Dear friends, I would like to share some nostalgic feelings and my experience and story pertaining to legendary Super Fast trains esp. Geetanjali Express which was introduced in Nov’77.
Under the historic policy of (prof. Madhu Dandwate) providing quick railway connectivity between various metros, many Super Fast Trains were introduced around 1976-78 on BG as well as MG tracks. This was the period when S/F trains started proliferating on IR tracks like Geetanjali, TN, AP, KK, JAT Super, Coromandal, Minar, Pink city, Vaigai, Ashram, Mandore, Pallavan, Garib Nawaj etc.
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S/F trains used to have higher booked speeds than other express trains (100-110 kmph against 90kmph for BG,90-100 kmph against 70 kmph for MG) and had very few stops say a stops say every 200-500 kms. They were given so high priority that they once departed from a scheduled stop, they used to stop at destination only. I remember Geetanjali express reaching about 45 minutes before time at station .
Each of these S/F train had typical and beautiful livery and was hauled by faster and cleaner diesel/electric loco, instead of steam locos prevalent at that time. So was the craze of these trains that people use to gather to see these trains crossing their city at high speed. Family of one of my friends used to go to from Durg to Igatpuri by Geetanjali Exp. and come back to Devlali by other trains, although direct trains to Devlali were available.
As a child, I had first seen and boarded 59 Geetanjali express from Nagpur in the summer months of 1978 when I was returning back from my maternal home Solapur to paternal home at Durg. Train reached NGP at least half an hour before time! To my delight it had diesel loco about which I used to be very crazy for many reasons
(1) It did not made deafening sound of releasing of steam made by the then prevalent steam locos
(2) It used to be of lovely red livery instead of black,
(3) It was convenient to see the scenery at window and watching whole train while negotiating curves, without coal particles (from steam engine boiler) entering into the eyes.
(4) The horn and engine sound of diesel loco was marvellous
Geetanjali Exp had special livery of orange colour right from loco till the last coach, with probably yellow strips just over and under windows. With total 12 coaches, all second class, Geetanjali was really a classless train. Spick and Span clean with very large windows (but without safety grill!), the train looked awesome and attractive like a queen. I had never seen such a beautiful train before and loved it at first sight. Even before train could stop at platform, I was very anxious to board it. Standing on platform the train appeared like a piece of glowing diamond amongst pieces of coal.
Cushioned seats with very soft leather (not available on other trains at that time), with high quality super soft leather top (that quality is badly missed today). I think pantry car and alarm facility in coach were also provided.
In addition of us four, only two more passengers were sitting in the coach we boarded! Enjoying the interior, I was eagerly waiting for the train to start, so as to enjoy the gush of cold air. The sun was about to set, I also did not want to miss the sight of outside scenery. I lost my patience and asked my father, as to why the train was not running (normally train stops for 5-10 minutes at station), then he told that train is “before time” and it will stop at Nagpur for 1 hr, although the stop is only of 15 minutes. By that time sun will be set! I was sad.
At last the train departed and by that time (around 7pm) sunlight was gone! Gradually the train gathered speed after some time. There were a lot of lateral jerks and I feared I may fall out of the large Window (without grill) if jerks increase. Soon Window was closed by my parents and what I could feel in about 3 and a half hour journey was continuous lateral jerks till the train reached Durg at night.
Those coaches were later withdrawn but the livery continued till the present blue livery was adopted uniformly over IRlys barring some branded trains. Today Geetanjali Exp has lost all its sheen. Starting with only 5 commercial stops(BSL, NGP, Durg, Rourkela, Tata), today it has a whopping 26 stops. Earlier Geetanjali Exp used to cover 1968 km journey in 28-29 hrs only which could have been reduced by 2 hrs as is used to reach before time by about half an hour.) Inspite of massive upgradation of tracks (Concrete Sleepers, Stronger 60kg 90UTS rails, modern colour light signaling, with minimum Permanent Speed Restrictions, the journey time today is 31 hrs. The reason is the supreme priority it used to enjoy is gone!. Today many times she crawls behind freight trains till the train controllers could arrange an over take for her. it is just like several S/F trains running on the route. Most of its sisters had similar fate to some extent or more. Only TN could maintain status to some extent.
I many times think what went wrong? Why this degradation has happened?
Main reason it comes to my mind is that capacity augmentation in IRlys could not keep pace with the time. We were fortunate to inherit a very good and adequate railway infrastructure from British at the time of Independence. But we could not create sufficient additional line capacity through doubling/ new lines to carry additional freight and passenger traffic demanded by rapidly growing Indian Economy and population. More and more passenger and freight trains were introduced to meet this demand resulting in severe congestion of our rly tracks. Today Trains are jostling for paths on IRly tracks! Even superfast trains are not getting continuous clear paths throughout its journey and given a huge slack times throughout their run.
Many good jobs has been done by Indian Railways like strengthening of track, modernization of signaling, Locos, Wagons, Coaches, computerisation etc but lot more need to be done. That is what MoR has been trying hard to do i.e. maximize investment in IRly infrastructure. Only time will tell how much does he and his team succeed in turning around the IRlys.