Arun Rajagopal

My greatest rail-fanning moments on Indian Railways January 17, 2009

Many years ago, when I was a budding rail-fan, I was fascinated with being a railway guard on Indian Railways. I was so enamored with how the gentleman in white at the rear of the train would lean out of his cab, sound his shrill whistle in a high pitch and gently wave his green flag to let the train move. And as the train picked up speed, his waving of the flag would feverishly increase in its intensity till the train would disappear from your sight.

Years passed and my interest turned into locomotives and their drivers (called Loco Pilots in Indian Railways parlance). Specifically Assistant Loco Pilots who perform inspection of the loco, check signals, and wave the green flag in sync with the Guard at the rear, as the Loco Pilot sounds the horn and takes the train out of the station.

The entire action of a train starting from a station is one of my biggest rail-fanning moments. For a rail-fan like me, those are moments of great anticipation.

Sometimes there is a crew change. The few minutes when the old set of crew interacts with the fresh crew taking out the train are exciting. If there is a loco change, you can bet that there will be a crowd watching to see the loco getting coupled to the train.

Occasionally, you will see a very faithful loco driver pray at the control stand before taking out his ride. Some Assistant Loco Pilots carry waste paper in their hands as they do their loco check. None of them wear a uniform in the place where I come from.

Almost all of them eagerly await the signal of the guard before they start waving their flags. No Loco Pilot sounds the horn till they get a ‘right’ from the Guard. It doesn’t matter even if the starter (signal) is right (green). The Guard’s gotta say ‘aye’.

Sometimes, the train moves as a family makes a last bid effort to the board the train. If the Assistant Loco Pilot spots that he asks his chief to go a bit easy on the wheel.

And I almost forgot about the locos, depending on the type of loco, be it a Diesel (WDM2, WDM3D) or Electric (WAP4, WAM4, WAP1), they all come with different horns, different looks and different take-off actions, which makes each experience different.

A few weeks ago, I created a set of videos capturing the starting of trains at Ernakulam Junction, a major railway station in Kerala. These 12 videos feature probably everything I shared about my biggest rail-fanning moments. I was plain lucky to have the same vantage point for every video, a great place to watch these amazing locos take off. They may all look the same to many. But a true rail-fan will find each journey a different beginning.

Enjoy your videos!

A trip through Konkan Railway-1 August 10, 2007

A rail journey through the scenic Konkan Railway is the Indian rail-fan’s ultimate dream. The first time I travelled through Konkan Railway was on 14 December 2006 – from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) to Kerala on the 6345 Netravati Express. It was one of my most scenic rail trips ever. I clicked a few snaps then on the LTT-Panvel-Roha-Chiplun stretch, promising to do a full-fledged rail-photography session in the future.

A few days later, I travelled again from Kerala to Madgaon on the 168 Trivandrum-Dadar Holiday Special. I clicked a few snaps again, mostly on the Honnavar-Asnoti-Madgaon stretch. From Madgaon, I travelled to Mangalore on the 2619 Matsyagandha Express, mostly clicking snaps of Mangalore when the train got there in the early morning.

This year, I travelled from Ernakulam to Dadar on the Ernakulam-Dadar Holiday special that left Ernakulam after midnight (8 June 2007). This gave me a chance to photograph the stretch from Kannur-Kasaragod-Kankanadi-Udupi-Bhatkal-Kumta-Cancona-Madgaon during daytime. Click here to view a Google Map of my trip.

The journey was exciting and featured the following:

• Nature shots around North Kerala – spectacular curves with moody, cloudy atmosphere & rocking diesel action.
• My holiday special train turned out to be special as it stopped almost at every station on the route – that meant more photo-ops.
• An encounter with a RORO train between Bhatkal and Kumta. Click here for the video.
• An encounter with a vehicle transport NMG train at Bhatkal.
• Photo-ops with WDMs at Kankanadi.
• Amazing greenery & plethora of water bodies along the Konkan route – did a ‘tree portrait’ shoot along the way.
• Meeting a friendly railwayman at Cancona. Watch out for the video!
• Lip smacking sandwiches from Madgaon.
• An encounter with an incredibly long freight train after Madgaon. Watch out for the video!

I have uploaded images of the Ernakulam-Dadar (UP) trip on Flickr. Click here to view them. There are 162 snaps in all. I will upload snaps from my return trip from Mumbai to Kerala (DOWN) trip soon.

Slide gives me an awesome way to give you a sneak preview of my images in this happening ‘8mm film treatment’. If you like what you see in here, you can head to Flickr. As always, your comments are welcome!

Here’s my pick of the best 5 snaps.

And this is my all time fav…

And here’s a sneak look at the entire lot.

Trainspotting at Kollam August 10, 2007

Here’s a video from an afternoon of rail-fanning at my hometown – Kollam, Kerala, India. The train is none other than the 2626 New Delhi-Trivandrum Kerala Express hauled by new WAP4 on the block – 22694. The 2626 is my fav train! This rail-fanning spot is just opposite the SN College, Kollam next to the Kollam Junction Railway Station. You can hear me and my best buddy pass inane comments while ogling at the train. The best thing about this video was the group of travellers singing ‘Laila 0 Laila’. Enjoy!

Minutes later, the Kochuveli-Bangalore Express, hauled by a WDM2 passed by. Couldn’t take more snaps than this as the train passed just a few inches from where were sitting… 🙂 But it was such a scary but exhilarating feeling!

Trainspotting videos make me happy! July 25, 2007

I never knew what an ‘anorak’ meant till an enlightening conversation I had a few days ago with a journalist from Khaleej Times, Dubai, UAE. The conversation triggered me to start a new blog – one exclusively for the train love, snaps and the usual weepie tears of longing on days such as today when I terribly miss the clackety-clack of trains (a phrase coined by good friend Lewis Green) . The blog is currently under development, and it will be a while before I unveil it to the world… but now, here’s a collection of trainspotting videos from the back in the days, just to cheer me up. Hope you like them too 🙂

This is one is shot just outside Varanasi Railway Station. A group of straggler kids who live next to the railway lines join me in my rail-fanning pursuit. One of them was pretty high on dope. Note the smoker WDM2 from Gonda with the classic shrill steam engine whistle, a piece of paper getting buffetted in the wind by the sheer movement of the train, travellers hanging onto the door of the coach, the lady drying dung cakes (source of fuel)  next to the tracks, even my ‘poor’ Hindi – trying to catch the attention of the smiling assistant loco driver by calling him ‘Bhaisaab’ (brother), banter with the kids surrounding me… Shooting this was exciting!

The next two videos are shot on Konkan Railway… where my train had stopped for crossing. One of them is the Konkan Jan Shatabdi, probably the fastest train running on Konkan Railways & the other is the Okha-Ernakulam Express. Enjoy the ALCO beasts! And drop me a comment to cheer me up!

Big Brother vs. Small Brother July 22, 2007

Check out these two videos of a unique sight on Indian Railways – A metregauge train overtaking a broadgauge train and the latter exacting sweet revenge, in a few minutes. The action is set at Kollam Railway Station in Kerala which has a broadgauge line and a metregauge line that has now been decommissioned.

The trains in action are the 7229 Trivandrum-Hyderabad-Narsapur Sabari Express and the Kollam-Tirunelveli-Shencottah passenger. There was all-round excitement as the trains raced each other. While the MG train made early headway by leaving its platform first, the BG Sabari Express took some time to catch up and show what it was made up of.  The passengers of both trains loved the action.  I was travelling in the broadgauge train. My apologies for the rather not- up-to-the mark quality of the videos – it’s compression plus the direct sunlight on the camera. Neways, enjoy!

Trainspotting videos from Igatpuri July 20, 2007

Here are a few videos of my recent trainspotting adventures at Thull Ghat, Igatpuri.

Freight Train on bridge at Igatpuri
This one is probably the most interesting video as:
• I tripped on a rock as I was moving backwards to get out of the way of the incoming freight train.
• You can hear the whistles and shout-outs of the workers in the tunnel warning of the approaching train.
• I shot this video from a hutment at the edge of the bridge.
• This is a never-ending freight train and I got bored after a while shooting this video. You can see that I’m moving around the camera in weird angles out of sheer boredom.
• Right after shooting this video, I was chased off the bridge by a railway official.
• Did you notice the lovely, daredevil lady perched on the back of the last banker electric loco? I’m sure I can’t ride like that on a loco.
• If you got some spare time on your hands, why don’t you try counting the wagons in this train? First person to get the right answer gets a ‘special mention’ on this blog!
• Please note that there is no caboose in this freight train.
• That’s Suneel walking on the bridge at the end.
• OK, I will stop bugging your brains. On with the video.

Superfast train on Thull Ghat bridge at Igatpuri
Note the loud noise made by the LTT-Manmad Godavari Express as it gets on the bridge. And the ‘hitchhikers’ on the banker locos in the end.

Hike to get to Thull Ghat
A video of the idyllic surrounds of the village leading to Thull Ghat. The village is inhabited by a fishing community. Note the confluence of railway lines. You can see Suneel, the auto rickshaw driver who made my trainspotting adventures a reality.

Bankers rushing to Kasara
WAG Bankers on their way to fetch a train from Kasara. They are running on the down lines. Again note the presence of ‘hitchhikers’ on the banker locos. This video was shot behind the Bharat Petroleum Filling Station next to Ganaka Motel, Igatpuri.

Dedicated to all members of the IRFCA group and authors of ‘The Age of Conversation’ for bringing out an exciting book on conversation that is going to help a lot of kids smile.