[kosjam]

Originally Posted by no_fear

... but inside, especially around the toilets, it looks too amateurish.

My grandfather was one of the chief mechanical engineers who worked on the first Howrah Delhi Rajdhani, and my father rode the test train as a young adult in the late 1960s. The coaches were filled with sand bags.

The toilets IMO look more like those from prison cells. And I believe there might be a reason for this. People really do not have any value for such upmarket fittings, and judging by how most middle class indians behave, the toilets may have been built keeping in mind the harsh conditions they will face, rather than outright looks.

Secondly, coaches filled with sand bags? why so?
And finally, as a fellow railfan, all stories are interesting, share away

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by kosjam

Secondly, coaches filled with sand bags? why so?
And finally, as a fellow railfan, all stories are interesting, share away

@kosjam - when the trials started in 1967, it was done by Eastern Railways. My grandfather was one of the mechanical engineers working on the rakes (later promoted to chief engineer before his retirement in the early 80s). IR conducted the trial run along the current Howrah - Mugalsarai route. At high speeds (> 100 kmph) the coaches would shake and vibrate a lot. Then my grandfather and his team realized that the coaches, bereft of passengers, were lighter and the weight distribution, with the under carriage AC, was very uneven. So they put sand bags on the AC chair seats to simulate passenger weight, and then measure the difference, and the ride quality. The train was tested at speeds of 130 kmph and found to be stable. But as usual, sarkari babus thought it was too fast, so they curtailed the speed to 100 kmph.

Initially, Rajdhani was chair car only with one AC first class coupe. They switched to sleeping berths, after a group of doctors wrote to ER and IR stating that sitting 17 hrs non stop causes pain / injury to the spine. Plus it was super uncomfortable.

Before retirement, my grandfather was sent by IR to France to learn from SNCF about the TGV. IR wanted to understand how to set up a dedicated network to support high speed rail in India on existing tracks. At that time France was the only country to do this. Japan runs the Shinksansen on separate, elavated tracks only, so it was not taken into consideration.

Sad to say, that whatever information my grandfather got from SNCF, none of it was implemented by IR. The different zonal divisions at IR played their own political games and everyone wanted to claim first mover advantage with no one doing anything in the end.

For the HWH - NDLS Rajdhani, a special feature on the menu was the fish cutlet. Its river fish deep fried in batter and served with ketchup and tangy mustard sauce. Passengers would complain if the fish cutlet was not served and they would compare the texture of the batter, how it was fried, and the taste, to the restaurants in Kolkata which served this dish.

West Bengal is a food crazy state, and people would specifically book the Rajdhani to eat the fish cutlet. Talk about IR zonal wars - this item was removed from the menu in the 2000s.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

The shatabdi is now allotted only 2 hours 31 minutes to cover Borivali - Surat and most of the days it is very comfortably at Surat in not a minute more than 2 hours 25 minutes

The Tejas Rajdhani did this sector in 2hrs 13 minutes because this train has no halt at Vapi. And yes, under 2 and a half hours is an achievement.

I remember travelling by Avantika Express in 1992 when the train would arrive in Surat from Indore at 7:20am. It ran non-stop from Surat to Borivali then, and covered the sector in just 3 hours which was an achievement at an MPS of 110kmph.

The Borivali station back in the 90s had a level crossing to the south end (closed now) of the station and I along with my grandfather (an Ex. Railway man himself , he retired from BAMY) used to go sit by that level crossing and wait for the shiny red train to thunder by - 2 hot Ratlam WDMs + the humming EOGs and the racket they made as they skipped Borivali was a scene forever ingrained in my soul.

Believe me, I ran this scene several times over and can understand how energising one would have felt

- Rajdhanis enjoyed a huge clout in the IR world too such an extent that delays in the train's running were directly reported to the railway board.

- One more interesting trivia is that IR used to run pilot engines just minutes ahead of the Rajdhani to ensure that the tracks are clear from any miscreant activities.

Originally Posted by no_fear

There has been some rail infrastructure damage in the past few years, so a pilot engine does ply along the sections between Chittaranjan, West Bengal and Giridih or further in Jharkand state. They do it for the Bhubaneshwar, Howrah / Sealdah and I think the Dibrugarh rajdhani

Thank You, @Dieseltuned and @no_fear. I wonder if I'd ever have got this info. if this thread hadn't happened.

Originally Posted by anand.shankar

I would prefer train journey over Flight any Day given that most airports are far away from the city, the cumbersome security checks, on off boarding, baggage pickups

Thank You, @anand.shankar; completely agree with what you have written. If one has the time, trains are the way to go.

Originally Posted by Blue Express

One place that I would like Indian Railways to decide upon, is the colour of the train.

Thank You, @Blue Express. You're right about the colour themes for various trains. The Humsafar and Tejas color themes are an overkill. One of the best themes is what I've seen on the one below.

Originally Posted by TheVegabond

still remember the time when Rajdhani Express travel was considered super luxury and the Income Tax babus would scan through your documents for any such journey you might have taken

Thank You, @TheVegabond. That is interesting info. I never imagined that a Rajdhani journey could be tracked by the taxman in non-digital days.

the attendants would keep you busy the whole day starting with morning tea at 6AM till dinner at 8

Overeating was the hidden benefit of travelling Rajdhanis and Shatabdis. I never found the food great - 90s, 2000s, and later the taste was consistently just above average. However, I always looked forward to the soup.

Originally Posted by amitayu

Setting the middle berth - I suspect they are still hung with strong metal chains!

Yes, @amitayu. It is still the foolproof metal chains.
And, when I took a closer look at the upper berths in 3AC, it looks like the same berths have been used in 2AC too. That's why I called the AC 2Tier a downgrade on this train.

Upper berth in AC 2Tier


Upper berth in AC 3Tier

Originally Posted by kosjam

People really do not have any value for such upmarket fittings

Thank You, @kosjam. I agree that Jaquar taps don't need to feature on this train, but overall, I found the loo pretty well appointed. My sense is that the flush mechanism will need periodic maintenance while the rest will hold up well. I'm saying this because my Up journey to Mumbai was in a 09 year old double Decker AC coach and the washrooms were still in great shape.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Western railway has been a pioneer in scorching the tracks.

The Borivali station back in the 90s had a level crossing to the south end (closed now) of the station and I along with my grandfather (an Ex. Railway man himself , he retired from BAMY) used to go sit by that level crossing and wait for the shiny red train to thunder by, and I literally mean 'thunder'. 2 hot Ratlam WDMs + the humming EOGs and the racket they made as they skipped Borivali was a scene forever ingrained in my soul.

One more interesting trivia is that IR used to run pilot engines just minutes ahead of the Rajdhani to ensure that the tracks are clear from any miscreant activities.
Kudos to IR in keeping this huge nation of ours connected weaving through our economic and social divide.

One rail journey has evoked a flood of memories. You mentioned Borivali, I grew up in Santacruz E, very close to the Railway quarters, and we got full view of the trains every day. Back then, 430pm was the time when Rajdhani, with its double WDM2 thundered past our area. Around 530pm was Flying Rani, the double decker to Surat. And evening after about 730 was Frontier Mail to Amritsar. By age 9-10 I had collected timetable booklets of both WR and CR and had memorized the trains, halts and distances. My grandfather mentioned the relatively high speeds of WR compared to Pune- Solapur- Raichur section which he operated on, because of single track and terrain differences. In fact he used to mention the Daund Manmad section as being a bit of a pain as well.

On the pilot engine, I remember that my gf piloted the Presidential train multiple times, and they had the pilot car used then too, especially in the AP areas because of extremist activities. He himself got hit by dynamite blast somewhere in AP back in the 50s, fortunately he said that the steam engine's sheer weight and momentum took the blast in its stride and came to a halt without derailing. If it was any other engine, there would have been casualties including himself.

[kingshukt]

How does a wheel chair bound person get in to these trains?
The train is @ 1-1.5 feet (min) higher than the platform.

kingshukt

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Back then, 430pm was the time when Rajdhani, with its double WDM2 thundered past our area. Around 530pm was Flying Rani, the double decker to Surat. And evening after about 730 was Frontier Mail to Amritsar. By age 9-10 I had collected timetable booklets of both WR and CR and had memorized the trains, halts and distances.

Very off topic - but what you mentioned. There is a very famous Japanese murder mystery book called Points and Lines by Seicho Hashimoto. The protagonist finds the clues studying and memorizing the railway timetable booklet. Ever since I read that book, I have been hooked studying railway timetables. I often log on indianrailinfo to see random rail schedules.

Glad to see another rail fan share my weird passion.

[kosjam]

Originally Posted by vigsom

Thank You, @kosjam. I agree that Jaquar taps don't need to feature on this train, but overall, I found the loo pretty well appointed. My sense is that the flush mechanism will need periodic maintenance while the rest will hold up well. I'm saying this because my Up journey to Mumbai was in a 09 year old double Decker AC coach and the washrooms were still in great shape.

Actually I was talking about the very functional but aesthetically meh bathroom interiors that look more like the toilet in a prison (atleast in the movies we watch). People just do not have the decency of cleaning up after them, thinking it is someone elses job to do that. Same goes for using the fiixtures nicely.
How sad would it be if a person just breaks the Jaguar tap because the water pressure is running low? Hate to say it, but this does happen more often than not (Remember the Tejas Express fiasco where the LCD screens were literally ripped out of the seats?)

[amitayu]

Originally Posted by vharihar

Can you pls elaborate? Your post seems unduly negative.

If you see the state of the fancy Marcopolo buses distributed under JNURM project to different cities, you will understand.

Any public utility vehicle with features like sliding doors or LCD display run the risk of vandalism, curiosity and a general apathy in maintenance that ultimately leads to their demise.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Very off topic - but what you mentioned. There is a very famous Japanese murder mystery book called Points and Lines by Seicho Hashimoto. The protagonist finds the clues studying and memorizing the railway timetable booklet. Ever since I read that book, I have been hooked studying railway timetables. I often log on indianrailinfo to see random rail schedules.

Glad to see another rail fan share my weird passion.

OT: You guys should meet my father. He still prints train schedules, laminates them and sends to many in the immediate family circle

I have given up on telling him not to send it

Back to topic, as a frequent traveler during pre-covid days, i suddenly feel a longing to get on a train and take a journey. The morning rush, the nap as the train rocks you to sleep, the snacks, the people and the time alone you get for yourself even in the crowd is something i seem to miss now.

The 2nd AC interiors seem a bit meh and wonder who approved jaquar taps for the trains.

And the tipping culture on the rajdhani is present even for short journeys.

Good review this.

[sahil624]

I am due to travel from this train on Friday, I will board from Mumbai Central. Seeing this thread has increased my excitement level for this journey

[Voodooblaster]

Personally I prefer ICF Coaches, mainly for the durable berths and bathroom fittings. The AC First class and 2 Tier seem more luxurious in ICF

Fittings in LHB Coaches seem to be of very inferior quality. AC First class coaches had non functional latches in the cabins of new LHB, whereas decades old ICF coaches were going strong.

[TheVegabond]

Thank You, @TheVegabond. That is interesting info. I never imagined that a Rajdhani journey could be tracked by the taxman in non-digital days.

This was early to mid 90s and not that a Rajdhani Express journey will attract the Tax scrutiny. Just in case if you were already under their radar, a Rajdhani Express journey would imply that you had money to spare.

Overeating was the hidden benefit of travelling Rajdhanis and Shatabdis. I never found the food great - 90s, 2000s, and later the taste was consistently just above average. However, I always looked forward to the soup.

Agreed, the food was/is average at best. The service however, was top notch whenever I travelled and always felt pampered

[rkw]

Great thread! As a child, chance to travel in Rajdhani was both a privilege & aspiration. In the days of counter ticket booking, I remember the ticket booking personal giving the option of booking the ticket from "start" to "end" stations seeing my urge to travel in Rajdhani (terminal stations seemed to have higher ticket quotas) though my journey was only half the distance. Ticket fare being almost double (multiplied by family members) I couldn't exercise the option.
However, with the advent of cheaper flight options, I guess Rajdhani has lost sheen for long distance travels. Look forward to the high speed bullet trains.

[rkw]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Somehow I feel our premium train cabins still dont have the swank. Too much of metal all around, very Soviet-like (for the lack of better word).

Yes, design can definitely be more upmarket, aesthetic & lean. It can be something like the metro train coaches. We do have that capability as I could see from my personal experience. Once I was pleasantly surprised to travel in a very modern aesthetic coach from Vadodara to Mumbai (it was not a Rajdhani though). I never came across those coaches again. Attaching some pictures which I couldn't miss taking.

[AkMar]

Originally Posted by rkw

Yes, design can definitely be more upmarket, aesthetic & lean. It can be something like the metro train coaches. We do have that capability as I could see from my personal experience. Once I was pleasantly surprised to travel in a very modern aesthetic coach from Vadodara to Mumbai (it was not a Rajdhani though). I never came across those coaches again. Attaching some pictures which I couldn't miss taking.

These are coaches refurbished by Coach rehabilitation workshop, Bhopal. The workshop had turned out 2-3 such rakes a few years ago & 1 coach used to be regular in Vadodara express. The interiors were very aesthetic but for reasons best known to them, the modifications were never introduced on large scale