In the earlier post My First Trip to India I briefly wrote about my first experience of India when I was assisting G.E.C. in commissioning telecommunications equipment for the Delhi Ring Project. I thought it was time to add a little more.
I flew to Delhi in May 1992, in the height of summer, returning nearly seven weeks later just as the Monsoon arrived in Delhi. It was a very hot summer in Delhi that year - temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Farenheit) are expected but it seemed that every day people in the G.E.C. office which was our base said "It's 120 today!".
The Delhi Ring Project
G.E.C. were installing a new Electronic Control Centre (ECC) near New Delhi station to control the complex railway network in the area operated by Northern Railways. This included a circular suburban line called the Delhi Ring together with a number of main lines radiating from Delhi. Various new telecommunications cables had already been provided from the ECC along the routes to be controlled and selective ringing omnibus telephones had been supplied by others and installed at signal boxes, stations and level crossings. When GEC started to commission the new telecommunications facilities, a number of problems with the audio transmission were revealed.
At that point my company, Ford Electronics, became involved. We were invited to propose changes simple enough to be retro-fitted on site which would provide good-quality speech throughout the system. Our solution involved the use of Loaded Cable Pairs, correct Build-Outs at equipment locations and a number of 2-wire Amplifiers to restore correct signal levels.
The re-arranged telecommunications circuits are shown in the sketch below.
Click on image for larger view
On a short timescale we acquired the necessary 2-wire amplifiers and both designed and constructed the necessary Build-Out Units. Each unit had provision for three build-outs and these could be readily configured to suit each location by a series of links. The Build-Out Unit was in the form of a single assembled printed circuit board mounted in a rugged plastic housing intended for wall mounting adjacent to the telecommunications terminations in the various equipment rooms. The drawing below shows the appearance of the Build-Out Unit with the lid removed.
Click on image for larger view
In the various equipment rooms, the equipment which was added as described above was wall-mounted on a wooden board, seen on the right in the picture below.
Railways around Delhi
As I commented in the earlier post, I was amazed to find steam haulage was still in use since I'd assumed all steam had been eliminated and yet here I was, transported back to the '60s when steam was being eliminated in Britain. On my return to the U.K., a short article entitled 'Steam in India' was published in the September 1992 edition of 'Lionsheart' (the Occasional Newsletter of the Old Locomotive Committee). Since this is the only contemporary account of my visit, I thought it might be worth repeating a section of the article here:-
I saw a little of Indian Railways as they are today today. New Delhi station is all diesel and electric. Electrification is 25 kV a.c. and I was able to travel on 'the fastest train in India' - the electric-hauled Shatabdi Express - at least as far as Agra.
But Delhi Junction still has a number of steam workings. There's a metre-gauge terminus served by steam and diesel standing next to a broad-gauge through station with steam, diesel and electric workings.
Europeans are regarded with friendly curiosity and I found it easy to be invited onto the footplate but soon discovered that not all drivers speak English! However, English names seem to be used for the driving controls so I was able to establish my unlikely credentials as a female enthusiast by the 'Naming of Parts'. Whilst photographing a metre gauge light engine during a lunch break (a Class 'YG' 2-8-2), the driver signalled me to engage reverse gear and open the regulator. I happily pottered out of the platform, thinking we were carrying out a shunt. It eventually dawned on me that we were 'Rightaway the Shed' a few miles distant for disposal! It took a little time at the shed to locate an English speaker and arrange a trip back to my starting point on a diesel-hauled empty stock working, but it was a wonderful, if unexpected, experience.
My friends at railway headquarters said that they would arrange an official footplate trip for me, but they were not so sure about my request for 'hands-on'. In the event, because of pressure of work, it was 6 p.m. on the day I was leaving before I was able to make my official footplate trip.
They'd chosen a steam-hauled Delhi - Haridwar working. As always, the platform was crowded as I made my way along the length of the train to the locomotive - a broad-gauge class WP 'Pacific'. This Indian Railways Standard design was only introduced in 1947, so it is rather modern by OLCO's standards. But perhaps the Editor will find space in a future edition for a description of my all-too-short trip.
National Railway Museum, Delhi
It was on this trip that I made my first visit to the National Railway Museum in New Delhi. The section of the 'Lionsheart' article dealing with the Museum is repeated below:-
My recent business trip to India gave me an opportunity to visit the Railway Museum at New Delhi and see the twilight of steam on the main line around Delhi.
The most famous exhibit in the Railway Museum at Chanakyapuri is 'Fairy Queen', built by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson in 1855. At one time she was regarded as the oldest steamable locomotive in the world. She was saved through the intervention of Mike Satow, who remains a respected consultant to the museum. This locomotive and a half-sectioned 'A' class broad gauge 4-6-0 share a glass-fronted building of their own. Smaller items and models are housed in a roundhouse-style museum building. All the other exhibits are displayed around a ten-acre outdoor site.
By coincidence, the last issue of LIONSHEART carried a letter from Mike Satow pointing out the link between LION and 'Fairy Queen' in that both locomotives have back-to-front reversing levers. 'Fairy Queen' is built for the Indian 5ft 6in broad gauge, which gives her a squat, powerful appearance. The running boards running the length of the locomotive are noteworthy. Water is carried in well tanks (like 'Bellerophon').
The French built 'Ramgotty' is interesting, both for her wooden brake blocks and Gooch motion operated from outside eccentrics (shades of 'Bellerophon' again).
There are a number of British-built locomotives. The largest locomotive is the Manchester-built Beyer Garrett from the Bengal Nagpur Railway. I imagine our friends at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester would be delighted to repatriate that one!
The oddest exhibit is probably the Patiala State Monorail Trainway locomotive, running on a single guidance rail in the centre with two unflanged wheels on the outside. Built in 1908, this locomotive is still steamable.
An excellent guide to the exhibits at this museum, written by Mike Satow, can be found in the May 1977 edition of 'The Railway Magazine'.
I made another visit to the Railway Museum in February 2006 and the pictures I took on the second occasion are linked in the 'Photographs' section below.
Sightseeing
In the whole time I was there, we worked seven days a week to get the job finished. Time off was confined to a few half-days and two whole days. The first whole day off was a Public Holiday. This gave me the opportunity to visit Agra by train. I went to the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the 'Baby Taj' and Fatepur Sikri.
On the second day off I was even more ambitious and flew to Varanasi, the Holy City on the River Ganges which was formerly called Banares.
Links to Sets of Photographs
Broad Gauge around Delhi.
Shahdara Junction, Delhi.
Metre Gauge around Delhi.
Driving a 'WG' in India.
National Railway Museum, Delhi (1992)
National Railway Museum, Delhi (2006)
Delhi Ring Project
Varanasi, India.
