An old post of mine dated 8th Sept 2011, NOW REPOSTED for the benefit of several newcomers to IRI.
A REAL RAIL LIFE INCIDENT
TIME : Around 12 midnight circa 1965
VENUE : VENKATACHALAM, a nondescript way-side station on the
Madras-...
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Vijayawada section, 159 kms from Madras Central.
HERO : Assistant Station Master, SVPLN Rao, (name changed), with less than
12 months’ service to go before superannuation. A God-fearing gentleman
nearing the end of his rather uneventful service life and whose only
ambition was to retire in peace without any incident to mar the rest of his
hitherto unblemished career.
CAST : 4DN Madras – Howrah Mail, the CROWN JEWEL, of the SR network,
then ranking even higher than the venerable 16 DN GRAND TRUNK
EXP in the pecking order of trains between Madras and Vijayawada.
perhaps because it then held the UNIQUE DISTINCTION of being the first
long distance train in India to be hauled by a diesel locomotive since 1965.
As Mr. Rao was reclining in his chair, his subordinate came in and told him in Telugu “4 MAIL is coming”. The ASM who was half asleep sprang up and taking the green light in his right hand briskly walked to the platform before positioning himself in the centre. In a few minutes the Howrah Mail thundered past the station as Mr. Rao waved it onwards with the green light while his subordinate exchanged the oval wooden ring token with the loco pilot. ALL IS WELL or so thought Mr. Rao. It did occur to him that the 4 MAIL had seemed much shorter in length than usual and had whizzed past the station in less than normal time. But that was to be expected with the new generation high-speed diesel locos which had just been pressed into service for hauling passenger trains. 3UP/4DN were the guinea pigs selected for this purpose of experimentation by the Indian Railways. Rao, a die-hard conservative, was not in favour of dispensing with traditions like the old war-horses, the ever-reliable steam engines. But then he considered himself as a small fry in the rail hierarchy and whose voice remained inaudible in the wilderness. It was not for him TO REASON WHY. His duty was TO DO EVEN IF NOT DIE. With these musings, he wended his way back to the soothing comfort of his chair and immediately proceeded to take a catnap, as the next train was due only after 90 mns.
No sooner had he closed his eyelids than his subordinate, in a highly agitated and excited frame of mind. came running in to his room to say that he could hear the approaching rumble of YET ANOTHER DOWN TRAIN. This was QUITE OUT OF THE ORDINARY and Rao, a hard-core traditionalist, had a pathological aversion to anything EXTRAORDINARY. All the curd rice he had consumed less than an hour ago churned in his stomach and the bile rising to his mouth made him feel nauseous.
In less than an interval of 5 minutes, Rao was again on the platform, attentive and alert. And in no time the rear half of the 4 MAIL, consisting of 10 coaches, gently ambled past him, going ahead on its own momentum, without the aid of a loco, as if powered simply by Sir ISSAC NEWTON’s LAWS OF MOTION.
30 years’ experience of service to the country’s largest employer now stood him in good stead as the ASM immediately cautioned his counterpart at VEDAYAPALEM, a younger colleague, who was prompt enough to sideline the truant first half of the
4 MAIL before repairing the damage to its snapped couplings. After a delay of 60 mns or so, the junior ASM arranged to pack off the Howrah Mail to its next halt at Nellore AS ONE COMPOSITE TRAIN rather than 2 HALVES and again ALL WAS WELL.
SVPLN Rao, at the end of his duties the next morning, performed a PUJA to the goddess at the local temple for ensuring that his record of service remained unscarred by the happenings of the night, during the course of which he had witnessed the passage through his domain of 2 versions of the 4 MAIL.
P.S. It was customary those days in RAIL LINGO to refer to trains by their numbers which were at the most in 3 digits and not 5 as they are at present. The rail staff fondly talked about 3UP, 4DN, 15UP,16DN etc.as if these were their own family members.
P.S. This is a narrative of a real incident which occurred in 1965. However, I have taken certain liberties of embellishing it with details which are not verifiable. For instance, how does one corroborate that Mr. Rao had curd rice for dinner that fateful night. This information DID NOT APPEAR in the report of the mishap featuring in the next day’s Madras edition of THE HINDU newspaper.
Hope you enjoyed reading it.