Standing on Platform one of Delhi Sarari Rohilla with the Delhi smog enhanced by the wedding season fireworks blurring the lights of the trains as the hollow haunting horns sound the arrival. As we stood amongst the crowd with the sound of Chai, chai, chai rang in our ears and smell of platform food overload our nasal senses.
We found carriage S1 on the 1035 sleeper to Jodphur Junction and boarded finding our beds 25 and 28. We climbed up to our top bunks and laid down and observed. The excitement and high pace energy of the kids from a family near us amused us for a while. A mans ritual of whipping down the bed laying a blanket the perfect shape of the bed then covering it with two further blankets and topping it of with a inflatable pillow. Me and Emily wrapped in a double blanket and heads on our bags showed we were not as experienced but very ready and excited for what lay ahead.
The horns sounded and we were of the rocking motion of the train and the rhythmic chatter of steel wheels on the track made for a soothing felling and masked the light snores.As we laid back and our train cut its way throw the night we could hear trains call out in the night. The relaxing ambiance changed for a definite efficient tone of overhead announcements and platform chaos as we entered stops along the way. All in all we both had a good sleep and the experience was great.
The excited family next door woke us up with there hollering and very demanding whining for their mother. The 0630 alarm call was a little early but it did mean we could get up slowly and chat to the older Indian couple down below. They were heading home and enjoyed the chat and a quick read of the Jolly Post Man. The man with the bedding cleaning ritual must of felt the cold as him and his friend were top and tail on the lower bunk.Once the wake up chai was in then the nut cutlet type things were severed with the finest white plastic bread and Heinz tomato sauce on the side which then was washed down with more Chi. We arrived at our destination.
The experience of this sleeper was great. It was well used and slightly worn yet well maintained. The open track long drop toilet was in good condition no worse then some loos on Southeastern railways back home. I would say to anyone travel by Sleeper and don't be put off by standard class it's where "real India" travels.
We found carriage S1 on the 1035 sleeper to Jodphur Junction and boarded finding our beds 25 and 28. We climbed up to our top bunks and laid down and observed. The excitement and high pace energy of the kids from a family near us amused us for a while. A mans ritual of whipping down the bed laying a blanket the perfect shape of the bed then covering it with two further blankets and topping it of with a inflatable pillow. Me and Emily wrapped in a double blanket and heads on our bags showed we were not as experienced but very ready and excited for what lay ahead.
The horns sounded and we were of the rocking motion of the train and the rhythmic chatter of steel wheels on the track made for a soothing felling and masked the light snores.As we laid back and our train cut its way throw the night we could hear trains call out in the night. The relaxing ambiance changed for a definite efficient tone of overhead announcements and platform chaos as we entered stops along the way. All in all we both had a good sleep and the experience was great.
The excited family next door woke us up with there hollering and very demanding whining for their mother. The 0630 alarm call was a little early but it did mean we could get up slowly and chat to the older Indian couple down below. They were heading home and enjoyed the chat and a quick read of the Jolly Post Man. The man with the bedding cleaning ritual must of felt the cold as him and his friend were top and tail on the lower bunk.Once the wake up chai was in then the nut cutlet type things were severed with the finest white plastic bread and Heinz tomato sauce on the side which then was washed down with more Chi. We arrived at our destination.
The experience of this sleeper was great. It was well used and slightly worn yet well maintained. The open track long drop toilet was in good condition no worse then some loos on Southeastern railways back home. I would say to anyone travel by Sleeper and don't be put off by standard class it's where "real India" travels.
Its a fireless steam locomotive built in Germany in 1953 working as a Factory loco (works shunter) at Sindri Fertilizers, Sindri. Now as you may are not know a steam engine usually works by a fire in the fire box heating water in the boiler and that becoming steam and that pressure is used to drive the pistons to then move the train. But this has no fire. How this works is there a a fixed boiler plant that produces the steam at a great presser. That presser is feed in to the tank on this train. The problem is that this train has a slow speed and cant go far away from its boiler plant. But this type of train was used in shunt yard and factories like chemical plants and explosive factories were you don't want sparks from the fire flying around. This is a great looking train and very creative way around a problem. This idea was tried out in the early days of the London underground.
This Elephant skull is from a wild elephant that charged a mail train on September the 28th 1894 on a rail bridge 220 mile from Calcutta. The loco and its 7 carriages was derailed and the Elephant was found 40 feet below. The impact of the collision and the fall the Elephant was dead. The skull is on show in the Delhi Rail museum. One tusk was given to James Bell the engine driver while the other is at the board office in London.
