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` 100 THE RAIL enthu siast vol. 1 no. 1 August 2016 RA The Rail Enthusiats’ Society Quarterly THE IL REPORT PAST PATALPANI WATERFALLS PHOTO FEATURE! Shindawane Ghat TALGO train trial run on July 16, 2016 on the Mathura - Pawal section Photographs - courtesy Rajit Kumar Musings of the Editor... Joydeep Dua is the quintessenal rail enthusiast. I met him in 2014 when I was compiling and eding the coffee table book, “Indian Railways – More Miles...More Smiles”. It was this meeng that converted me from a run-of- the-mill rered railwayman to a n a c v e a n d a r d e n t A Magazine aficionado of the railway. of the Rail Enthusiast, by the Rail Enthusiast & When not pursuing his career for the Rail Enthusiast of teaching young minds the intricacies of mathemacal economics and operaons Editor: research at the Indian J. L. Singh Instute of Technology at Copyright: Kanpur, Joydeep thinks, Rail Enthusiasts' Society b r e a t h e s a n d t a l k s © All rights Reserved railways. His passion and The book that inspired the launching of this magazine fervour for the railways No part of this publicaon may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or are so infecous, so transmied, in any form or by any means, contagious, that the first brief interacon with him was sufficient to put me electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior firmly on the road leading to the sasfying desnaon of rail enthusiasm. permission of the publishers. The opinions expressed in the arcles are the Joydeep is not only a rail enthusiast himself but also champions the concept photographer's and author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. and would like it to grow into something relevant and not be relegated to exist only among a few rail die-hards. In the coffee table book, “Indian Railways – More Miles...More Smiles”, released by the Honourable Minister Vol. 1 No. 1 Published by: for Railways, Shri Suresh Prabhu, in December 2014, he has penned his Rail Enthusiasts’ Society thoughts on the subject and made an impassioned plea for giving (Reg. No.: S-E/792/Distt. South East/2015) recognion to this strange tribe of rail lovers and bringing railways back to Registered Office: the minds of today's youngsters. An extract from his arcle, “The Hidden C-494, Defence Colony Face of the Rail Enthusiast”, is reproduced below: New Delhi - 110024 In spite of this love for the railways in India, the words “RAIL ENTHUSIAST” President: Vinoo N. Mathur seeped into the broader railway culture quite late in India. Though the enthusiasts existed for many years and silently went about their passion, Vice President: their existence was neither noted nor recognised. An important step in this Joydeep Dutta direcon was the formaon of the “Friends of the Naonal Railway Secretary: Museum” which later became the “Indian Steam Railway Society”. However, J L Singh a bigger railway enthusiast movement came through the formaon of the Jt. Secretary: IRFCA (Indian Railway Fan Club). Though started in USA by a few Indian Vikas Singh students, it caught on like fire in India and now boasts a website with the URL: “www.irfca.org”. This website is filled with thousands of photographs Treasurer: Abhimanyu Shaunik of the Indian Railways and a huge amount of technical informaon and a large number of arcles. This is a true treasure trove for the Indian rail Released on 06-08-2016 enthusiast and even many railway officers take a look at the site. Now there is a tacit acceptance of this strange breed of men and women coming from Designed & Printed by: BASIC-4 Advertising Pvt. Ltd. THE RAIL ENTHUSIAST, AUGUST 2016 1 very different walks of life with one common To know more about the aims and objecves of the interest—their passion for the Indian Railways... Society and its acvies, please visit our website Although the hardcore enthusiast is now known and www.railenthusiasndia.org.in that we are launching accepted, it pains me that the current generaon is along with the magazine. brought up on a heavy dose of automobiles. Magazines No endeavour is the outcome of the inputs of one person about cars and even models of cars are found in every only. Many have gone out of the way with their help, city but, unfortunately, there is lile about the railways. suggesons, ideas and acve parcipaon. While I can The Indian Railways do publish some nice books but one certainly not thank each of them in this short write-up, I can never find them in normal bookshops and even in e- would like to parcularly thank Vinoo Mathur, a rered bookshops. There is no railway magazine in India that railwayman like me, but today a rail researcher and can compete with auto magazines. This situaon needs historian; Joydeep Dua, a mathemacian and rail to be corrected or else railways would be completely enthusiast; Vikas Singh, another rail fan and with the absent from the mind of young Indians who would view media; Abhimanyu Shaunik, in business for making a it as a transport system which rolls out slow and dirty living but at heart a rail lover and rail modeller; Apurva trains. There are thousands of railway enthusiasts in this Bahadur, a technical writer, whose hobby is country but gradually, if no correcve measures are photographing trains against picturesque backgrounds; taken, their number will dwindle. I sincerely hope that Ajay Singh and Mayank Tewari, working railwaymen (I the railways, along with the enthusiasts, would jointly do would like to menon that few working railwaymen or something to bring back railways to the minds of our women are rail enthusiasts; Ajay and Mayank are the people. excepons that prove the rule); and Mathai Samuel, the designer and printer of this magazine. I would also like to It was the second paragraph that set me and a group of place on record, my thanks to all the contributors of likeminded persons thinking: what can we do to promote arcles and write-ups, of photographs and pictures, the idea of the railways in the general, parcularly the ideas and suggesons. Among them, special menon automobile-raised, populaon and give the iron road its must be made of Vikas Chander, Lalam Mandavkar and place in the minds of our people? One of the answers we Ashish Kuvelkar. came up with is the bringing out of this magazine that you are now holding in your hands. We hope that I would also like to thank rail enthusiasts who have through this magazine, we will be able to give a common already enrolled as members of The Rail Enthusiasts' plaorm to the rail lover to indulge in his passion and in Society and others for whom this magazine has been the process insl an interest, if not love, for the railways created. in the hearts of the general public. Last but not the least: I would like to thank the This is our first issue. Your comments, ideas, feedback are adversers without whom it would be difficult to make not only expected but will be highly appreciated and ends meet. welcomed. While we expect this magazine to cater to the This is a hard copy of the magazine. We shall be interest in the railways a professional railwayman or downloading the magazine on our website also. woman has, we are keener to bring into its fold, all those However, for future issues, we intend bringing out an who not only use the railways for travelling but simply e-Copy separately. love the sound of a train thundering past or any of the other myriad past and present sights and idiosyncrasies Happy reading! of the railway. The first acon we took was the formaon of a Society, aptly named “Rail Enthusiasts' Society”. While bringing out this magazine every quarter is our primary task, our broader vision is to act as a catalyst for all rail buffs, train J L Singh lovers, hobbyists and fans to get together and acvely promote the concept of rail enthusiasm in all of its many Editor hues. With your help, parcipaon and co-operaon, we are confident that we will succeed. 2 THE RAIL ENTHUSIAST, AUGUST 2016 Trip Report Train to Patalpani 05-11 Travel by train with Vikas Chander from Mhow past the Patalpani falls all the way to Dhulghat on one of the few remaining Meter Gauge sections in the country Interview Ashwani Lohani 12-17 Meet Ashwani Lohani. The CMD of Air India is a hard core rail enthusiast. Read of the resurrection of the Fairy Queen after 99 years and the setting up of the Rewari Steam Shed in his words Siberia's Secret Railway Everyone has heard of the Trans-Siberian 18-23 Railway. Much less known is the Baikal Amur Mainline in Siberia. This is the line Paul Whittle traversed in October 2014 and shares his experiences History The Sutlej Bridge at Phillaur 24-29 The Sutlej bridge at Phillaur provided continuous rail connectivity to the North-West frontier. Vinoo Mathur traces the history of CONTENTS this important and vital link Curtains Down The Toy Train's final Act 30-33 Narrow Gauge railways are dying in India. 30-33 Ravindra Bhalerao writes of the Satpura Railway around Nagpur and laments the decision to convert these lines to Broad Gauge 34-37 38-49 50-51 52-56 Gaekwar's Photo-feature Then & Now Baroda State The Shindawane XG class loco Land of Railway Ghat the Rising Sun This is another Apurva Bahadur 3 XG class A visit to India's Land Narrow Gauge shows you this little locomotives were built of the Rising Sun – network that is being known “ghat” section in 1928.