets a lot
of respect - especially in things such as priority in passing in the
Katni-Allahabad single-line section.

2. Frontier Mail. Of special note is its enduring status in the face
of 2 Rajdhanis, the Jammu-Tawi Exp., the Paschim (old Deluxe) Exp.
The mother of all Mail legends. IMO.

3. Howrah-Amritsar Mail. Another of the grand old Mails of the Raj
times that still maintains good performance for the overall run. I've
seen its picture in an International Railway Journeys type of book,
describing with much romance its precise arrival and departure from
Varanasi. Analogous to the slowing down of the Gitanjali, this Mail's
competitor Himgiri now stands so de-fanged, that the Mail is highly
competitive.

4. Punjab Mail. When I was little, I used to hear Punjab Mail as a
metaphor for speed. (e.g. This guy is a real Punjab Mail in doing
his job.) Definitely a pride-n-joy kind of train. Has received a
major shot-in-the-arm with recently acquired SuperFast status, with
its Bombay-N. Delhi run-time being cut down from ~28 hrs to ~25.

5. G.T. Express. Although not technically a Mail, its a train of
similar spirit and inspires similar awe, and holds its own quite
handsomely to a slew of SF Expresses on its route.

6. Bombay-Madras Mail. To my knowledge this has never been a big guy.
No legends here, I think.

7. Non trunk-route Mails:

i. Gujarath Mail - Still the royal route for Bombay-Ahmadabad
passengers. This train, IMO, has the largest number of upper-class
bogies of any non-Raj/Shatabdi train.

I'll simply list the others - I don't know much about them - but maybe
somebody else can augment this knowledge base with further titbits...

ii. Saurashtra Mail
iii. Madras-Mangalore Mail
iv. Madras-Cochin/Trivandrum Mail
v. Ahmadabad-Delhi Mail (MG)
vi. Delhi-Jammu Mail
vii. Brahmaputra Mail (old Tinsukia Mail)
viii. Darjeeling Mail
ix. Assam Mail (MG)
x. Madras-Bangalore Mail


Regards,
Pushkar
-------

From: Mohan Ramakrishna <mohan@alantec.email

Subject: Re: Mails

Date: 25 May 1994 12:50:00 -0500


My comments on the following mail trains (non-trunk routes) I have travelled
on :


1. Madras-Bangalore Mail : Comparable in speed to the Brindavan Express for
most of the distance between Madras and Bangalore; is a favourite among
passengers, mainly because of its' convenient timings (a night's journey);
takes about an hour more than the Brindavan mainly due to the number of
station halts.

2. Madras-Trivandrum Mail : A prestigious mail train between Madras and
Trivandrum. Compares very well with other express and superfast express
trains on its' route. The only other non-Rajdhani/non-Shatabdi express
trains that run at a comparable speed on the Trivandrum-Shoranur stretch
are the Kerala Express (Trivandrum-New Delhi) and the Trivandrum-Guwahati
express.

3. Madras-Mangalore Mail : Runs at speeds comparable to the Madras-Mangalore
West coast express, as also the other express trains on this route.


- Mohan.

From: S Pai <Pai>>

Subject: Mails

Date: 25 May 1994 18:06:00 -0500


>>> On Wed, 25 May 1994 15:48:33 -0500 (CDT),
>>> apte@spdc.email (Pushkar Apte) wrote:

> I'll simply list the others - I don't know much about them - but maybe
> somebody else can augment this knowledge base with further titbits...

> x. Madras-Bangalore Mail

This is a very popular train, actually, because of the timetable -- it does
the journey (either way) overnight, so one can just go to sleep at Madras
Central and wake up at Bangalore City or vice versa. In order to avoid
arriving at the destination too early in the morning the total running time of
this train is actually not very impressive -- I think it used to take 7-7:30
hours at one time (leaving MAS at 10:30pm-11pm, reaching SBC around 6am) for a
distance of about 350 km. The express trains on this route (Bangalore
Express, and the Brindavan Express are faster, doing the run in about 6 hours,
and the Lalbagh Express takes 5:15 hours one way, 5:30 the other) but they are
day trains and not as convenient (which is not to say that nobody uses them --
all these trains usually run at or above capacity, despite the existence of
innumerable private and state run buses between the two cities).

In '87-'88 the timings of this Mail were varied a bit, I remember at one time
it was leaving MAS at midnight or even later, but arriving at SBC at the same
time as before. So it's not like they can't run it faster... But for some
reason this was not a big success and the earlier schedule was resumed (11pm
-- 6am). I believe these days it runs on a 10pm -- 5am schedule.

The Mail often gets in at MAS somewhat earlier than scheduled, but Madras is a
city that wakes up really early, so that's not a problem. Going to Bangalore,
on the other hand, one sometimes wishes the train would reach later, because
there are hardly any buses available in the city until 7am. :-)

-Satish

From: Pushkar Apte <apte@spdc.email

Subject: Mail Timing Trend

Date: 25 May 1994 16:18:00 -0500


Mohan & Satish's comments on the Madras-Bangalore Mail (convenient
night train) got me thinking about the timings of all Mails. Off the
top of my head - a uniform trend seems to be that these Mail trains
leave their starting station in the evening or night (after 17:00
hrs), and arrive at their destination in the morning. The trunk route
ones take 2 nights and the non-trunk route trains take 1 night for
their journey. I cannot think of any exception to this rule, at least
among all the BG Mails discussed so far. Just a trivia bit ...

Regards,
Pushkar
-------

From: Vadivelu Elumalai <vadi@fcca.email

Subject: Re: Mails

Date: 25 May 1994 13:57:00 -0500


Pushkar Apte writes:

>5. G.T. Express. Although not technically a Mail, its a train of
>similar spirit and inspires similar awe, and holds its own quite
>handsomely to a slew of SF Expresses on its route.

GT used to be the king of Madras-Delhi trunk route. Before the
TamilNadu Express/Rajdhani era it was one of the prestigious trains on IR.
GT was so popular many people in Andra/Central India didn't know much about
other expresses to Delhi. In 1988, I broke my journey at Bhopal for few days
on the way to Delhi from Madras. When I went to Bhopal station to reserve
my onward journey to Delhi, I found GT was booked for the next 4 weeks while
TN/AP/Kerala/Karnataka expesses and other trains were booked for the next
week. When I asked the booking clerk why GT was overbooked when compared
to other superfast trains, he said not many people were aware of other trains
(or) they preferred GT.

Even I liked GT than TN because GT had more halts than TN. I used to
get down at every station during day time, walk around and get some edibles.
How can I forget the dinner at Gudur/Nellore, breakfast at
Ramagundam/Balaharsha, lunch at Nagpur/Amla, tea at Itarsi, dinner at Bhopal ?
I still remember most of the GT halts including Sirpur Kagaznagar, Manchiryal,
Betul, Hoshangabad, Chandrapur(Maharashtra), Raja Ki Mandi to mention a few.



Mohan Ramakrishna writes:
>2. Madras-Trivandrum Mail : A prestigious mail train between Madras and
> Trivandrum. Compares very well with other express and superfast express
> trains on its' route. The only other non-Rajdhani/non-Shatabdi express
> trains that run at a comparable speed on the Trivandrum-Shoranur stretch
> are the Kerala Express (Trivandrum-New Delhi) and the Trivandrum-Guwahati
> express.

I think Vanchinad and Parasuram expresses are superfast trains in
this sector and their average speed is better than MAS-TVM mail.


Pushkar Apte writes:

>Mohan & Satish's comments on the Madras-Bangalore Mail (convenient
>night train) got me thinking about the timings of all Mails. Off the
....
>their journey. I cannot think of any exception to this rule, at least
>among all the BG Mails discussed so far. Just a trivia bit ...

May be true for BG mails. I remember one MG mail, Madras-Quilon mail
which leaves Madras at 8PM and reaches Quilon at 1PM.


-Vadivel

From: Mohan Ramakrishna <mohan@alantec.email

Subject: Re: Mail Timing Trend

Date: 25 May 1994 14:03:00 -0500


> Mohan & Satish's comments on the Madras-Bangalore Mail (convenient
> night train) got me thinking about the timings of all Mails. Off the
> top of my head - a uniform trend seems to be that these Mail trains
> leave their starting station in the evening or night (after 17:00
> hrs), and arrive at their destination in the morning. The trunk route
> ones take 2 nights and the non-trunk route trains take 1 night for
> their journey. I cannot think of any exception to this rule, at least
> among all the BG Mails discussed so far. Just a trivia bit ...


The exceptions to the above rule are the following (on the non-trunk
routes only) :

(1) Madras - Mangalore Mail : arrives Mangalore around 13:15 hours, departs
Mangalore around 12:45 hours.

(2) Madras - Trivandrum Mail : arrives Trivandrum around 11:45 hours, departs
Trivandrum around 13:30 hours.


The above 2 are BG mails, while the following is a MG mail:

(3) Madras - Quilon Mail : arrives Quilon around 14:45 hours, departs Quilon
around 12:00 hours.


These may not be the LATEST timings, they are close however !

I must confess that my detailed knowledge regarding trains (timings, category,
etc.) is limited to the South, although I do know of major trunk routes
and important, prestigious trains all over India.

- Mohan.

From: Mohan Ramakrishna <mohan@alantec.email

Subject: Re: Mails

Date: 25 May 1994 14:22:00 -0500


Vadivelu wrote:
> Mohan Ramakrishna writes:
> >2. Madras-Trivandrum Mail : A prestigious mail train between Madras and
> > Trivandrum. Compares very well with other express and superfast express
> > trains on its' route. The only other non-Rajdhani/non-Shatabdi express
> > trains that run at a comparable speed on the Trivandrum-Shoranur stretch
> > are the Kerala Express (Trivandrum-New Delhi) and the Trivandrum-Guwahati
> > express.
>
> I think Vanchinad and Parasuram expresses are superfast trains in
> this sector and their average speed is better than MAS-TVM mail.


The average speed of the Madras-Trivandrum mail is greater than that of
the Parasuram Express. The Vanchinad express runs between Ernakulam and
Trivandrum only, yes the average speed of the Vanchinad is better than that
of the MAS-TVM mail. The last time I saw the Vanchinad express, the train
had significantly fewer rakes than the mail. Also, the mail stops at
many stations between Ernakulam and Trivandrum, while the Vanchinad
has halts at Kottayam and Quilon only.

I meant to compare similar long-haul trains such as the mail and the Kerala
express.


- Mohan.

From: Shrikant Ranade <sranade@hpcuhe.email

Subject: Re: Mail Timing Trend

Date: 25 May 1994 15:36:00 -0500


Hi everyone.

Pushkar's observations on Mail train timing have prompted this
erstwhile lurker to come out of the woodwork.

>A uniform trend seems to be that these Mail trains
>leave their starting station in the evening or night (after 17:00
>hrs), and arrive at their destination in the morning. The trunk route
>ones take 2 nights and the non-trunk route trains take 1 night for
>their journey. I cannot think of any exception to this rule, at least
>among all the BG Mails discussed so far. Just a trivia bit ...

This is more than a coincidence. It actually makes great sense given
the original purpose of the Mails. Mail dropped off during the day can
get onto a train leaving the same night; arriving in the morning allows
it to be delivered onward the same day. Better for mail to spend two
nights and a day on the train than two days and a night.

Pushkar's remarks about the Frontier Mail bring back fond memories.
It may no longer be the fastest train between Bombay and Delhi, but
it has a pedigree to which none of the johnnies-come-lately can hold
a candle.

--Shrikant

From: S. Kumar <kumar@quandsn.email

Subject: mail trains contd.

Date: 25 May 1994 18:11:00 -0500


Just a couple of thoughts:

Pushkar is correct when he equates the GT express with the trunk
route mails. I have wondered why alone among the trunk routes, the
Delhi-Madras route never had a mail train. Amusingly the GT express
travels in a direction perpendicular to the road with the same name.
The GT is the oldest train on its route; it has repeatedly been
challenged by "upstart" prestige trains. In the sixties, the
Southern/AC express was introduced (at about the same time as the NDLS-
Howrah/Bombay AC expresses) between New Delhi and Madras Central. A
few years later, the authorities wanted to rename it the "Dakshin"
express, in keeping with the anti-English trend at that time. This
brought a strong reaction from the very anti-Hindi DMK govt. in TN.
I believe that Indira Gandhi herself intervened and suggested that
the railway authorities find a compromise. The compromise turned out
to be running the GT express to the Southern's faster schedule to
Madras and applying the name Dakshin to the erstwhile GT express but
diverting it to Hyderabad. Madras lost a train, but avoided the
"Dakshin" name. (Interestingly, the name Rajdhani seems to have not
evoked a similar response!). The TN express generally runs 1-2 hours
late, whereas the GT is often on time. Hence, the time saved by
travelling on the TN is often less than 60 minutes.

The Bombay-Madras Mail is a slow train on the most miserable trunk
route on IR. It is one of the few colorless mails. It has
inumerable stops and was slower than the erstwhile B'bay-Mas Janata
(which incidentally was one of the faster Janatas).

Kumar

From: manish <manish@hogpa.email

Subject: Re: Mails (GT express)

Date: 26 May 1994 10:21:00 -0500


Vadivelu Elumalai writes:

GT used to be the king of Madras-Delhi trunk route. Before the
TamilNadu Express/Rajdhani era it was one of the prestigious trains on IR.
GT was so popular many people in Andra/Central India didn't know much about
other expresses to Delhi. In 1988, I broke my journey at Bhopal for few days

------

I also prefer GT over Tamilnadu/AP/expresses. Somehow I found that
GT coaches were much cleaner and less noisy (sort of more sturdy, that
is the exact feeling I got) compared to Tamilnadu/AP coaches.
It also had better departure times compared to Tamilnadu/AP as far
as the journey between Delhi and Bhopal went.

Manish

From: S. Kumar <kumar@quandsn.email

Subject: some new trains

Date: 27 May 1994 10:15:00 -0500


This information appeared in the international edition of The Hindu
dated March 5, 1994.

Item 1: new express trains.
Trivandrum-Bombay, Vijayawada/Guntur-Hyderabad, Saharanpur-Lucknow,
Jaipur-Howrah, Delhi-Kathgodam, Katihar-Sealdah, Nizamuddin-
Sriganganagar, Jodhpur-Lucknow, Delhi-Sultanpur (Dheeraj's train, I
believe).

Item 2: new Shatabdis.
Bombay Central-Ahmedabad, Nizamuddin-Bhubaneswar, Madras Central-
Mysore (rake homed at MAS, leave MAS ~ 6am return evening/night, do
MAS-SBC segment with A/C loco, SBC-Mysore with diesel)

Item 3: extensions of existing trains.
Nizamuddin-Madras Rajdhani to Thiruvananthapuram (being actively
considered; trial runs have been made between MAS and T'puram; with
stops at Erode and Ernakulam, the run was made in 14 hrs. as
opposed to the 18 hrs. currently taken by the Madras-Trivandrum Mail).

Also, Bhubaneswar-S'bad Konarak exp. to Bombay (VT?); Kalinga/Utkal
Exp. to Amritsar; Howrah-Gorakhpur Exp. to Kathgodam; Bombay-Jalna
Exp. to S'bad; Indore-NDLS express to J.Tawi; Kochi-Ahmedabad express
to Rajkot; Tata-Muzaffarpur express to Gorakhpur; Patna-Hatia exp. to
Jharsuguda; J.Tawi-Gorakhpur express to Barauni.

Item 4: closing of uneconomical branch lines. 14 branch lines have
been recommended for closure, since the respective state govts. have
not agreed to accept atleast 50% of the cost of keeping the lines
open. The actual lines were not specified.

Item 5: new lines: Surveys have begun for constructing lines between
Chamrajanagar (Karnataka) and Mettur (TN), and between Kottayam and
Punalur via Erimalai (Sabarimalai) in Kerala. Also, a line between
Udhampur and Srinagar is being actively considered.

Regards, Kumar.

From: S Pai <Pai>>

Subject: the other Asian giant

Date: 27 May 1994 16:13:00 -0500


I just saw an article about Chinese railway plans; I know it's "I"RFCA but I
thought it may be interesting to some here to see what our neighbours are up to
in the field of railways.

There's a plan to have a high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai,
the nation's political and commercial capitals respectively. The
competing bidders for the project are Japan, France's TGV, and Germany's
ICE. The existing line connects 5 large cities and carries 15% of all
the nation's freight and passengers though it's just 2.8% of total
trackage. The planned line will be for 250 km/h passenger trains, and the
project cost is estimated to be $8 billion. The money will come from local
and central govt. sources and also through stock offerings and
international borrowing.

Apparently the development of transportation has lagged much behind the
economic growth in the country, and several other projects are planned
for new rail lines, many with Japanese technology and capital. The
"special economic zones" especially are to be linked together with new
high-speed rail links to ease the bottlenecks currently being experienced.

One aspect of the Chinese plans I found interesting was their decision
to go for new passenger-only high-speed trackage paralleling existing
lines. The existing lines will become freight-only once the new ones
are in place. It seems like a lot more work than just upgrading existing
lines, but maybe the traffic density is enough to warrant this additional
work. (Or perhaps upgrading would be as costly or problematic as laying
new tracks.)

In urban transit their emphasis is apparently increasingly on
underground systems. Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai have extensive
subway systems which are being expanded, and other cities are planning
such systems too. Many of these subway systems have foreign involvement
(Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and some French and German companies).

China currently has quite a bit less (about 10,000 km less, I think)
trackage than India, even though the country is much larger and has
more people. The plans call for adding 40,000 - 50,000 km of new
trackage in the next 5 years or so. (Seems quite ambitious, but I
suppose if they have the money for it it's not impossible.)

From: Apurva Bahadur <iti@giaspn01.email

Subject: Re: Change of email address

Date: 03 Jun 1994 04:53:00 -0500


Sudhir,

You are in the middle of all the action! Tell us details of the locos that are shown on your website. You could send us the details of the Double
Cabbed Diesel 2600 Hp loco (the prime mover is Alco/DLW stock ?) and also the 1400 Hp shunter. I know the 1400 HP loco's prime mover, which is
a KV 16 of Cummins India Limited made right here in Pune. Specifically tell us who are the customers/users of these locos.

Apurva Bahadur

cet@bpl.email wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Sorry for this here. I have forgotten where to make such requests.
>
> Whosoever responsible for maintaing this list is requested to change my subscription address from hthbpi@bhel.email to cet@bpl.email.
>
> Sudhir kumar gupta
>
> =========================================================================
>
> Sudhir Kumar Gupta | Centre for Electric Transportation |
>
> Senior Engineer | Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited |
>
> Phone: 91-755-506429 (Office) | Bhopal - 462022 INDIA |
>
> : 91-755-588225 (Residence) | |
>
> Fax : 91-755-506850/540425 | |
>
> email: s.k.gupta@ieee.email | |
>
> or | |
>
> cet@bpl.email | |
>
> =========================================================================

From: Apurva Bahadur <iti@giaspn01.email

Subject: Special Stations

Date: 03 Jun 1994 07:37:00 -0500


Hi Gang,

Which stations in India have all the three guages ?

Miraj had the BG from Pune towards Kolhapur, MG towards Hubli and NG
towards Kurduwadi (Barsi Light Railway).
Apparently New Jalpaiguri has (had ?) all the guages as well.

Miraj NG station (belongs to Central Railway - Solapur Div) is just
outside the BG & MG station (belongs to SCR - Hubli Div) The MG tracks
have been 'unigauged' as of now, but a spur of NG track used to come
right next to the MG lines for goods transfer.
The grandest spectacle was a WDM2, a YDM4 and a ZDM4A standing side by
side on the Miraj platform a couple of years back. Regret being caught
without a camera.

Earlier posts to the forum speak of a query whether there were sleeping
cars in NG trains. Yes, definately the Z gauge (2'6") had all the
features of a proper sleeper. Berths, Electric lights and fans, toilets
with running water and vaccum brakes. We had a small branch line near us
(Pune) from Daund to Baramati. Its broad gauge now.
The 'crack' NG express of the country the Satpura Express from Gondia
to Jabalpur (1Up) has an AC Chair Car ! Possibly the only one in the
country.

Apurva Bahadur

From: Apurva Bahadur <iti@giaspn01.email

Subject: MG diesels

Date: 03 Jun 1994 08:06:00 -0500


I need info on the MG locos.

I see a lot of mail in the past year about the YDM 2/3/4/5.

Having only seen the YDM4 I need info about the internal arrangement of
the other locos. Specially the YDM5 was a streamliner like the 'Jumbo'
WDM2. How was the forward vision of these locos. And at the end of the
journey were they reversed on a turntable or were they sent anyway ?
Also the YDM4 has only a single control stand, in the reverse direction
the driver just turns around on the round stool and drives in the other
direction. Many of the YDM4 pilots I have met disliked the long hood
leading position as it blew smoke into their faces. So did the other YDM
locos have two control stands ?

There was also a query about the WDM3 diesel hydraulic locos (only 8
were ever procured ?)
I saw these locos dead at Gooty shed in 1995. They had long noses and a
single cab that was raised above hood level. Some drivers in Pune who
had actually 'worked' these locos called them 'WDH' loco, but I am quite
sure the correct name was 'WDM3'. These locos were apparently
underpowered and maintenance intensive as compared to WDM2 which were
also being evaluated at that time. Any details on these (Henschell ?
Kraus Mafei ?) locos and are there any photos on the web of similar
locos ?

Apurva Bahadur

From: Pushkar Apte <apte@spdc.email

Subject: More titbits on the ACT-ADI Shatabdi

Date: 03 Jun 1994 09:22:00 -0500


I just received some local newspaper clippings from India about the
new Shatabdi. The big blurb said "500 km in 400 mins!". (Big Deal!)

* It has a 2 minute halt at Bharuch. :-( Vijay tells me that the
August Kranti Rajdhani is also going to get a halt at Bharuch. And
I crib about Paschim Exp. halting @ Bharuch. But I digress...

* It (back to the Shatabdi) has 12 chair-car bogies "designed to be
especially comfortable, and on par with airplanes" to quote the
newspaper. I doubt if the chair-cars are any different from the
standard chair-cars - I think the reporter was just a little
extra-excited :-). In any case its not as if planes are comfortable!

* It has a special "EXECUTIVE COACH". There were no details, but this
seems to be a new thing. It seems like an A/C first-class day
(sitting only) type of coach. I was not aware that such coaches
existed. Do they have such coaches on other Shatabdis?

* It is hauled by WDM-2, confirmed by a picture, with a max. speed of
120 kmph, as we had expected. It intrigues me that one WDM-2 can haul
this 13-coach (at least) train @ 120 kmph.

Regards,
Pushkar
-------

From: Jishnu Mukerji <jis@summit.email

Subject: Re: More titbits on the ACT-ADI Shatabdi

Date: 03 Jun 1994 12:22:00 -0500


Excerpts from personal.IRFCA: 3-Jun-94 More titbits on the ACT-ADI..
Pushkar Apte@spdc.email (1138*)

> * It has a special "EXECUTIVE COACH". There were no details, but this
> seems to be a new thing. It seems like an A/C first-class day
> (sitting only) type of coach. I was not aware that such coaches
> existed. Do they have such coaches on other Shatabdis?

I know for a fact that the Bhopal and the Kalka Shatabdi have this type
of accommodation and I suspect so does the Lucknow one. In fact I have
travelled in one of these on the Kalka Shatabdi. They just have broader
seats, and if I recall correctly 4 abreast instead of five abreast
seating.

Jishnu
jis@summit.email

From: Dheeraj Sanghi <dheeraj@iitk.email

Subject: Re: More titbits on the ACT-ADI Shatabdi

Date: 04 Jun 1994 10:09:00 -0500


> * It has a special "EXECUTIVE COACH". There were no details, but this
> seems to be a new thing. It seems like an A/C first-class day
> (sitting only) type of coach. I was not aware that such coaches
> existed. Do they have such coaches on other Shatabdis?

These coaches are there on all Shatabdis. It is AC 1st sitting coach.
(The fare on them is same as Rajdhani fare on AC class on the same
route.) I have not travelled on them, so I cannot say about its
configuration.

-dheeraj

From: misc.news.southasia <apte@spdc.email

Subject: Bomb

Date: 06 Jun 1994 13:14:00 -0500


Sent By: S. Ramani, NCST, Bombay

Nagpur, June 5 (PTI) One woman was killed and 26 others
injured when a bomb exploded in a coach of the
Visakhapatnam-Delhi Samata express this evening.
The woman, 30-year-old Suhagbai, died on the way to
hospital. The injured include three other women and two
children.
Although the accident occured on the south eastern
railway, the central railway authorities have alerted their
medical teams and are arranging a replacement for the
part-luggage-part-passenger coach.
They have also set up an emergency counter at nagpur
with phone numbers 532417 and 532597 to handle enquiries from
relations of passengers and render assistance.
A report from Bhopal adds, a relief train has been sent
from Raipur to the site of the blast where the zonal inspector
general of police has also reached.

( E N D )

Regards,
Pushkar
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