The Satpura Railway was among the world’s greatest Narrow Gauge (2’6″) railway systems. Commissioned under the aegis of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway (BNR), the system comprised more than a 1000 km of line stretching from Nagpur in the west, to Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) toward the North and Chandrapur (Chanda) in the south, covering large parts of present day Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In the late 1990s, the…
Semaphores and Desert Skies
Semaphore signals and night skies have been two favourite subjects of mine. However, given the incessant march of urbanization and the resultant light pollution, it has been incredibly hard for me to combine to two in a single image. And with the semaphores dwindling rapidly from the Indian Railways’ network, I was desperate to find a location where I could find pristine night skies and…
The Terai Trains – Revisited
“Abhi teen din pehle hi yahan tiger baitha tha! Pul ke uss paar. Yahan aksar aata jaata hai.” The gateman on duty near the Saryu Link Canal bridge was showing a grainy image on his mobile phone – a tigress sitting just beside the railway line, deep inside the heart of the Terai. We were back again on the meter gauge railway line that connects…
Of Hoops and Flames
In the middle of the night, a train is blaring its horns, announcing its arrival at a wayside station. A man, casually walks across the tracks and takes position on a tiny pedestal. In his hand, a blazing torch and a hoop of wire with a pouch that contains a metallic ball. He then waits for the train to come straight at him. He is…
The Terai Trains
“Almost every other week, one of the station staff sees a tiger around here. Occasionally, a leopard. Elephants, well in summer, they cross near the home signal in hordes!” That was the station master at Dudhwa introducing his station to us. Not that we were expecting any less at a station located smack in the middle of a national park. I for one, was secretly…
Riding the Sri Lankan Railways
Early in 2017, I visited Sri Lanka with a friend. Apart from checking out major tourist attractions on the East and South coast, we also made it a point to ride as many trains in Sri Lanka as we could. Not only were they a cost effective mode of transport, they also allowed us to explore the country’s natural beauty from the comfort of our…
Dharakhoh
There is a place on this planet which you probably would have never heard of, had you not been reading this post. Chances are, that after reading this post you will forget about it and get on with your lives again. But that is not the point, in fact there IS no point. It just so happens that it is there. You probably won’t get…