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!
