Indian Railways​—A Giant That Covers a Nation

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN INDIA

More than 4,000 years ago, there were builders making bricks in northern India. Little did they dream, however, that those bricks would find their way into a gigantic network of railways on the Indian subcontinent.

INDIAN RAILWAYS is a giant system! Its trains are the main means of transport in India, a country with over a billion people. In addition to the normal daily travel of the population in general, India’s traditional culture requires that the millions who live away from their relatives make frequent journeys for family events, such as birth, death, festivals, marriage, or illness.

Every day, on an average, more than 8,350 trains ply some 50,000 miles [80,000 km] of running track, carrying over 12.5 million passengers. Freight trains haul goods in excess of 1.3 million tons. Together, each day these cover a distance equal to three and a half times the distance to the moon!

Think of 6,867 stations, 7,500 locomotives, more than 280,000 coaches and wagons, and a total track length of 67,000 miles [107,969 km] including sidings, and you will understand why Indian Railways needs to employ about 1.6 million people, the largest work force of any company in the world. Yes, a real giant!

How Was the Giant Born?

What motivated the building of railways in India? When did this vast project take  off? And what about those 4,000-year-old bricks?​—See box above.

In the mid-19th century, India produced a large quantity of raw cotton, which was transported by road to ports for export. India, though, was not the main supplier of cotton to British textile mills; most of their cotton came from the Deep South in North America. However, the failure of the American cotton crop in 1846 followed by the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 created an urgent need for an alternative supply. India was the answer. But transport needed to be faster to keep England’s Lancashire mills rolling. The East India Railway Company (1845) and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (1849) were set up. Contracts were also signed with the English East India Company, the major traders on the Indian subcontinent. Work was rapid, and April 16, 1853, saw the first train in India travel down 21 miles [34 km] of track from the dock area known as Bori Bunder in Bombay (now Mumbai) to the town of Thāne.

To reach the cotton-producing hinterland from Bombay meant crossing the Western Ghats, a range of rugged mountains. British engineers and workers, along with thousands of Indian workers​—sometimes 30,000 at one time—​toiled without the benefit of modern technology. Using switchbacks for the first time in the world, they laid a track that included an ascent of 1,821 feet [555 m] in just 15 miles [24 km]. They dug 25 tunnels with a total length of 12,000 feet [3,658 m]. The Deccan plateau was reached, and the railway was in business. Work went on apace all over the country, spurred not only by trade but also by the need to move troops and personnel quickly as the British increased their interests in the subcontinent.

First-class train travel in the 19th century, for the few who could afford it, made the heat and dust bearable. A private carriage had a comfortable bed, toilet and bath, attendants to provide refreshments from morning tea through to evening dinner, a fan with a tub of ice under it for cooling, a barber, and stories from Wheeler’s Railway Library series, including the latest novels of Indian-born author Rudyard Kipling. Louis Rousselet, traveling in the 1860’s, said that he could “travel over this immense distance with comparatively little fatigue.”

The Giant Grows

By 1900, India’s railway network had become the fifth largest in the world. Locomotives​—steam, diesel, and electric engines—​and rolling stock including coaches, all of which were formerly imported, were now produced locally. Some of the engines were real behemoths​—locomotives weighing up to 230 tons, electric engines of 6,000 horsepower, and a 123-ton diesel engine with 3,100 horsepower. In 1862 the world’s first double-decker train was introduced. India boasts the longest  railway platform in the world, 2,733 feet [833 m], at Kharagpur in West Bengal, and the longest covered platforms, at 1,000 feet each, at Sealdah in Calcutta.

The first trains ran on broad-gauged tracks. Later, to save money, meter gauge was introduced along with narrow gauge for the hills. In 1992, Project Unigauge got under way, and to date almost 5,000 miles [about 7,800 km] of track has been converted from narrow and meter gauge to broad gauge.

Mumbai’s suburban trains carry millions of commuters and seem to be permanently packed beyond capacity. Calcutta’s underground metro can daily carry 1.7 million passengers. Chennai (formerly Madras) has India’s first elevated rail system. Computerized booking and multimedia information kiosks are recent additions. This is a very busy and progressive giant.

The Exhilarating “Toy Trains”

To escape the heat, the British colonists loved to go to the mountains. The prospect of getting there faster prompted the building of the mountain railways with their “toy trains.” Trips then became faster​—that is, compared with going by horseback or being carried in a palanquin. For example, the “toy train” in south India takes its passengers into the Nilgiri Hills, or Blue Mountains. It averages 6.5 miles [10.4 km] per hour and is perhaps the slowest train in India. But what a journey this is, through the tea and coffee estates of the mountains up to Coonoor at 5,617 feet [1,712 m]! Built in the late 19th century, the track rises at a gradient of 1 in 12 and has 208 curves and 13 tunnels. It employs the Abt pinion-rack system. Rack bars like teeth act as a ladder that the engine climbs on, pushing the train from the back. This track is among the oldest and steepest in the world using rack and adhesion technology.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway climbs on tracks only two feet [610 mm] apart, at a gradient of 1 in 22.5, to Ghoom, India’s highest station, 7,408 feet [2,258 m] above sea level. The track has three spiral loops and six reversing zigzags. The most famous section, the Batasia loop, tempts passengers to jump out of the train, scramble  up the grassy slopes, and board the train after it takes the curve. The exciting journey is climaxed with a view of Kanchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world. In 1999 this railway was given World Heritage status by UNESCO, making its future more secure.

To reach Simla, which was India’s 7,100-foot-high [2,200 m] summer capital under British rule, the train goes through 102 tunnels, crosses 869 bridges, and rounds 919 curves in a stretch of just 60 miles [95 km]! One can see magnificent scenery through large windows and a transparent fiberglass roof. Yes, the “toy trains” are a real delight. Since the fares have been kept quite low, however, the mountain railways are unfortunately running at a loss. Railway buffs hope that a solution can be found to save these exhilarating trains.

The Long Haul

It has been said that the advent of the railway in India marked “the end of one era and the beginning of another” and that “the railway sewed India together as no other integration scheme has managed to do since.” How true! If you wish, you can board a train in Jammu, in the foothills of the Himalayas, and get off at Kanyakumari, India’s southernmost point, where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal meet. You will have traveled 2,344 miles [3,751 km] through 12 states and spent about 66 hours on the train. Even with a sleeper berth, you might have spent less than $15 for your ticket. You will have had the opportunity to get acquainted with friendly, talkative people of many cultures and will have seen quite a lot of this fascinating country. Make your reservation​—and happy traveling!

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Those Ancient Bricks

During British rule (1757-1947), railways in the Indian subcontinent proved ideal for the movement of troops over long distances. Within three years of the inauguration of India’s first train, engineers were laying tracks between Karachi and Lahore in what is today Pakistan. Stone was not available for ballast to stabilize the tracks, but near the village of Harappa, workmen found kiln-baked bricks. Scottish engineers John and William Brunton felt that these would make a suitable and economical substitute. While workers were unearthing the huge brick deposits, clay statuettes and seals inscribed in an unknown language turned up, but this did not cause a break in the all-important work of building the railroad. One hundred miles [160 km] of track was built on Harappa bricks. Sixty-five years later, archaeologists systematically excavated the Harappa site, unearthing remains of the astounding Indus Valley civilization, which dates back more than 4,000 years, contemporary with ancient Mesopotamia!

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THE KONKAN RAILWAY​—A Modern Marvel

The Konkan is a strip of land, about 47 miles [75 km] at its widest, on the west coast of India, between the Arabian Sea and the Sahyadri mountain range. Extending south from Mumbai, India’s commercial center, to the major port of Mangalore, the Konkan has much to offer in trade. For centuries the coastal ports handled this trade, within India and with other countries. But sea travel was hazardous​—especially during the monsoon season, when rivers were also unnavigable—​and road and rail routes went way inland to circumvent many natural obstacles. The people of the region longed for direct land access down the coast to transport goods, especially perishables, quickly to big markets. What was the solution?

The Konkan Railway was the biggest railway project in the subcontinent in the 20th century. What was involved? Building 472 miles [760 km] of track with embankments up to 82 feet [25 m] high and cuttings 92 feet [28 m] deep. Constructing more than 2,000 bridges, including the 210-foot-high [64 m] Panval Nadi viaduct, the tallest in Asia, which spans a 1,640-foot-wide [500 m] valley, and the 1.3-mile-long [2.065 km] Sharavati River bridge. Penetrating the mountain ranges to give the track an alignment that was as straight as possible by excavating 92 tunnels, 6 of them being more than two miles [3.2 km] long. In fact, India’s longest tunnel to date is one of these, the four-mile-long [6.5 km] Karbude tunnel.

The problems were immense​—torrential rains, landslides, and mudslides, as well as tunneling through solid rock and, even more difficult, lithomargic soft soil, described as being like toothpaste. All these natural obstacles had to be overcome by engineering skill and technology. Centrifugal- and jet-fan ventilation in the tunnels, along with other safety features, were in themselves massive undertakings. Land had to be acquired from more than 42,000 different landowners, a colossal legal exercise.

However, on January 26, 1998, after a construction time of just seven years​—a record for such a huge project—​the first train on the Konkan Railway was flagged off. The journey from Mumbai to Mangalore was 700 miles [1,127 km] shorter than the former circuitous route, and travel time was reduced by 26 hours. The Konkan Railway opened up to train travelers new vistas of magnificent scenery, to tourists exciting new places to explore, and to millions of people an improved economy.

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MUMBAI

Mangalore

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The Panval Nadi viaduct, the tallest bridge in Asia

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Dipankar Banerjee/STSimages.com

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THE FAIRY QUEEN

The oldest working steam locomotive in the world is the Fairy Queen. Built in Leeds, England, in 1855, by the engineering firm of Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson, it pulled mail trains from Howrah station, near Calcutta, to Raniganj in Bengal. Taken out of service in 1909, it was kept in the National Rail Museum, New Delhi, delighting train buffs. To celebrate India’s 50 years of independence, this old faithful was brought out of retirement. Since 1997, the Fairy Queen Express has been chugging along, carrying tourists the 89 miles [143 km] from Delhi to Alwar, in Rajasthan.

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LUXURY AND SPEED​—India Has Them!

LUXURY India has an ancient and often opulent past. Exclusive railway tours offer a comfortable, though expensive, peek into that history. The Palace on Wheels, pulled by a steam locomotive, was launched in 1982. Luxuriously refurbished carriages, used formerly by maharajas and viceroys, retain the ambience of their royal heritage. The pearl-white exterior, Burma-teak paneling, crystal chandeliers, and rich brocades exude an air of splendor. Palatial sleeping compartments, dining rooms, lounge and library, excellent international cuisine, and service by liveried attendants make passengers feel really pampered.

In 1995 because of a change to broad-gauged track, a new Palace was built, and the old coaches were retired. A new luxury train named The Royal Orient continues on the old meter gauge in the western states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The trains travel mainly at night, and passengers spend their days sightseeing. Travelers pass through the great Thar desert, with its ancient forts, citadels, and temples. One can take camel rides over the dunes and an elephant ride to famed Amber Fort. Nearby is Jaipur, the Pink City, rich in history and renowned for gems and handicrafts. Included in the tour are bird sanctuaries, a tiger reserve, and the home of the only Asian lions remaining in the wild. Don’t miss the Udaipur lake palace and, of course, the Taj Mahal! All these and more contribute to exciting railway adventures.

SPEED Indian trains cannot compete with high-velocity trains in France and Japan. But rapid and comfortable long-distance travel is possible on Indian Railway’s 106 pairs of superfast intercity trains. The Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, running at almost 100 miles [160 km] an hour, compete with air travel in comfort and facilities. Air-conditioned coaches have reclining seats or comfortable sleeping berths. Meals and snacks, bed linen, safe drinking water, and medical assistance are included in the fare on these prestigious trains.

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Jaipur

Udaipur

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Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

Taj Mahal, Agra

The Royal Orient

Inside the “Palace on Wheels”

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Hira Punjabi/STSimages.com

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NEW DELHI

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Some of the major railway lines

Steam, Zawar

Steam, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR)

Electric, Agra

Electric, Mumbai

Diesel, Hyderabad

Diesel, Simla

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Map: © www.MapsofIndia.com

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MUMBAI

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Churchgate Station, Mumbai

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Sandeep Ruparel/STSimages.com

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Nilgiri Hills

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The steam engine pushes the Nilgiri “toy train” up the steep gradient

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Darjeeling

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The Batasia loop, where the railway line passes over itself

A view of Kanchenjunga Mountain from the Batasia loop

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Trains on pages 2, 13, 15 middle, 16-18: Reproduced by permission of Richard Wallace