05 July 2016

A coup of sorts at Mumbai CST!

Rajendra B. Aklekar

It was a coup of sorts at the UNESCO-listed Mumbai CST heritage railway headquarters on July 4. It was a momentous moment on the third day at the CST Heritage Week, a brainchild of Central Railway’s Additional General Manager A.K Srivastava, when he managed to get all the city’s heritage guardians and experts on a single platform to commemorate and conserve Mumbai CST.

To celebrate the iconic railway station, Central Railway has organised a CST Heritage Week between July 2 and July 8 coinciding with the dates when the structure was declared a World Heritage Site.

From Tasneem Mehta, Vice Chairman, INTACH & Managing Trustee & Hon. Director the Bhau Daji Lad Museum, who had originally submitted the dossier for Mumbai CST to UNESCO to get it listed as a World Heritage Site to former Railway Board Member VN Mathur who represented India in China at the UNESCO then and from the director of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vaastu Sangrahalaya (The Prince of Wales Museum) Sabyasachi Mukherjee to former bureaucrat Sharad Kale, the director of Asiatic Society.

Dr Dilip Balsekar, the director of the Maharashtra Government Archives, Rajiv Mishra, the director of the directorate of Art also representing JJ School of Arts, Dr Joan Dias, the director of Heras Institute at the St Xavier’s College Mumbai, also representing the Bombay Local History Society.

It was for the first time that all these veterans were on one platform, speaking on one common love the Victorian Gothic Mumbai CST railway station.

Tasneem Mehta spoke elaborately on how she, along with conservation architect Vikas Dilawari – who conducted a packed heritage walk on Day 1 of the week – had worked day and night to get the dossier of Mumbai CST ready for the UNESCO presentation twelve years ago. “We had a very short time and there was not enough data available. We caught hold of an old railway employee who guided us to the FW Stevens’ drawings of the building and that helped us a lot. We could just manage it within the given time,” she recalled.

Former Railway Board Member VN Mathur who represented India in China at the UNESCO said, “I was the secretary railway board and had to represent India at the UNESCO. I had never worked at Central Railway but the dossier helped me understand the station and fall in love with it. I came down to the station and studied it so as to understand it. It was a success as Mumbai CST had won the nomination. Today, 12 years after the event, I acknowledge and thank all those who worked hard to get this done,” Mathur said, adding that he was now writing a book on Indian Railway’s stations and their magnificent architecture.

“The British architects went wild when they came down to India and experimented with every possible style of architecture by building remarkable station buildings across India. There is need to appreciate, document and safeguard these for the future generations,” he added.

“I was surprised when the railways approached me and what would they want from a museum, but was glad to know that they are celebrating Mumbai CST. Millions commute to work here but no one really appreciates it. I am ready to extend all possible help from the museum,” said the director of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vaastu Sangrahalaya (The Prince of Wales Museum) Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Director of Asiatic Society Sharad Kale spoke at length on how the train created awe among the local populace when it had first run in 1850s. Rajiv Mishra, the director of the directorate of Art also representing JJ School of Arts elaborated on how the students of JJ School of Arts had helped the construction of Mumbai CST building and got the architect FW Steven’s drawings into reality. , Dr Joan Dias, the director of Heras Institute at the St Xavier’s College Mumbai, also representing the Bombay Local History Society extended all possible help to document and conserve the Mumbai CST building.

At the end of the event, former Central Railway general manager Sunil Kumar Sood handed over a set of archives to Dr Dilip Balsekar as a token gesture stating that the Maharashtra State Archives would extend help in conserving the valuable archives at the Central Railway.



But all said and done this was for the first time ever that all these dignitaries from almost all the reputed and like-minded institutions of this city and state have been brought together for Mumbai CST, thanks to Additional General Manager AK Srivastava and Chief Public Relations Officer Narendra Patil whose sincere efforts need to be acknowledged.

I have been interacting with all the dignitaries individually and I can tell you that all of them have always had love and concern for the monument and I am sure this gathering will lead to a much better conservation of this stately building and also of the archival records which are not just important for the railways, but also for this city as a whole. Amen! 


16 April 2016

One of earliest trains on Thane bridge!

Here's the actual pic of earliest train on Thane bridge. The famous one below is of Harris Bridge near Pune #IR163

16 points about India's first train journey -- 163 years of Indian Railways


163 YEARS OF INDIAN RAILWAYS

16 FACTS OF INDIA’S FIRST RAILWAY- 16 APRIL 2016- Rajendra B. Aklekar

India’s first passenger train with three Vulcan-built steam locomotives & 14 wooden rail cars ran between the 21 mile (34km) distance of Boree Bunder (today called Mumbai CST) & Thana (today called Thane) on Saturday, April 16, 1853 at 3:35pm. The journey completes 163 years today on April 16, 2016, also a Saturday. 

Here are 16 fascinating points about it from my book Halt Station India.

11 April 2016

Another relic along India's first railway line pulled down


Sigh! A relic along Indian Railways' first railway line goes down. Old stone cabin Kurla station on platform 1 demolished to make way for a public utility. Not that it was a part of the actual first line, but definitely along the original route of the G.I.P Railway, the country's first railway company and belonging to that era, a cute little stone structure. The first black/white pic in the collage is a shot of the same cabin as featured in the 1974 Hindi film '27 Down' directed by Awtaar Krishna Kaul.


A historic ride and War of Currents on Indian Railways

A historic ride and War of Currents on Indian Railways

Rajendra B. Aklekar

Inventor Nikola Telsa finally won over Thomas Alva Edison in the war or currents on Indian Railways and the midnight of April 9-10 was a historic one for rail fans and followers of Indian Railways.

The story goes that in the late 19th century, inventors Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla battled over which electricity system—direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC)–would become world standard. Their battle was termed as the ‘War of the Currents’. While Edison, who developed the world’s first practical light bulb, phonograph, the motion picture camera, championed the direct-current system, while Tesla pushed for the alternating-current system, which could be distributed over long distances much more economically than DC.

Archives state that the India’s first railway company, The Great Indian Peninsula Railway, that also ran the country’s first main-line electric train in 1925 (Trams and industrial locos had already been running by then) chose Edison’s 1500V Direct Current for its higher start-up power and easy speed control with various combinations. It was in 1956 that the shift happened to Telsa after a study and recommendation by S.N.C.F, the French government railways to adopt 25,000V AC single-phase traction as a standard for Indian Railways to meet the challenge of the growing traffic. The power mode was switched over in phases since then and the original line where it all started became the last line in the country for the switch-over.

The last Direct Current train on the mainline of Indian Railways ran between the 16-km distance of Kurla and Mumbai CST stations on the midnight of April 9-10, 2016. The train was welcomed with live bands, dance performances and celebrations at most of the stations on the route. The journey of India’s first electric train had started on the same route and it ended at the same station, Mumbai CST where it had all begun 91 years ago. The special last train, with the General Manager Brigadier Sunil Kumar Sood, senior officials, media, rail fans and invitees, departed Kurla at 1130pm on Saturday, April 9, 2016 from platform 8 at Kurla suburban station and reached Mumbai CST exactly at 12:22am on Sunday April 10, 2016 as I photographed, video-graphed and live-tweeted the entire event with pics on my account @rajtoday. It was indeed a matter of pride and honour to be a part of the historic last DC train journey on the mainlines of Indian Railways. DC traction, however, continues to remain on the Kolkata Metro, a zone of Indian Railways, which is powered by a 750V DC third line.

It was 91 years ago on Tuesday, February 3, 1925 from Victoria Terminus, now UNESCO-listed Mumbai CST, that the India’s first mainline electric train, with DC power, had been flagged off by Bombay Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson (Governor-Dec 1923-March 1926) from platform 2. The last DC train on Sunday, April 10, 2016, that was piloted by motorman Anupam Dongre, arrived at platform one, to be welcomed by the Divisional Railway Manager and his team, in the presence of two Members of Parliament Arvind Sawant and Rahul Shewale.  

The DC-diamond pantograph went down for one last time and the ‘dead‘ train was towed away by a shunter loco, a few minutes’ delay happened during coupling due to jammed knobs, as if the DC train did not want to leave service and Mumbai CST the last time so easily.

As the train reached Mumbai CST to a live band by Central Railway team in uniform, there more dances and performances at Mumbai CST and a was a small formal function at the Star Chamber, the glorious FW Sevens designed booking hall, with screens of the control room and the switchover. The magnificent building remained lit throughout the night.

Earlier in the day, I had started my journey from Sanpada carshed where I joined the other rail fans to decorate the last DC train that was being prepared for the journey. The ‘Art Deco’ Jessop-series 319 train had been chosen for the journey and painted over in the original standard brown-yellow colour that had been the signage of Mumbai trains over the past ninety years. 

The Central Railway had come out a plan to sell tickets for Rs 10,000 per seat for a ride in the historic train so the train really had to look good. But at the end of the day, no one turned up to buy tickets and invitees and general public joined the event, giving it a true Mumbai colour. While the whirring sound of the motor coaches and other features of the old train that I have grown up with will be solely missed, one physical feature that will go missing for sure is the DC diamond-shaped pantograph. Adieu DC trains!