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Indian steam in the late 70s


bingley hall

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I have put a few black and white pics in a gallery on flickr taken during a five month trip to India and Pakistan between September 1978 and February 1979

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/markcarter/sets/72157623858650824/

 

Here are a couple of samples

 

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Broad gauge XE22540 at Jha Jha shed on the Eastern Railway

 

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On the South Eastern Railway narrow gauge (2'6") line from Rupsa to Bangriposi, C Class 4-6-2 no.672 is on shed at Baripada.

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Great pictures. Unfortunately I missed those steam trains when I went to India the first time in 1992. Very little left by then.

 

The WP looks great.

 

Shame there isn't anything available in HO for Indian rail as I'd love to have done an Indian layout.

 

cheers

 

Neil

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was fortunate enough to visit Injah in 1987 (?), and as a BR driver got treated almost like royalty. I got a footplate ride on the Nilgri Hills line from Coonoor to Udagamandalum and back, a footplate trip from Trichy to Thirumvarur, and numerous shed visits. I've got some colour pics but have temporarily lost them!

 

There were rows of German built steam locos waiting to be scrapped at Golden Rock works. Trichy Junction is interesting as it is mixed gauge,as is Golden Rock works.

 

My sons, both quite young at the time, surprised the signalman at Trichy by showing him how to operate the frame! The station master at Madras VT stopped an important meeting to make sure we got booked on an overnight train to Bombay...a truly memorable visit.

 

I see the Indian Steam series has recently been given another showing on BBC3 and 4 recently. Happy memories.

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Seriously glorious shots.

 

A while ago I was given a batch of photos that were taken in 1944 in India. I have put them into a gallery http://andrewjohnson.fotopic.net/c1376375.html Some of these I need to try to find out more information about them but they are historically interesting.

 

A selection of photos from my trips to India (& Nepal) in 2003, 2007 and January 2010 are also in separate galleries on my fotopic site.

 

On the IRFCA site at the following page are details about modelling Indian Railways

http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-model.html

 

There are a few comments about scales and gauges. 3mm/ft on 16.5mm gauge equates to 5'6", 9mm gauge is roughly meter (ie 3'3 5/8")

 

Alternatively working at 4mm/ft means 22mm gauge for BG which as there are a number of OO9 items for DHR could make life interesting.

 

 

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A while ago I was given a batch of photos that were taken in 1944 in India. I have put them into a gallery http://andrewjohnson.fotopic.net/c1376375.html Some of these I need to try to find out more information about them but they are historically interesting.

Thanks for the link - I've added some info to three of them.

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Thank you for the comments about the 1944 photos. As mentioned before these are some that I was given so some of the details were a little bit vague. Amended the captions slightly.

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  • 1 year later...

I have added a small set of 10 Indian 'modern era' images to my Flickr pages HERE

 

Ironically they were taken when steam was still in use and are now just as much a part of history as the steam pics.

 

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Built by Vulcan Foundry/ English Electric in 1955, WCM1 20070 was a broad gauge (5'6") electric locomotive in use on the 1500v DC lines out of Bombay (Mumbai) -December 1978. I'm glad I had the presence of mind to point my camera in its direction.

 

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WDM1 Alco 'World Series' 17046 of the North Eastern Railway at Ghorakpur in October 1988. I'm pretty sure the Indian ones have all gone, but we still have around half a dozen Alco 'Worlds' pottering around in Sydney on more menial duties.

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They are good, aren't they?!

Reminds me of the work & books of Colin Garratt...

 

No, they're better! (If you want a better comparison, try Laurie Marshall)

 

Good to see the vintage diesels and electrics too - the EE/VF electrics appear similar to the locos supplied to Vixctorian Railways, Brazil and Spain.

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The definitive books on Indian Steam Locomotives are the 4 volumes by Hugh Hughes. Even the books produced for the NRM in Delhi quote his books as the key source.

 

Now I must save up for that trip in January to India (again). Still deciding how best to replace my fotopic site (so my links are void above) - might even develop my own photo gallery on my website.

 

A quick look on ebay shows up a few Del Prado 1:160 scale static YP models.

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The definitive books on Indian Steam Locomotives are the 4 volumes by Hugh Hughes. Even the books produced for the NRM in Delhi quote his books as the key source......

Probably the most thumbed books in my collection and key reference for sourcing builders' details when captioning my pics. My 1977 copy of the metre gauge book is looking a bit sad these days

 

I'll be posting up some more steam shots here and on Flickr over the next day or two.

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B 802 at Siliguri Junction 2007

 

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Slightly different DHR shot I took in 2007 at Rangtong.

 

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B 802 at Rangtong in 2007

 

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Nilgiri Mountain Railway - Hillgrove 0-8-2T X 37393 in 2007

 

Some of these modern images are as timeless as the earlier ones.

 

For more see my (New) photo gallery link below.

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As promised I've uploaded a few more steam images to Flickr. I've rearranged the sets to provide a bit of clarity and put them together under one collection HERE

 

I'm still updating the descriptions on some of the images. Here are a few samples....

 

Broad Gauge

 

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Built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1924, HSM 26215 2-8-0 on passenger pilot duties at Howrah (Calcutta)station - January 1979.

 

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Classic WP 7132 on the Eastern Railway departs Jha Jha, Bihar with the southbound 'Toofan Express' - January 1979.

 

Metre Gauge

 

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The North Eastern Railway operated a short metre gauge branch from Mathura to Vrindavan. On 11 November 1978 P class 4-6-0 31599 has stopped briefly just outside Mathura with a service from Vrindavan.

 

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Standard metre gauge passenger power in the 1970s were the YP class 4-6-2s. YP2179 was at Mahesana shed on the Western Railway on 26 October 1978.

 

Narrow Gauge

 

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The 2'0" gauge Coal India network in the North East corner of Assam used a number of small 0-4-0 'saddle tanks' built by W G Bagnall of Stafford. 'Betty' dating from built in 1931 was at work at Tirap mine on 24 January 1979.

 

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NH 755 was built by Kerr, Stuart & Co of Stoke-on-Trent in 1928. Fifty years later it was still in service on the Gwalior 2'0" gauge network of lines in central India - 8 November 1978.

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