Tuesday 22 May 2012
Foreword by Sir Mark Tully
( excerpts)
The
engineers who built the Indian railways
constructed lines that climbed mountains, crossed deserts, ran the
length of the Gangetic plain, linked the great centers of commerce, and
provided relief for remote villagers threatened with famine. As the renowned
travel writer and railway traveler Paul Theroux has rightly said, “the railway
builders sewed together the entire subcontinent with a stitching of
track.”
Although
the imperious Governor General of India , Lord Dalhousie, had decreed
that there should only be one gauge so that India would avoid the problems Britain created
by building two different gauges, eventually the Indian subcontinent was sewn
together with stitches of four different sizes. This book tells the story of
the network which pioneered the two smallest gauges of railways in India , known as
the narrow gauges. The Dabhoi system consisted of branch lines constructed on a gauge only two foot six wide because the
traffic was never going to warrant the expense of the broad gauge, but it was
firmly stitched to the mainline.
The
Dabhoi railways main purpose was to replace the bullock carts which carried
opium grown in the Gaikwad’s state, Baroda , on the first stage of its journey to the
ports from where the drug was shipped to
China .
In the nineteenth century opium stemmed the flow of silver from the imperial
coffers. It balanced the books which had been severely in the red because of Britain ’s
demand for Chinese tea, textiles, spices, and other commodities. When the opium
trade ended the Dabhoi railways busied themselves carrying cotton, again
serving imperial interests by keeping the mills of Manchester spinning and weaving.
. A great deal has been written about the mountain narrow gauge lines but historians have not had much to say about the lines that ran in the plains., so this history of the pioneering Dabhoi lines is particularly valuable, and makes fascinating reading.
Chapter 1
( From book Dabhoi Lines)
Bombay se Baroda tak
Kennedy Bridge,
located amongst hustle bustle of shops, houses and many activities, very close
to Grant Road station, witnesses hundreds of local trains passing under it
every day. It is one amongst many bridges created long ago to make road and rail
traffic co exist peacefully. Most of these bridges were named after Governors, (Frere,
Reay, Carnac, Elphinstone amongst them) but this and one more were named after
men who made link of Mumbai with Western and Northern India possible. Kennedy Bridge,
an observer to growth of first B.B. &C.I. and now Western Railway, was named after Lieutenant
Colonel John Pitt Kennedy, a visionary and planner who dreamt about western
lines and executed it. Not very far from this bridge is another one named after
Colonel P.T.French, co founder of B.B. &C.I. and whose statue shares
pedestal with Kennedy at Church Gate headquarters of Western Railway. J.P.Kennedy, mooted the idea for western
lines linking Bombay with Northern-Western part of country and Baroda was an
important part of his plans. His scheme got some initial resistance but was
supported by Sir J.P. Grant, which made it see light of the day (not the one on
whom Grant Road station has been named. Like most of the bridges stations too
have been named on Bombay Governors and Grant Road was named on Sir Robert
Grant, Governor of Bombay (1835-1839), son of Charles Grant, Chairman of
Directors of East India Company. It is another matter that Sir J.P. Grant was
at one time considered for gubernatorial assignment during 1861 and 1862, but
Lord Canning before his retirement recommended name of Sir Bartle Frere (Sir Bartle Frere and his times: a study of
his Bombay years, 1862-1867 By Rekha Ranade) who assumed charge on 22nd
April 1862.)
Plan for linking Mumbai with Western
–Northern India via Vadodara (then Baroda) was part of early schemes.
Introduction of Railway in India was much debated in 1840s. In October 1846, a
committee of Court of Directors presented its report dealing with the general
issues and listed number of projects which can be taken. There were 15
projects, and 14th was ‘ Bombay,Surat,Barodah’.
Except two suggested lines, number 4 and 12, linking Calcutta and Diamond
Harbor and Madras with Pondicherry via Arcot , all other projects were
undertaken, suggesting meticulous analysis.
However, Board of Directors
declined to accept specific proposals and confined their remarks to the
question of introduction of railways into India. They resolved that the first
line in India ought to be long one and first railway line was to be from
Calcutta to Delhi via Mirzapore. There was a lot of discussion about terms of
guarantee and three members strongly dissented alleging that the state of
information about railway in India is imperfect. On 19th December
1846, result of deliberations was communicated to Board of control, which
accepted need for early introduction of railways into India.
East India Railway (E.I.R) was
established on 1 June 1845 in London by a deed of settlement with a capital of
£4,000,000, largely raised in London. It was the first railway company with a goal
of introducing railway network to eastern and northern India. Second company to
be incorporated was Great Indian Peninsular Railway (G.I.P.R.), linking Mumbai
with Central India. The G.I.P.R was incorporated on August 1, 1849 by an act
of the British Parliament. It had a share capital of 50,000 pounds. On August
17, 1849 it entered into a formal contract with the East India Company for the
construction and operation of a line, 56 km long, to form part of a trunk line
connecting Bombay with Khandesh and Berar and with the other presidencies of
India. Company which was to link Mumbai with Vadodara, came much later in 1855,
as there were many doubts and issues about linking Mumbai with the
North-Western India.
Monday 21 May 2012
Railway Poems
Motions and Means, on land and sea at war
With old poetic feeling, not for this,
Shall ye, by Poets even, be judged amiss!
Nor shall your presence, howsoe'er it mar
The loveliness of Nature, prove a bar 5
To the Mind's gaining that prophetic sense
Of future change, that point of vision, whence
May be discovered what in soul ye are.
In spite of all that beauty may disown
In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace 10
Her lawful offspring in Man's art; and Time,
Pleased with your triumphs o'er his brother Space,
Accepts from your bold hands the proffered crown
Of hope, and smiles on you with cheer sublime.
William Wordsworth
From a
Railway Carriage by R.L. Stevenson
Faster than fairies,
faster than witches,Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Railway Poems
( these poems are displayed at Vadodara Railway Museum as a part of Gallery on Railway and Popular culture)
Restaurant Car by Louis MacNeice
Fondling only to throttle the nuzzling moment
Smuggled under the table, hungry or not
We roughride over the sleepers, finger the menu,
Avoid our neighbours' eyes and wonder what
Mad country moves beyond the steamed-up window
So fast into the past we could not keep
Our feet on it one instant. Soup or grapefruit?
We had better eat to pass the time, then sleep
To pass the time. The water in the carafe
Shakes its hips, both glass and soup plate spill,
The tomtom beats in the skull, the waiters totter
Along their invisible tightrope. For good or ill,
For fish or meat, with single tickets only,
Our journey still in the nature of a surprise,
Could we, before we stop where all must change,
Take one first risk and catch our neighbours' eyes?
Smuggled under the table, hungry or not
We roughride over the sleepers, finger the menu,
Avoid our neighbours' eyes and wonder what
Mad country moves beyond the steamed-up window
So fast into the past we could not keep
Our feet on it one instant. Soup or grapefruit?
We had better eat to pass the time, then sleep
To pass the time. The water in the carafe
Shakes its hips, both glass and soup plate spill,
The tomtom beats in the skull, the waiters totter
Along their invisible tightrope. For good or ill,
For fish or meat, with single tickets only,
Our journey still in the nature of a surprise,
Could we, before we stop where all must change,
Take one first risk and catch our neighbours' eyes?
Night Mail
Mail crossing the bordThis is the Night Mer,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.
Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced
coaches.
Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.
Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade
of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea
lochs
Men long for news.
Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from the girl and the boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers' declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and
Lowlands
Notes from overseas to Hebrides
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring,
The cold and official and the heart's
outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all
wrong.
Thousands are still asleep
Dreaming of terrifying monsters,
Or of friendly tea beside the band at
Cranston's or Crawford's:
Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set
Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
And shall wake soon and long for letters,
And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself
forgotten
W.H. Auden
Railway Poems
Railway Poems
THE TOURIST'S ALPHABET
(Railway Edition)
A is the affable guard whom you square :
B is the Bradshaw which leads you to swear :
C is the corner you fight to obtain :
D is the draught of which others complain :
E are the enemies made for the day :
F is the frown that you wear all the way :
G is the guilt that you feel going third :
H is the humbug by which you 're deterred :
I is the insult you'll get down the line :
J is the junction where you '11 try to dine :
K is the kettle of tea three weeks old :
L are the lemon drops better unsold :
M is the maiden who says there's no meat :
N is the nothing you thus get to eat :
O is the oath that you use and do right :
P is the paper to which you don't write :
Q are the qualms to directors unknown :
R is the row which you '11 find all your own :
S is the smash that is " nobody's fault :"
T is the truth, that will come to a halt :
U is the pointsman who 's up the whole night :
V is the verdict that says it 's " all right."
W stands for wheels flying off curves :
X for express that half shatters your nerves :
Y for the yoke from your neck that you fling,
and Z for your zest as you cut the whole thing !
( This poem and many others are displayed at Vadodara railway museum as a part of "Railway and Popular culture Gallery "
ON THE PROJECTED KENDAL AND WINDERMERE RAILWAY
Is then no nook of English ground secure
From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown
In youth, and 'mid the busy world kept pure
As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown,
Must perish;--how can they this blight endure?
And must he too the ruthless change bemoan
Who scorns a false utilitarian lure
'Mid his paternal fields at random thrown?
Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orresthead
Given to the pausing traveller's rapturous glance:
Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance
Of nature; and, if human hearts be dead,
Speak, passing winds; ye torrents, with your strong
And constant voice, protest against the wrong.
October 12, 1844.
This sonnet appeared 16 October 1844 in the Morning Post. Wordsworth, who had been named poet laureate the previous year, was protesting the construction of a railway line from Kendal to Windermere. With the line, it was argued that large numbers of factory workers would be able to take day trips to the Lake District, thus escaping urban blight. To Wordsworth, in his beloved country home, it meant rural blight.
Tuesday 15 May 2012
Pictures from Dabhoi Lines book
Banquet in honor of Lord Chelmsford after foundation laying ceremony of Goya Gate ( now Pratap nagar Workshop, 1919) |
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Loading of cotton in Dabhoi Lines |
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Different sections of Dabhoi LinesHeadquarters of Gaikwad Baroda State Raiway (GBSR) estd..1921….which ran India’s oldest NG net work –Dabhoi Lines…presently Div. Railway Manager Office Vadodara |
Sunday 6 May 2012
Dabhoi Lines has a face book page where you can join and like the book.
Foreword of Book has been written by Mark Tully.
Some part of foreword is produced bellow
Foreword by Mark Tully
The
engineers who built the Indian railways
constructed lines that climbed mountains, crossed deserts, ran the
length of the Gangetic plain, linked the great centers of commerce, and
provided relief for remote villagers threatened with famine. As the renowned
travel writer and railway traveler Paul Theroux has rightly said, “the railway
builders sewed together the entire subcontinent with a stitching of
track.”
Although
the imperious Governor General of India , Lord Dalhousie, had decreed
that there should only be one gauge so that India would avoid the problems Britain created
by building two different gauges, eventually the Indian subcontinent was sewn
together with stitches of four different sizes. This book tells the story of
the network which pioneered the two smallest gauges of railways in India , known as
the narrow gauges. The Dabhoi system consisted of branch lines constructed on a gauge only two foot six wide because the
traffic was never going to warrant the expense of the broad gauge, but it was
firmly stitched to the mainline.
In celebration of 150 years of Indian Narrow Gauge : Dabhoi Lines
Dabhoi-Miyagam was the beginning of the NG in India
and line is running after 150 years.
When all over the world NG lines are becoming more a subject of
nostalgia and journey into yester years, it is ferrying passengers every day,
five trains, seven coaches, serving passengers as it was serving at the time of
Khande Rao Gaikwad. It is a line with
difference. When line was conceived,
there were no NG lines not only in India but in any nearby country.
Dabhoi lines documents this and many other shades of
history, which provided backdrop for construction of this line and its
development. This development ushered
Baroda into a position, where its railway density and number of industries were
way above the national average. It is a
book about railway history. But it is
more than railway history book talks about.
It delves closely into economic history, works more as a micro-history
and looks Baroda as a microcosm to understand bigger processes undergoing in
late 19th century and early 20th Century.
The
book tries to map evolution of N.G. Lines in Baroda State, how its various
branches grew and a strong network emerged. At the same time it also makes an
attempt to look into various concerns which affect any infrastructure work
today and how it was addressed by Gaikwads. Issue of land, heavy capital
required for funding of infrastructure and its long gestation period, role of
various regulatory authorities and many such questions always beg answer and it
was fascinating that how such issues were tackled 150 years back.
.
Sayajirao Gaikwad had underlined the purpose of railway development in his
famous speech, ““It was of primary importance that the Baroda
Territories should be opened up, and after balancing the requirements and the
limitations, I decided to concentrate upon railways, provided the configuration
of the country permitted, the cost was not prohibitive and there was a prospect
of reasonable return on the capital on the large outlay. It was not possible
however to insist too rigorously upon this last proviso, for while railways are
primarily commercial concerns, their value cannot be measured solely by
profits. They are for the convenience of trade and commerce and the benefit of
the travelling public, but by facilitating intercourse, stimulating fresh ideas
and broadening outlooks, they have a cultural value which cannot be shown
in a financial balance sheet.”
Book relies on primary sources, has an appendix which provides number of original documents, letters , time tables etc.
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