My Railway Art and Craft!

 While learning about how our our railways came to existence, I made many drawings, and coach models on the way. I'll post all I've made, over here. More will be added soon!

Today, on 22nd of June 2023, I completed a drawing of the the First Electric Local of India, that ran between VT and Kurla on 3rd Feb 1925. This was quite a long project, partly because I took a lot of breaks, owing to school life. The photograph, was of the first electric local, on the Sandhrust Rd. elevated station, just before entering it. While the Local moves on the elevated tracks, the main line track move from below. One can see a bridge faraway nearly at the base of which, the elevated rail bridge touches the ground. On the right of the picture are the old Chawls.

The First Electric Local

Today, on 17th March 2024, I completed my blueprint like sketch of the first double decker coaches as used by the BB&CI Railway in 1864. These were Third Class coaches, and were aimed at providing some comfort to the traveler class often ignored.

1863 Double Decker Coaches

More to be added soon!

A Journey to Victoria Terminus (that turned into a relic hunt)

 This is a sort of a predecessor to the previous post, here I detail my journey to the iconic CSMT (erstwhile VT), which turned out to be quite a relic hunting exercise for me!

The Intriguing Journey

We finally arranged for a trip to CSMT from my home station of Borivali. Since we had to change trains due to the lack of direct connectivity, an idea struck my mind. What if we change at Bandra, and take a Harbour line Local?  I looked at the schedule, and found that if this were to be done, there would have to be a long waiting period at Bandra, owing to difference in train timings. But even this would be a bonus, since I would get to spend time at the 1869 built, and 1888 rebuilt Bandra station. Further, I knew from the book 'Halt Station India' by Mr. Rajendra Aklekar, that the pillars of the station were made of six double headed rails (tracks) dating back to 1888, bound together. 

We left for Bandra in the morning, and reached by 9:30. The first thing that fell into my sight was the beautiful station building. Next, I quickly searched for the pillars. And indeed there were six double headed rails bound together. 

The Pillars at Bandra Stn.,
 holding the roof.

On observing this, I couldn't find any readable inscriptions. Luckily, I found a bunch just nearby, this time with much more readable inscriptions-                                                              

Inscriptions on the rails.

          Inscriptions on the rails.

The inscriptions are still not quite readable, but at least they read 'BB.CI', mentioning the erstwhile BB&CI railway that constructed today's Western Line. From there, we went to Platform 7, where we had to board our CST Local. It was on the footbridge, that I had a look of the magnificent station building.                                                                                    

The Bandra Station building

We then moved to the aforementioned platform, boarded the local, and set off towards CSMT. A while after departing from Bandra, we diverged from the Western Line, to enter the Harbour Branch. We passed through several old bridges and stations. While finding the images of these for the post, I found something amazing. At first glance, the structure below seems to be a normal stone bridge, given a white paint. But with a closer look, one finds an inscription saying 'October 1908' carved in the middle.                                                                 

The Bridge

The inscription in the middle,
I found accidentally while zooming in.

The interesting part was when we were travelling on the section between King's Circle station, and Vadala Rd, when the already elevated line gradually moved higher and higher, before descending at Vadala. For an idea, see the picture below-                                              

How High the line goes

                    How High the line goes

After a while, we reached Reay Rd. This was an important station, being the orignal terminus when the Harbour Line opened back on 12 December 1910. I was especially excited for this, since the orignal structure of the station survives till date. I was unwilling to miss a thing, and promptly started recording. And of-course a Local poked its way in the video, when the stone wall part came.                                                                                         

 We then finally reached Wadi Bunder, and got a bird's eye view of the Central Railway carshed there. From far could be seen the Hancock bridge, built in 1879, rebuilt in 1923, or a hundred years ago. I recorded this scene, and amidst that, mistook the Hancock bridge for the Carnac Bridge. (I muted the video, cause my brother messed with the audio)         

               

Interestingly enough, at the start of the clip, you can spot the new Deccan Queen rakes inside the Wadi Bunder Carshed, following which are many more coaches of various types (all of them being either the Utkrisht or the LHB Rajdhani rakes) I zoomed into the Hancock bridge, after which the train entered the Rail electrification era- Sandhrust Rd station. After that, I was just on a hunt for the Famous Carnac Bridge; having forgotten that the bridge had been demolished back in last year. 

From there we went forward, eventually entering the Terminus of CSMT. The train went through a curve, and entered the UNESCO designated station. I really felt a sense of pride, entering the heritage station, the same way commuters did 135 years ago.

 The moment the train halted at its terminus, I saw an AC Local right beside our platform-A sign of innovation, among its origins. I had been to the station, back after an entire year. This station, I had first visited on 2nd October 2018, Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. I had traveled all the way here with my aunt, just to view this ancient masterpiece. And I was back here.

I then marched ahead with pride, watching my favourite station's features. There was the roof, the pillars, near me, and the station's side walls, with their stained glass type windows afar. The next thing I spotted was the still-functioning clock. Of course I took pictures. I started recording a video of the hands moving, and since I did not want to miss the movement of the clock hands, started this much before. If you pay close attention (pls excuse my shaky hands), you will see the hand moving, and then oscillating here and there, before finally taking rest at 10:30.

While in a hurry to leave, I quickly captured a picture of the stained glass windows, the quality of which does not look good, due to the zoom quality of my phone. But trust me, it looked magnificent with the light shining through the coloured glass patterns.

Next I visited the nearby booking office. To say at the least, it was glorious. 

The glorious Ticket Office chamber

And along with these glories, were unique sculptures on every pillar.

A Lion sculpture on one of the pillars

On the Western wall was a weird insignia of some sort, but as my mother pointed out, it actually read 'GIPR' the railway company that built the lines and this building, written in a creative manner.

   

Try to figure out the letters yourself. then of course, we went outside the building, and in front of us, was the icon of the Construction, the central part.And the resolution of this just happens to be good.

In this image, you can see the centerpiece clock, and the empty spot of the original statue of Queen Victoria, that stood below the clock. Besides these are the numerous design windows and at the top, the 'Crown of the station' (of course, I gave this name). At the top of the crown, is the Lady of Progress, holding a train wheel in one hand, and a lamp in the other, symbolizing the progress railways brought to the land and the sides of the crown, are sculptures of various animals. Just beside, was the Municipal Corporation building, just too beautiful to be left out here.

The BMC Headquarter building

Then we basically head towards the P.D.Mello Road, to reach Gallery adjacent to CSMT Platform 18. On the way, I took some more images. I would like to end this post with them.

Ticket Office Entrance West Side

CSMT Front Side

CSMT from Eastern Side

The 'Crown' from behind

Stained Glass Windows on the insides

Thank You for the Scroll!

- The Rail History Guy

A Visit to the CSMT Heritage Gallery

 Rail Heritage is quite a dwindling topic. Not many are interested, or know about how the railways with which they travel, and are connected with, began in the first place. However, taking a look at this topic, provides an interesting look of the city we reside in, and the railways we commute with. 

Mumbai's railways still possess those ancient artifacts from its old days. These include bells, pillars, footbridges, cabins, platforms, station buildings, rail crossings, etc of the stations, and even the road bridges built over them, to replace older rail crossings. These are however being lost day by day. Last Year, the 1868 built Carnac bridge too was razed after being deemed unsafe by a report by IIT. In 2020, a railway bridge (known as the Amrutanjan Bridge due an advertisement of the company put on bridge post independence) of the old Reversing Station in the Bhor Ghat was demolished, owing to accidents in the area caused due to the curve the vehicles had to navigate to pass under the bridge's pillars. I remember getting emotional on watching the demolition video, having passed under it by road several times on my way to Pune. 

Some of these artifacts have to be demolished for safety reasons, but still one can certainly find innovative ideas to preserve the glory of the same. For instance, at the ends of the Carnac bridge, were inscriptions, recording the name of the bridge in English, Devanagari and Gujarati, along with one corner stating the date of opening as 1868. These blocks were thankfully shifted to an open air heritage gallery, located in the area between CSMT platform no.18 and the P.D.Mellow Road, remaining the last remains of this iconic bridge. 

Excuse the blur of the image below. I was just so excited to be supposedly visiting to the site of the Bori Bunder station, that I did not even pause to take a clear image.

Carnac Bridge from CSMT pf no.18.
(photo taken in 2022)

A Visit to this place second time!

This open air gallery cum garden was opened on a World Heritage day one year. The gully houses several rail artifacts, like Old Locomotives, Coaches, Cranes, and other apparatus. Also worth mention are of course the stone blocks of the Carnac Bridge. I visited this place for the first time in 2019, in my fifth grade, and was amazed by the artifacts and their form. Curiously, the gallery has undergone a change, and the pictures I took back then turned out to be useful for comparison with the changes recently done to the gallery.

I was eagerly waiting to give another visit to this place again. Hence on 8th April, I pleaded to my parents to take me to this location again. I was wishing to have a visit on 16th of April 2023, since the day marked the 170th anniversary of the First train in Bombay, that ran just some distance away from this gallery on 16th April 1853. However reasons meant that the plan kept on being postponed, and it was not until 5th of May, that the wish came into fruition. 

If you wish to read the Journey experience, where I mentioned several artifacts I spotted, Visit the following post!

The Heritage Garden.

After the Journey to CSMT, we had to take a sort of a long distance route, since we didn't want to enter a express station with a local ticket. We traveled to the P.D Mello Road, from where we reached the entrance. I took a final dramatic pause behind the footpath wall, before finally seeing the place I last visited 4 years ago. The place, as already knew, had changed quite a it. A steam Locomotive on the eastern side had been removed, and a Rail Bus was added to the 'collection'. The first thing I was excited to see, was India's first Electric Freight Locomotive series loco, the EF-1:

1) EF-1

The name EF-1 refers to (Electric Freight-1). These Locomotives were introduced in 1928, as freight locos to be powered by Electric Traction, for the first time in India. They were named Sir Leslie Wilson, honoring the then Governor of Bombay. They were built by Swiss Locomotive Works, with electrical equipment from  Metropolitan Vickers, England. Only two of these survive, one being in the National Rail Museum in New Delhi, and the other one being here at CSMT. Both of these were stationed at Wadi Bunder Car shed. Apart from pulling Goods trains, they were also used on the Bhor Ghat incline, to push trains. Post Independence,its designation was changed to WCG-1 (standing for Broad Gauge, DC Traction Goods-1) .Interestingly, they were referred to as Khekada by their staff. 

The one at the Heritage Gully, was the serial no. 20067 as per Indian Railway designation. This locomotive has received paintwork in the past 4 years. Having a photo of the Loco 4 years ago and now, I could sense the difference. The former looked dull, while the latter looks much better. You can see it yourself, below-

Before

And After

This time I wanted to really have a look into its inside. Back in my 5th Grade, I was completely reluctant to enter the previously exhibited steam locomotive, thinking it might be forbidden. Since then the steam locomotive has been shifted to somewhere else. Hence, this time I was determined to have a look inside, having seen the condition of the interior from an image taken by someone else of the present state of the driving cabin. 

I would like to mention, that it is not recommended to do so, as I found out later, while filming the insides of a rail inspection wagon there, when a watchman scolded me mildly, saying you aren't supposed to go inside. But I think seeing the condition of these from inside was worth it. The Cabin was dusty, the floor plates of the narrow corridor inside the loco to access the other cabins were in a shaky condition. It was there that I found out, that these exhibits weren't taken care of on the insides.

The Electrical

The meters

Controls, and a dusty dashboard.

The cabin was very dusty. As a strong supporter of rail heritage, I firmly decided to clean it. I asked for a rough cloth, having none I used a cloth bag. I gave the dashboard, and the walls, a through wipe, when my works led me to an interesting plate. The plate, dust laden had inscriptions reading something faintly, like Metropolitan Vickers, (the company that had provided the electricals). On giving a thorough wipe, it became much more readable.

The Plate with Inscriptions.

Again I would like to say, it is not recommended to go inside. I was scolded later. It isn't allowed probably because anyone going inside, might damage the loco interiors. When I entered, there was, on the back wall of the cabin, a "Love Heart with names" a common example of vandalism. Hence You shouldn't go inside.

But the thing I would like to highlight, is the condition of the interiors. It's not good. If anything struck me the most on entering, was the poor condition inside. The railways certainly took care, and painted the exteriors. Even if it isn't visible, they should be restored, either by railway workers themselves, or by assigning some person to do so (which I would certainly like to be). These aren't just some random relics things found in scrapyards, even those are treasures; these are important pieces of historical events, linking to the origins of our railways.

While inside, I decided to make a video of the interiors, as it was, I thought, a unique experience. The video below is an edited one, the original having a lot of orientation changes. Again excuse the light adjustment quality of my device)

More Information to be added soon!

The Railroads of Bombay Blogspot

 I have created this blog to share some things I found amazing about Bombay's Railways to you. Here I'll post some information about the heritage of our beloved railway's stations, and experiences of my visits to Heritage Galleries, or about some relics I happen to find at different stations. Here, I will try to provide as  accurate of an information I can, and spread the word about our Railways' rich heritage

The name of the blog too has a bit of meaning in it. I have mentioned Bombay specifically to refer to the earliest railways of the city, then called Bombay. I decided to focus specifically on Bombay itself, since that would help dive into details. This is also, because I want the information of this topic to be accessible, since I myself had to search quite a bit to find those pieces of information myself.

I started writing on the history of our City's railways back in August 2021 on Wikipedia, when I edited the page on Borivali Railway station under the name of the user Historical Trains. Since then I have edited 13 pages on various railway stations, majorly.

Now about My Story of Passion

As a child, I was probably not quite interested in railways since the beginning. 

I had a deep interest for Space Science since my 1st Grade, something which has, by now extended to all of Physics and other sciences. That was more or less(if not, all) of it. It was only in third grade, that my curiosity for railways began. The beginning, you might find weird and small, but it eventually turned to my side passion today. 

All started in my 3rd grade, I found the game Indian Train Simulator on Playstore. The game in my opinion is probably the most realistic Indian Train Simulation you can find. The game included several Indian Locomotives, Coaches, and Routes. It was there, that I learned to identify different Locos and Coaches.-

So whenever I traveled by a train (i.e very often), there was I recognizing WAP-4 from its non boxy shape, with a all red yellow strip livery, to recognizing WDS-6 from its diesel loco shape, yellow colour, with a green strip. 

WDS-6 at CSMT (or VT)

I even learnt to identify coaches quite well. A coach (mostly of LHB) with red seen profoundly with a grey band down, was Rajdhani, same design but with blue in place of red was Shatabdi, same design as Shatabdi, but with a yellow line along the grey band was the Gatimaan. These are mosly of the German LHB (Linke-Hoffmann Busch design. Of the ICF (Integral Coach Factory, Chennai) are the Garib Rath Express with a green colour and yellow strip, and of-course the classic, ICF Blue.

This interest just grew gradually ever since. There has probably never been a locomotive pass through the front of my eyes, without me speaking out its name. In my fourth grade, I drew a map of Bombay's railway network, which I referred m-indicator's map for, and also drew some railway drawings in my art lectures. In December of the same year, while on a return trip from Nagpur, a less knowledgeable me, confusing tracks in the Thal Ghat going up the hills as alternatives to tunnels, praising the steam trains for being able to climb such inclines. I didn't know they were Catch Sidings going up hill for the same reason that trains would not cross that incline very easily, and stop to safety more easily in an emergency.

The Range Widens

In my fifth grade, the range of it widened, with I being interested with the history of this railway too. That year, my parents gifted me two books on railway history by the rail historian Rajendra. B. Aklekar. Probably one of my inspirations as well. I remember sketching the image of the First Electric Local of CR (then GIPR) on the Sandhrust Rd bridge, on that day itself. That year, I also found some Magazines published by the erstwhile BB&CI Railway (today's WR), digitized and published on WR Website. Did not realise back then, but those documents were filled with loads of interesting information. Thses documents ranged from 1923 to 1961, covering a time period pre-, and post- independence. I procured printed copies of those, and they came handy later. 

The same year, I had my first trip of the 1860s constructed Bhor Ghat section of the CR,  travelling to my second home in Pune, and also my first long distance train Trip by Railways, when I traveled to South India for a Family Trip. The scenes from the windows of either of those was mesmerizing, of the mountains, waterfalls, tunnels, and inclines in the case of the former, and fields, Coconut Trees, and houses, in the case of the latter. In my opinion back then, it was the express and passenger trains that were beautiful (as I still believe), rather than the regular Locals. Given a preference among the two, I would certainly choose the former.

Writing on Wikipedia

It was the immediate next year, when Lockdown began in India. I was stuck at home, unable to escape the bubble. Amidst that, I looked at Wikipedia, which I read quite a bit often. I decided to contribute something, and made an account in August 2021 in the name of Historical Trains. My first contribution was that to Borivali Railway station. Being my locality station, I was attached towards it, even more so after learning it was a station on the first Regular Suburban Local service of the BB&CIR (today's Western Railway), when the service commenced on 12 April 1867. I found some info from those BB&CI Magazines, but it just wasn't enough. I was disappointed with the lack of any proper history section on several (or I might say many) station pages on Wikipedia. My emotional connection with my locality station was probably what encouraged me to be an editor on Wikipedia. I added a history section to Borivali station page, and wrote about it being a station on that first suburban service. That was promptly deleted by someone for not citing a source. I then wrote again, this time with citations. I also added one picture each of a Thal Ghat viaduct (from my Nagpur trip) and a WCAM-3 Loco(from my Pune Trip) to their respective pages. Then more or less within the context of railways, I was offline at Wikipedia, until March of 2022. It was then. that I started doing minor edits to other pages, either for accuracy, or for adding information. 

I finally began large scale editing this year in 2023. I edited pages for the first time with other sources too, and all that made everything a lot more interesting. On April 22nd, I gave attention to my User page, writing about my passion and mission there. My first Major and by that I mean Major, edit was of the Colaba Terminus Page, showing a sixer with a +2693 score at once. Next was my beloved Borivali, with a +1214, where I added a description of the station's remodelling scheme of 1913, all referring to a single available diagram. The same was done with Virar station later. The next major edit was Bandra station with +2118. 

There is an old railway bridge from mid 1920s you can spot while traveling over the Vasai Creeks between Bhayandar and Naigaon. Lying between them is the Panju Island. In earlier times, there used to be a station of the same name, very likely on the island itself. I spotted the gap, and added an entire section relating railways to Panju Island on the latter's page on 15 May with +2354. Following were many other edits, major ones being that of Byculla, and Bori Bunder twice, with that of Bori Bunder being my single largest edit at once, when I wrote the section on the celebrations of the first train.

Wikipedia was a place I found, where people could learn new things. If people are depending on it, It must be the best. Wikipedia is made best by its Contributors, and I decided to be one of them. I hoped that someone else seeking the same thing I was back in 21' did not have to search far to learn, as I did.

Opening this Blog page was just because there is a greater freedom of expression and topics than on Wikipedia. Here, along with information, I can also post experiences, site visits, Gallery Visits, and more. The intention being, I want to express my knowledge to others, hoping it helps those too in search of missing pieces in the giant jigsaw of History, just as I am.

- The Rail History Guy