A Memorable visit to RCF, Kapurthala.
I apologise firstly to all of you for late reporting as i'm on constant travel. I can't post pics right now, so requesting other visitors to put pics and their experiences here.
1st Part
Necessity is the mother of invention is a well known saying. But sometimes passion delivers a lot in inventing new ways of living life....
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Here some of us felt the urge to have some fun together and what better a place can be than a one raiway-related. Mr. PK Venkatramani was kind enough to take the responsibility of conducting this visit and his endeavour bore fruit as SBI, Kapurthala Branch informed him of a confirmed visit to RCF. So accordingly many of us put their wishes, but destiny always has the last word. After many permutations and combinations, the lucky few viz pkvenkatramani sir, pramodh sir, tejas, pradeep aka minti sir, Anand sir, Jayaraj sir, Shashank, Saikat sir, Joydeep, Ms Narayanan sir and Satinath Mondal and myself made there way to the 'Mecca of IR coaches' Railway Coach Factory, Kapurthala, on the 17th of October, 2013. Notable absentees were Dipyaman Basu, Wrik aka Souvik, Arkya Chatterjee, Sabyasachi Ghosh, Soumitra Chawathe, SVIyer, Zahaib, MNSudarshan and Kanishk aka Koushik who may have missed something very special.Someof us met at Delhi with Tejas, Shasank and Anand sir joining us at JRC. The people from Delhi boarded the Dhauadhar Express on 16th and reached Jalandhar the next morning. After getting refreshed we met the trio from Amritsar and got into a 4 coached Firozpur DEMU. As i have previously said destiny has its own way, we were astounded to find that a team from SBI, Kapurthala branch was there to welcome us at the station. We were still more awestruck as three AC cars were found waiting outside the station to take us through the factory. Once reaching the premises we got down from the car to find the GM and the Chief Project Manager of RCF greeting us. Feeling royal at this gesture, we got into the administrative building where we were shown the model township of RCF. A guide demonstrated the model and we were informed a lot about its geographical whereabouts. We were then warmly welcomed into the Main Conference Hall by the GM and other officials. Feeling too corporate, we took our seats around the round table. The GM formally welcomed us and he greeted everyone of us personally. He expressed his sheer happiness at our visit and added that he found it extremely unique that a group of 'rail loving people' have come here as every one visiting is either for commercial purpose or for administrative reasons. We were treated with coffee and a lot of light refreshments. He then showed us a video of the evolution of RCF which was very much interesting and colourful. Next we had a one to one discussion session with the GM where we all put forward several questions and he replied to them at his best. One notable question was from Pramodh sir regarding the same livery of LHB coaches. He solicited for a unique livery for Rajdhani coaches (the present red and grey) to be there and a separate livery for all other LHB coaches. The GM told that he would take up this matter personally and also took it down as a serious suggestion. Providing charging points at all the side berths and bays was another suggestion from our side which was noted down by him. After this we were to visit the workshops....
Contd......