A PEEK INTO THE PAST WITH DAVID (Part II)

There's good news for us, boys. David Edge is back with us again, with more history, and a few more pictures. Now where else will you get to read about Captain Edge, his work in building a railway on Quarantine Island, his return to India to join the North Western Railway, and his subsequent posting as Chief Engineer on the Kalka Simla Railway ? If you have missed reading David's first post on this website, read it here, or scroll down skipping over just one post below. And now to resume David's narrative about his grandfather, William Edge:
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Prior to his work on the North Western Railway in India, William L Edge was appointed by Major Kitchener to build a railroad from the Red Sea to Khartoum. The line would stretch from Suakin on the Red Sea, passing through the desert all the way to ‘Wadi Halfa’, 300 kilometers away. Black Indian coolies were employed as labour, with camels as the only means of transportation. To the right is a picture of the railway construction crew at Quarantine Island, Suakin, 1885. Construction of the line was entrusted to the Suakin Berber Railway Corps under the control of the 17 Squadron of the 22 Engineer Regiment of the British Army, and consisted of 1240 platelaying coolies, six timekeepers, 12 warrant officers and two captains, of which W.L. Edge was one. The project was abandoned after the first 15 miles of line was constructed upto Otoa, but the two officers received a medal each from the Shah of Egypt for their meritorious service.
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Don't forget to read David's earlier post. Here are a few more pictures from William's album. Outstanding pictures, absorbing history, authentic detail. . . all made possible by David, who's so very kindly let us have his images. Thanks a ton David, and let's hope we get to hear from you shortly again !


Bolan Pass Railway after being raised ; see previously used tunnel.






William Edge on a Bolan Pass railway locomotive










Train accident at Saharumpre, 1906


Pictures Courtesy of David Edge.

S E C RAILWAY NARROW GAUGE MUSEUM, NAGPUR

If you are looking for an air conditioned revolving restaurant where you can spend an evening with your chums amidst rolling green surroundings, Nagpur is the place to turn to. The South East Central Railway Narrow Gauge Museum, inaugurated in December 2002 on the eve of the 150th anniversary of Indian Railways houses everything a narrow gauge heritage enthusiast may be looking for. For the location of the museum here, the authorities decided to use the dilapidated South Eastern Railway broad gauge steam loco shed, which after a major refurbishment, now houses the indoor exhibits.
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The other artifact that was left untouched was the broad gauge turntable. For many years, visitors would find two ancient narrow gauge coaches lying unattended on the turntable, until finally a novel way of using them was devised.
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The carriages were tastefully refurbished, the interiors were redesigned as a restaurant, and a vestibule connection added. Mr Kumar Newar, Manager of the museum, is enthusiastic about this innovation. “We are going to have LCD television here, and the restaurant is going to commence operation shortly, with snacks and eatables outsourced from a reputable restaurant,” he says. Newar, formerly a Senior Section Engineer with the S E C Railway workshop in Motibagh, has a motor drive with reduction gear fitted to the turntable, making the whole assembly rotate slowly taking about 12 minutes for a full turn. The movement is a bit wobbly, but only serves to heighten the pleasure making you feel as though you are moving along in a slow train trundling along the track.
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Landscaping of the museum grounds was sanctioned by the General Manager, S E C Railway, Bilaspur, and the effect is quite pleasing, resembling a park with well-watered grass and shrubs, slides and swings, old style benches, and a toy train which children find irresistible taking them on a long circuitous ride along the periphery of the 4.5 acre museum grounds.
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Indoor exhibits include a large assortment of artifacts from a bygone age, kept in glass showcases, and forming a number of galleries. There are static models of locomotives and carriages on display, builder’s plates, signalling equipment, hand-lamps and old telephone sets, a ground frame used for operating points, locomotive fittings, besides various other objects of interest. The archive houses a collection of rare stamps as well as old documents, locomotive specifications and diagrams, and railway manuals
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For children, the greatest attraction indoors, besides an auditorium where films are screened, is a model room run by Narsing Das Bang. Over 60 years of age, Bang is a keen model rail enthusiast, and has set up his layout in a room specially allotted to him by permission, and has an impressive layout with 1 and HO model trains of German make complete with working points and signals.
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Besides a diesel-hydraulic locomotive and a narrow gauge royal carriage built in 1899 by Orenstein Koppel of Germany, the principal attraction indoors is a 5 Bagnall 0-6-4 narrow gauge tank loco weighing 15 tons and having a maximum speed of 25 kmph. This baby tank engine is no old junkie—built in 1916 by Bagnall Limited, Stafford, England, this loco was reconditioned for a heritage run in 2002, and can be seen resplendent in bright red livery and polished brass fittings.
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Placed on a low ‘pedestal’ outside the main building is a 39.5 ton 4-6-2 steam loco manufactured in 1907 by the North British Loco Company, Glasgow, UK. Cross over the lawn and you find yourself in a little ‘yard’ complete with turnouts and a level crossing gate. Here you will find stabled a 1957 make steam crane of Italian make coupled to a goods brake van, and on the adjoining track, an oil tanker, old goods wagons and heritage carriages in the usual maroon-red livery.
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Narrow gauge, we are told, is rapidly passing into history. As I sat in calm solitude next to the guard’s van eating my lunch, with the long silence pierced only by the chirp of birds and the far off cries of children, I couldn’t help wistfully feeling that these objects, now immobile and silent, were once part of a great system throbbing with life and energy. Narrow gauge will soon fade away, but these remnants will remain, each with a story behind it.
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Ravindra Bhalerao

A PEEK INTO THE PAST WITH DAVID (Part I)

If you ever travel up to Simla by the Kalka-Simla toy train, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it will be good to remember William Edge, who did pioneering work with the re-construction and repair of this line.
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We have here with us today, David Edge, grandson of William L Edge, who is now settled in Australia. David has been kind enough to tell us about his grand-dad, besides providing us a glimpse into the past with a delightful set of pictures from William’s albums.
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William Edge began service at the age of 22 years, David tells us, and was appointed by Major Kitchener to construct a railway from Suakin on the Red Sea to Khartoum.
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On his return to India, William secured employment with the North Western Railway as Engineer, and was engaged in reconstructing the railway on the Bolan Pass to Quetta. This line, seen in the picture alongside dating back to 1890, originally laid along valleys, was often washed away in flash floods, and the only way was to raise the track to a height. The credit of handling this onerous task goes to William, and a station called Edgenuga was named after him.
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Subsequent postings took William to Rawalpindi, Ambala and Lahore before he was appointed as Chief Engineer of the Kalka Simla railway in 1915. Here again, he distinguished himself by reconstructing the line using his skill and forethought, bringing down accidents and derailments that were so very common on this hill railway.
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The pictures you see here are all from William’s album, which David has shared with us. Thank you David for the superb pictures, you sure deserve a treat !!
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Bridge on Quetta Line, 1890

Maintenance Train, 1890








Railway Institute in Quetta, 1890

Bridge on Kalka Simla Railway, 1917

All Pictures Courtesy of: David Edge

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

There were fourteen persons standing in the queue at the railway booking counter and I was the fifteenth. The booking clerk seemed to be having trouble of some kind. There was a growing discontent—customers in the queue found the delay unbearable and were getting restless. Some even openly grumbled about the ‘inefficiency’ of the system, much to the chagrin of the booking clerk who was within earshot.
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This is a common feature I have observed at the reservation counter. People begin to lose patience at the slightest sign of delay. Since there is no way to hurry the process, some give vent to their feelings by criticizing the ‘system’. Others blame it on hard luck. Ultimately you find that the fuming and fretting hasn’t helped you a bit other than giving rise to a copious flow of perspiration.
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Miss Claire who taught us in school often said that it is a good idea to ‘count your blessings’ when you happen to find yourself in a prolonged state of agony. It’s very important to see things in their true perspective, she would say, and counting your blessings is the first step towards achieving that goal. It can act as a great equalizer, she would say, often turning hell into heaven.
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I believe there is sound logic in Miss Claire’s words. Rail travel in our country may be lagging behind in terms of speed, facilities and passenger comforts when compared to what you have in some the more developed nations. But things are not really as bad as we make them out to be.
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Perhaps we could gain a better appreciation of the true nature of things if we take a peek into the past when great grandpa boarded a train. There are not many who will be knowing that at the turn of the nineteenth century, third class railway carriages didn’t carry lights or fans, not even a loo. Toilets were provided at most wayside stations for the use of passengers. Even so, very few had the guts to disembark and stand in a queue at the station loo. The fear of being left behind overrode all other considerations, it seems, and most passengers simply preferred to sweat it out in their compartments during a halt.
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In July 1909, the District Railway Traffic Superintendent, Sahebgunj, received a complaint from one Okhil Chandra Sen. Sen’s letter, written to the best of his linguistic ability, has survived to this day and can be seen on display at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. It reads:
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“Beloved Sir—I am arrive by passenger train at Ahmedpore station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just as I doing the nuisance that Guard making whistle blow for train to go off, and I am running with lotah in one hand and dhoti in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female woman on plate-form. I am got leaved at Ahmedpore station. This too much bad. If passenger go to make dung that damn Guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that Guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers. . .”
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Poor Okhil Babu! We do not know if his report made it to the papers or if the ‘damn guard’ was made to pay a fine. But we can be pretty sure of one thing : had Okhil been around today he wouldn’t have fussed or whined at the railway booking counter. He would sing hymns of praise instead. He would have laughed, joked, looked around with unrestrained joy. And while others in the line were fuming over the delay, he would count his blessings and smile. . .
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The long wait in a reservation queue may prove to be sheer agony, but it brings along a string of blessings with it. Let us begin to count them!
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Ravindra Bhalerao

INDIAN RAILWAYS AND THE LOCAL SCRIPT

----- A research paper by Rajendra Aklekar
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Indian Railways. It truly reflects India! It is complex, sometimes unwieldy and unmanageable, and yet full of life. It prospers against all odds! It is not just a transport organization. It is a great social institution. So many things may go wrong in the country, but the Indian Railways somehow manages to keep its head up above the waters, and it always runs the trains, serving millions of people everyday! Indian Railways is patient with and sad about those who try to bring damage to its network of passenger and goods trains, hoping that these people one day will repent for their sins and recognize the merit of the institution that has served the nation with great distinction.
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LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION ON INDIAN RAILWAYS:
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This institution of merit has evolved very interesting language policies since its inception. Since the railways are a public transport, serving people from different regional, ethnic, and linguistic groups, the policy of the organization has been geared towards communicating with its passengers using their language and script. Advertisements, announcements, information signs, cautioning remarks within the compartments, and helpful suggestions about the use of the toilet facilities, and so many other areas of contact within and outside the train and in the railway station have been presented in the dominant language and script of the region. The ultimate goal is to help its passengers to have a pleasant journey! In a country where literacy has been low for generations, the Indian Railways chose to give the essential information using visuals as well.
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INDIAN SCRIPT IN INDIAN RAILWAYS:
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The answer to the question "When was Indian script used first on the Indian Railways?" is difficult but not impossible to find. A quick study done on the subject by me has revealed some interesting facts. This study is a part of the comprehensive research I have undertaken on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. The facts mentioned here are some quick references on the use of India script in the Indian Railways, culled together for the Indian Railways 150th Anniversary Year celebrations.
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THE FIRST INDIAN TRAIN:
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The first train started running on the Indian soil on 16 April, 1853. It had 14 carriages and three engines - Sindh, Sahib, and Sultan. The opening of the railway in the East was a major occasion and the day was declared as a public holiday in the city of Bombay. 1853, just four years ahead of the First War of Independence, otherwise called the Sepoy Mutiny!
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Preparations for this great event might have been done on a grand scale, and special attention might have been devoted to the decoration and embellishment of the locomotives and its carriages. And if we go by the conventions and the traditional practices of the day, I have no doubt that some pujas to the engines, to the railroad, and other equipment might have been performed by the Indian people associated with the project.
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THE PEOPLE'S LANGUAGE:
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It can be safely stated that the public notices and general instructions put up in the carriages had to be in the language the people understood. Hence, the strongest possibility is that the carriages of the first train in India must have had the scripts of Marathi and Urdu, besides English, for the signboards. There is a reason for that.
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Marathi, being the local language of Bombay, was given preference. Since Hindi, as it is today, was not yet evolved then (1853), the spoken language used then was Hindoostani. The scripts of Persian and Urdu had had been widely written in upper India. But the British government in India had already laid down a policy to give preference to the local vernacular language.
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"Yes," says M. S. Thirumalai, the editor of the online monthly journal Language in India,
http://www.languageinindia.com// "I can only guess that the system of writing in the Indian vernacular must have been introduced right from the beginning when the first train started moving from Bombay to Thane."
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Thirumalai says, in his personal communication, that the then British India language policy was to use the Indian vernacular, (they used Persian only for a brief period). The replacement of the Perso-Arabic script for writing Hindi was done even before the first Indian War of Independence in 1857. Since Marathi was being written in the local script, the first train in India, I assume, must have had the Indian vernacular script.”
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“Marathi was written in Modi script at that time. Devnagari script for Marathi was adopted after several decades of that date. This means that even assuming that the first train's coaches had words or sentences written in Marathi, the script was not Devnagari as we call it today,” adds another expert Ravindra Rao.
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With the introduction of the competitive examinations for the civil services in 1853, and even earlier, the British Raj had introduced an incentive scheme for the officers of the civil services to learn and use Indian languages in the British Raj administration. The use of the Indian vernaculars in government documents and properties had been encouraged by the British rulers.
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PROOF IN GOVERNMENT RECORDS:
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What Mr. Thirumalai says seems correct. Further research on the subject by me has more or less proven the fact that the local language was, indeed, used in one of the references to the earliest inscriptions found in the railway infrastructure in Bombay. According to the Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, published in 1909 by the executive editor and secretary of the gazetteer department of the state government of Maharashtra, the Frere bridge - named after the Governor of Bombay, Sir Bartle Frere, and built by the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway (BB&CI) in 1866 at Grant Road, has an inscription on the bridge in English, Marathi, and Gujarati.
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Similar is the case with the Kennedy Bridge (English, Marathi, and Gujarati), the Wodehouse bridge (English and Marathi), and the French bridge (English, Marathi, and Gujarati). Gujarati was prominently used on the BB&CI Railway as the third language because the line had come down from Surat to Bombay. The common sense approach of the Indian Railways to the linguistic complexity of the country is evidenced in this early record.
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The Great Indian Peninsula (GIP) Railway, however, used Urdu as the third language on its system as its script was readily available.
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MORE PROOF:
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The practice of using English, Marathi, and Urdu did continue for some period. About seventy years later, the official picture released by the Central Railway's Chief Public Relations Department showing the crowd awaiting at Kurla station for the country's first electric train has the name of the station painted in three languages - English, Marathi, and Urdu.
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So, we can safely conclude that the GIP Railway used English, Marathi, and Urdu as its first, second, and third language respectively. After the Constitution of India was formed in 1950, the railways decided to use English, Hindi, and the local language. Since the same train may pass through several states, the carriages always had more than the minimum two languages. The notices always carried the main languages of the states through which the trains ran.
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PROMINENT HINDI TERMS USED ON INDIAN RAILWAYS:
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I give below a list of some Hindi terms that are commonly used on the Indian Railways. Satish Pai, the moderator of the Indian Railways Fans Club Association mailing list has taken some effort to gather this list. Although these are classified here as Hindi terms, some (not all) of these are widely used or understood in many areas of India.
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'Dibba,' a passenger car (coach).
'Maal Gaadi,' a freight (goods) train
'Patri,' the tracks
'Karshan,' electric traction
'Kaka,' (Bombay division) a driver
'Aagwalah,' (also anglicized as "Augwala"), literally fireman, but generally used for the assistant driver even today.
'Chhavni,' Cantonment
'Chhoti rel,' (colloquial) MG or NG (literally, "small rail")
'Baramasi,' permanent-way worker or gangman. (Literally this means '12-month-er', referring to the nature of gangman's job, which requires going out at all times, and in all kinds of conditions.)
'Bada-fast,' is a mixed-language term; 'bada, 'big in Hindi.
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The following are some of the "official terms" used in Hindi translations by the Indian Railways.
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'Shayan yaan,' sleeper coach
'Paryatan yaan,' tourist coach
'Vatanukool,' air-conditioned
‘Vatanukool kursi yaan,' AC Chair Car
‘Vatanukool shayan yaan,' AC Sleeper Car
'Rasoi yaan,' pantry car
'Upari upaskar,' pantograph
'Chalak,' driver
'Sahachalak,' assistant driver
'Parichalak,' guard (?)
'Aaybhaar,' tare weight
'Mandal,' division
'Samay saarani' timetable
'Khekda' = crab, affectionate name for the WCG-1 locos; see the entry above on 'crocodiles'. There are quite a few terms from other Indian languages also used in the terminology used by the Indian Railways.
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TO CONCLUDE:
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Since 16 April, 1853, the Indian Railways have come a long way. The Indian Railways today rank as the largest rail network in Asia and the world's second largest under one management. Indian scripts have now firmly established itself on the railways front --- so firm that there's also a Rajbhasha department in the Indian Railways.
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Unfortunately, the Indian linguists have not done any serious research on the use of Indian languages in the Indian Railways. More than any other wing of the government, the Indian Railways have been receptive to the communication needs of its patrons. It is important to study the language policies adopted by the Indian Railways because these policies could provide some useful models for language use in India. The syntax used in the linguistic styles used by the Indian Railways needs to be studied in depth. Likewise the study of the technical terms used in the loco sheds would throw light on the dynamic nature of the coinage of technical terms by the railway personnel.
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(Rajendra Aklekar has been involved in researching the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), the pioneering railway in Asia, and has been documenting and archiving GIPR remains in Bombay.)

HISTORY OF THE EAST INDIAN RAILWAY

History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston first appeared in 1906. This impressive and well-researched book is now made available by Google in various formats in unabridged form. A link to this book also appears in the Further Reading section in the sidebar of this web-blog. Click on:

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyeastindi00huddgoog/historyeastindi00huddgoog_djvu.txt

A NEW YEAR TREAT !

Here's a New Year treat for you all . . . a charming description of the Railway Club in Jodhpur during pre-partition times. Click on the link below:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/india-british-raj/2005-10/1128984822

N E RAILWAY HIGH SCHOOL, GORAKHPUR

RAILWAY SCHOOLS, IN BRITISH DAYS, were mostly for younger children and were of a preparatory nature, being manned, for the most part by school mistresses who were widows of deceased railwaymen.

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With the coming of independence, things changed considerably, and today schools run by the railways may be said to be highly specialized institutions offering pupils a curriculum that may be compared to the best schools, leading pupils to the stage where they may join any of a variety of disciplines they may wish to pursue.
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My own education took place in a railway school. This was the North Eastern Railway High School in Gorakhpur, and the best part of it was that for a couple of years classes were held in the Railway Institute adjoining the primary school. It was such great fun! Here’s a record of my school days in Gorakhpur which I penned for a magazine:
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"Those were gruelling days, filled with hardship; but, oh! How sweet are the memories they leave behind…".
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The person who spoke these words has reflected a sentiment most of us feel to be true. In my own case, at no other time has it been more true than when I look back and reflect upon my school days at the North Eastern Railway High School in Gorakhpur. At this point I wouldn’t mind sharing a secret with my audience. The writer had a strong aversion to school in his boyhood days. School was like a thorn in the flesh to this cuddly lad, who despite a reasonably good performance in lessons, found school to be the most unattractive of all institutions, something to be got over with as quickly as you could. And yet, forty years later, those very days seem to be the most pleasant, idyllic part of my life. They bring forth memories that linger on in the mind, arousing a thousand twinkling recollections as pleasant as the warm glow of sunshine on a winter’s morning.
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The year was 1970. After a trip to our home state of Maharashtra, my father, eager to smoothen the path for his son, began to hunt up an English medium school where I would be spared the terrors of studying science and maths in Hindi. Someone suggested that the Railway School would be ideal as it gave instruction in English. It came as a great wave of relief. I was taken to the Railway School where, along with a pretty looking girl called Geeta, I was made to sit for a test. We both passed the test with ease and found admission to Class VI.
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The school was called the North Eastern Railway Mixed Primary School, a lovely brick structure set within the plush railway colony of Gorakhpur. The school had a central hall for staging plays and various functions with corridors on either side leading to classrooms. To the south of the school was an area covered with tree

s with a spacious shed where children could have tiffin, while at the back was a playground with swings, which ended in an imposing looking brick wall. This wall which looked more like the wall of a prison, was in fact the enclosure surrounding the railway workshop. Occasionally, during tiffin break, a steady whirring sound would be heard and boys would look up to find the massive arm of a crane raised beyond the wall. The hook was lowered, something picked up maybe, and then the crane would move on, finally disappearing from view. Beyond this, the activities and goings-on beyond the workshop wall were dark, mysterious secrets which none of dared to probe.

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I have alluded to my strong dislike for the "school atmosphere". The Railway School was different; it was a blessing which helped in making attendance somewhat of a pleasurable experience for me. Set amidst a colony with roads lined with trees, and within walking distance of the railway yard, this school was more like a picnic spot where one would like to spend a day with his family in frolicking and fun.
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There were three structures in a row—the North Eastern Railway Senior Institute, the Primary School, and lastly the Principal’s bungalow. There was Joseph madam, and C

ecil Madam, and Miss Clifford besides other teachers, and everyone seemed to be on the whole pleasant and friendly. None of us however felt at ease y. None of us however felt at ease in the presence of the Headmistress, a slim, fair Anglo Indian lady by the name of Mrs Newbolt. On occasion she would stride into the classroom to give us a talk in a voice laden with sarcasm, warning us of the dangers that lay in store for those who weren’t prepared to apply themselves to their lessons. One of the boys named Mithilesh once remarked: "Newbolt teacher ka lecture mujhe bahut achcha lagta hai," voicing a sentiment that many of us shared with him. Boys and girls listened in pin-drop silence, finally heaving a sigh of relief when the hurricane had left.

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During my one year at the Railway Mixed Primary School, I didn’t succeed in making many friends. I had stood first in the half-yearly exam and two of my mates, Sanjeev and Tarun, both strong and outgoing boys, held me in high esteem despite the fact that I was a near failure in sports. One person, who although not a friend but deserves mention here, was a boy called Leslie Tobit. Leslie’s father was a driver who worked the A T Mail from Lucknow to Gorakhpur. Mrs Tobit suffered from cancer and one day we were told that she was in hospital in a serious state. At the hospital we were met by Mr Tobit, who looked in every way the quin

tessential Mr Jones of Bhowani Junction. He was distraught and heartbroken. "Doctor so-and-so," he kept repeating to my father, "Doctor so-and-so is an M.D., but he says the case is hopeless…" A few days later news came of the sad demise of Mrs Tobit. I never saw Leslie again. It is likely his father arranged for him to stay with his sister in Lucknow.
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The other person I must include here is a girl named Azra Khan. Azra was a sweet natured girl who sat by my side on a separate desk. She spoke to me kindly, but in return I often forcibly snatched her copybook and browsed through the contents. When lunch break came on, I sat at my desk and Azra would tell me of her plans. She had so many ideas on making decorations, craft-items and such like using card, glue and coloured paper. On one occasion our class teacher punished the whole class by asking us to raise our hands. Barely a few minutes had passed when this strenuous exercise proved too much for the girl who broke into tears. Poor Azra! I wonder where she might be today.
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The year passed quickly and on being promoted to Standard VII, I was admitted to the N E Railway English Medium High School. It appears that the High School had only newly begun and as the school building was yet to be built, classes were held for a year or more in the Railway Institute next to the primary school.

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My entry into high school marked the beginning of an exciting new phase in my life, for I had newly learnt to ride a bicycle. From henceforth I would cycle to school from my home in Mohaddipur, a distance of about 3-4 kilometers.
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The Railway Institute was a magnificent structure resembling a cathedral in some respects. Railway Institutes are recreational clubs for officials, and were built during British times. In Bhowani Junction, John Masters tells us that each town generally had two such Institutes. To quote from his novel: "There were two Railway Institutes then, of course, one for Europeans and Anglo-Indians, and one for Indians. The Indians had not made theirs into anything, while ours was a fine big building with a dance floor and card rooms, and a bar, just like the Club in cantonments. The Indians seldom used their Institute. They never spent any money on beer, rum and whisky there, so there was no profit to improve it with."
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Our Institute where school was held was clearly the one meant for Europeans. It had a large central hall with a stage, which must have been the ‘dance floor’ John Masters speaks about in his novel. Tournaments were regularly held, including Housie, there was a bar, and during Christmas time, ball dances and other variety programmes were held. One of the teachers, one Shri C P Singh was a regular participant in Institute activities. Besides table tennis and billiards tables, the Institute also had cinema projection facilities and once the English film ‘Oliver Twist’ was screened. The show turned out to be a great success and was well attended.
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As the English Medium School was newly begun (or so it seemed), teaching staff was low in strength, so it was not uncommon to find a person with specialized knowledge in one field taking classes on an altogether different subject. Thus P L Verma, a pleasant and soft spoken man of short stature who taught English was obliged to take arithmetic classes as well. Janak Singh who specialized in Hindi I suppose, had extended the frontiers of his knowledge so as to be able to cope with a subject like Geography, while Janardan Singh, a senior teacher, took both science and maths classes. Mr Rihazul Haque, (pictured alongside) taught art, and was perhaps the most gentlemanly person amongst the lot.
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The most interesting of these personages who were at the helm was undoubtedly one Shri I D Singh, who taught General Science and Biology. Singh's protruding belly was the subject of constant amusement throughout the school. One of the boys, a fellow named Suresh, a first rate runner and one who would use every contrivance to succeed in examinations for which he never seemed to come adequately prepared, once crossed the limit in classroom. I don’t recollect what the nature of the offence was, but I D Singh (whom we had lovingly nicknamed as ‘Idea’) was exasperated beyond measure, and picking up a duster he hurled it at the boy, missing the target by a foot or so!
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For many years the school uniform of both the Primary and High School sections had been the customary (and tiresome) navy blue trousers worn with a white shirt. To set us apart as scholars of a distinguished class, the N E Railway High School adopted a radically different style. Our uniform consisted of bluish-grey trousers and white shirt. To further add a touch of class, a tie was included, this being navy blue in colour with bright yellow stripes running across diagonally.
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For one whole year classes were held in the Senior Institute. The central hall was flanked by two passages of ample width where chairs were arranged for pupils in rows while the teacher taught lessons using a portable blackboard supported on a tripod. Meanwhile, construction of classrooms was in progress on the upper storey of the nearby Mixed Primary School, and at the end of the year we were notified that from the next term the school would be shifting premises. During the next two years, on my way to school each day, I would glance at the Institute. It was a place forever engraved in my mind as the symbol of the Railway High School. It wore a deserted look now, and had once again taken the appearance of an abandoned church staring from the midst of a wide and open space, its doors forever closed to us.

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Standard VIII. Classes began in earnest on the upper storey of the primary school and once again we renewed our acquaintance with Newbolt madam, and other faces so familiar to us. Studies though tiresome and dreary were by no means devoid of an element of fun. Some new students, mostly wards of railway officials who had arrived on transfer, had joined the class. Mr C P Singh, the ever enthusiastic teacher taught us History. Besides Railway Institute activities he also held charge of the Boy Scouts. One day as the lesson progressed the talk turned towards the subject of friendship, and C P Singh summoned the attention of one of the girls in the front row. "Now tell me, who is your friend?" he posed the question. The girl rose from her seat looking confused, and Singh repeated his question. The girl blushed: "Er—that way everyone is my friend, sir!" It was now C P Singh’s turn to look confused. "You mean to say that everyone is your friend including me?" he asked. The class roared with laughter.
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Of the many friends I made in school, the one closest to my heart was a boy named Pratim Choudhury who later, I believe, went on to study medicine. Jyoti Kumar Srivastava and Shubendu Sharma were both sons of senior railway officials with whom I shared a working relationship. Another friend was Devendra who though not very close held a special place in my heart for the simple reason that he was the son of a railway driver in charge of the A T Mail.

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So far I have not spoken about one aspect of my character, and that is my keen interest and enthusiasm for trains and anything to do with the railways. Each day on my way home from school, I dismounted my bicycle and watched with great interest engines shunting in the yard. At several times I would catch sight of the A T Mail pulling out of the yard on its way to Gauhati. All blue carriages and two

YP steam engines at the front working furiously
to get those 22 cars out of the yard as quickly as they could. A few years later I found to my dismay that those two YP locos had disappeared, their place taken by a single diesel engine. From then onwards A T Mail would run on diesel.
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The day came when we finally left Gorakhpur. The changeover came in mid 1974, four years after I first joined the railway school. I bid goodbye to my friends. Preparations were made, trunks packed and sealed, luggage booked, train reservations made in advance. I together with my parents and sister would be moving to a new home hundreds of miles distant. We boarded the evening A T Mail that would take us to far away Gauhati, a journey lasting about 40 hours. Following a brief halt at Gorakhpur the train whistled and jerked forward. Our journey had begun. I sat next to a window watching the platform slip by. The train snaked its way out of the yard, going clickety-clunk-clunk. There it was—the spot where I would halt on my bike to watch trains shunting. A moment later, another familiar sight—the Railway Senior Institute! It was my school, my very own school. A succession of faces passed across my eye: Rajiv Sharma, Pratim, Farooq Ahmed, Geeta, Azra Khan, Madhumita Sarkar, Nishi Choube, Laxmi, Vijay Arora, Jyoti Srivastava, Dhiman Ganguly, Manzoor Ahmed Siddiqui, Desh Deepak Chowdhury, Deepak Banerji, Sandeep Lal, Shashank Mathur, Mithilesh Dixit, Shankar, art teacher Rihazul Haque, C P Singh. . . The vision lasted only briefly; the next moment the train was hurrying on towards the Char-phatak level crossing.

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Ravindra Bhalerao
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Picture Credits:
The pictures which appear here (with the exception of the title page of the arithmetic textbook) have been kindly provided by Shri Animesh K. Sengupta, a former student of the N. E. Railway High School (English Medium), Gorakhpur.
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Teachers in Group Photo:

Standing from L to R:  C. P. Singh, I. D. Singh, Janardan Singh, M. L. Kaul (Principal), R. Haq, H. N. Verma, Janak Singh