A Letter from Alfred Gabb

ALFRED D. F. GABB grew up in Kirkee near Poona, and received his schooling in Barnes High School, Deolali, in India. In 1947, the year of India's independence, Alfred returned to England where he qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer -- more details may be found on the following page:
http://www.barnesschool.net/barnes_html/biographies/AlfredGabb%20.html
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Raj enthusiasts as well as railfans in India will be pleased to know that Mr Gabb has authored a book called ANGLO-INDIAN LEGACY, full details of which are contained in Alfred's letter to me which I received a week ago. The book contains some reference to the railways of India, so I had to write to him! Here's his reply:
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13 April 2010
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Dear Ravindra,
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Thank you for your e mail. My self published book was titled 1600-1947 ANGLO-INDIAN LEGACY - A BRIEF GUIDE TO BRITISH RAJ INDIA HISTORY, NATIONALITY, EDUCATION, RAILWAYS & IRRIGATION (2000), by Alfred D.F. (George) Gabb CEng, MICE, Chartered Civil Engineer. (ISBN 0 948333 89 8). It is now out of print. Apart from official copies in the British Library, London, and the libraries of Oxford & Cambridge universities and the national libraries of Scotland, Ireland & Wales, the only copies for sale may only be available from second hand book shops in Britain, or elsewhere. When published it cost £8 plus postage from myself. But they will now cost a bit more. Try Amazon or other search second hand book stores on the internet. The section of my book about the railways, is only a 10 page appendix describing the construction and running of the railways by the British in India, between 1853 and 1947.
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I am flattered that you wish me to write an article for your blog on life on the railways during the British Raj. I regret do not have anything suitable. But it may interest you to know that many of my forbears gave their lives at an early age working for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. My paternal grand father and great grandfather were recruited direct from Britain and died within a few years. The former, a Foreman Fitter in the Railway Workshops in Bhusaval, died of small pox, aged 34 years, and the latter a Foreman Boilersmith there, died of a stroke aged 48 years. My paternal grandmother's brothers, who were second generation Irishmen born in India, included an Igatpuri Station Master and two Engine Drivers, who died in their thirties and forties and a Guard, who reached the grand age of 58 years ! As an infant boy in India in the 1930s I recollect playing at steam engines in my garden in Khadki, Maharashtra, crying “kusasatimotorsutikundalati kusasutimotorsutikundalati”.
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Your blog looks promising and I wish you every good fortune in its continuing expansion.
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Regards
Alfred

My early days in the railways

When the Second World War ended in 1944, there was a huge depletion of resources as the British government virtually used our railway material and men for war purposes. However it was a blessing in disguise and many young people like my own elder brother who had just passed SSC found employment in the war field. He was posted in Iraq. When the war ended he was automatically absorbed in the G.I.P. Railway and began working in Jabalpur Divisional Office. Since his own Officer-in-Command, Major James Macreay, of Scottish descent, was also posted as the Divisional Superintendent at Jabalpur, my brother took the opportunity to call me over from my village in Kerala and join him at Jabalpur. Here I was posted as a temporary clerk because it was expected that I would soon get an opportunity for a permanent post.
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Early in 1947 I was recruited and posted as Telegraph candidate at Bina Railway Training School which was till then a military training center. After six months training in all fields like booking clerk, TC, signaller, station master, etc., I was posted to Bombay VT as a Signaller.
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A Signaller was actually a telegraphist working on Morse instruments, like the operators you saw in post offices. Since he is on the railways, his messages relate only to 'operations' and other railway matters. Inspectors and Controllers on the other hand are selection posts. Only those who can pass tough examinations and have a good record of service can hope to get selected. All railway employees have what is called a Confidential Report written annually by their superiors, and their future is decided by these documents. If the report speaks poorly, then the person concerned is apprised of this and given an opportunity to improve.
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Those days promotions came fast for those who were doing well because of war-time vacancies on one hand, and rapid expansion of the railways on the other. From Signaller to Relieving ASM and then on to permanent ASM -- promotions came rapidly my way. I was thus selected to work as an Instructor at the Bina training school (the school was later shifted to Bhusaval).
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At the Railway Training School in Bina I found a huge library set up by the British and here I would spend long hours when I found time. Normally no one bothered even to look at these books. The school had its own hostels, and a dining hall where sumptuous meals were served besides evening and morning teas. All the subjects like Traffic, Transportation, Permanent Way, Signals, and Loco Shed were taught to respective employees. There were even railway doctors who were in attendance.
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The course I was assigned to teach was, of course, "Operating", for station master/guard category. Here the word operating refers to the procedures relating to giving line-clear to a station, receiving a train on the allotted platform by getting the signals lowered, and so on. The long hours spent in the library had endowed me with proficiency in my subject, so I was also assigned to conduct courses for officers who were directly recruited. The School had a model room where the Instructor would propel a miniature train with his hand while explaining the subject to students. There was also a full-sized 'yard' next to the School. The tracks had turnouts, crossings and signals. Here boys would receive actual practical training -- train examiners, for example, would study in detail the underframe and various other parts on passenger coaches and goods wagons kept in the yard.
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K. R. VAIDYANATHAN
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Pictures courtesy of K. R. Vaidyanathan. Lower picture shows Shri Vaidyanathan inaugurating a wooden advance indicator giving train timings for suburban trains in the Bombay area sometime during 1975. Note the GIPR in decorative letters on the wall bracket at upper centre.
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K. R. Vaidyanathan served as Divisional Operating Superintendent, Divisional Commercial Superintendent, and several other responsible positions on the Central Railway. For a full account of Mr Vaidyanathan's career in the railways, turn to the following page:
http://www.irfca.org/articles/bio-k-r-vaidyanathan.html

The last of the Mohicans

I was fortunate to grow up in a small railway colony, one of the many that dot the vast landscape of this country. It was during the pre T.V and pre computer era. These devices had not yet arrived, only to cloister us within our homes.
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No one needed an appointment to come over, nor did any one have to call before dropping by. In this little colony, homes and hearts were forever open.
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In the evenings our compound would be hosed down to cool the soil, then chairs would be laid out in the verandah & neighbors and friends would drop by for a chat. It was a time for intermingling and a time to share ones joys and sorrows.
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That was also the time when a railwayman’s story telling was at his best and it would get even better if he had his evening drink before coming over. These tales would enthrall us children & we could never get enough of them. They were swashbuckling tales of bravado, valor and fearlessness, tales that would have made a Spaniard of yore envious, the legendary Don Quixote! One evening a mail driver came over, he told us that he had halted his steam engine at a desolate village. The village had been plagued of late by the menace of a man eating panther. As its kills increased, the beast got increasingly fearless and soon it was entering huts and dragging its victims out. That night while he had stopped his engine & waited for the signal to turn green, he heard a thump on the roof and then he saw a black tail dangling down. He knew it was the panther, he was alone and unarmed. He said, he had to do something quick or else he could end up yet another victim. That’s when his genius took over (so he said to the disagreement of his wife) & he let off a powerful blast of steam from the engines boiler. The panther leapt off the engine and scampered into the neighboring bushes. The villagers discovered the beast the next day, dead, badly scalded and as he put it----properly pressure cooked. I never got a chance to visit that village or to verify his claim; however the proverbial pinch of salt was always at hand.
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We would be visited by a gentleman who did not like his mother in law, and to make matters worse she lived under his roof. One evening he appeared distraught & said that every night while he lay fast asleep she would wake up and yell that she was about to die. Her screams would continue for an hour or so and then as her palpitations subsided she would snore off to sleep. The poor chap would be left tossing and turning in bed till morning, his sleep having vanished. Some days later he appeared jubilant & said he had cured the old bird of her nightmares. When we asked how he did it? He said that the previous night when she woke up howling that she was about to die he told her “Don’t worry Ma you wont die ---- you have to be shot”! That cured her for good!
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The most enthralling yarn I ever heard was from yet another neighbor who had returned from a shoot. The previous night he along with a friend had gone hunting & they perched themselves on two different trees on opposite banks of a nullah. As the night got darker my neighbor claimed to have seen a huge cobra slithering along a branch on which his friend was sitting. The cobra was inches away from his friend and all ready to strike. Without much ado he raised his rifle and fired knocking that “Damn things head off”. He was all praise for his marksmanship but was quick to add that had he missed by a few inches he might have shot his friend on the knee cap or stomach or somewhere in between. I feel lucky for his friend and now realize that had he got him somewhere in between his kneecap and stomach our colony would have had its first Boy George, all by himself Number 6, complete with a saree and dholak, clapping loudly to bawdy Hindi tunes. I guess he got carried away while telling this tale and he didn’t realize what he had said.
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Had these men put pen to paper we would have had many more Ruskin Bond’s.
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Those were wonderful times when life was unhurried and carefree. In those colonies it was a case of one for all and all for one, sadly the good times didn’t last. We grew up and flew the nest. Those folks retired and left the colony to spend the rest of their days with their children and grand children in far off places. Soon hardly any one was left in the colony and it was never to be the same again.
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Ours was the last generation to have experienced those wonderful times and to have grown up among those wonderful people, many of whom sadly no longer walk this earth.
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Being the last generation to have lived there at that time, we ended up ---- the last of the Mohicans.
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NOEL DIAS

Mani's heritage corner (Part I)

We have a guest entry today from ABHIMANYU SHAUNIK, (Mani for short), who is going to take us on a tour of the National Rail Museum in New Delhi.



Abhimanyu Shaunik lives in New Delhi and has been on the Executive Committee of the Indian Steam Railway Society ever since its formation nearly a decade ago. When I spoke to him last year complaining that the Society journal was a bit late in coming, Mani explained the reason to me and then went on to say something that has proved to be a real inspiration for me. "You have to be on your own," said Mani. Just seven plain words, but they pack with them all the fire, steam and enthusiasm a rail heritage enthusiast will ever need. Go out and explore things on your own, there are vast areas yet to be explored...

If his hobby is to be satisfying, a rail heritage enthusiast needs to be something of a Christopher Columbus at heart. In his keynote address at the Fourth Annual Steam Heritage Conference, eminent travel writer Bill Aitken has hinted at something akin to this when he said: “I would recommend members (of the ISRS) board one Sunday the Agra Passenger from Delhi on a reccee of wayside stations. Each member should make notes on specific objects along the way such as station frontage architecture, waiting room furniture with company logo, weighing machine date and manufacturer, platform bell, station master’s clock and Edmundson platform ticket stock . . . With the unexpected memorabilia that old stations often throw up, this work edited for publishing would be of invaluable interest to future students of railway travel.”

Sound, wholesome advice, and one that every rail enthusiast would do well to heed seriously. “You have to be on your own,” Mani’s words still ring in my ears. I decided to take his advice seriously and the result is this web-blog on railway life in British India, bringing to the reader precious nuggets of information not to be found easily elsewhere. It is all so amazing. While contributions for this blog sent in by readers across the globe will always be gratefully remembered, the inspiration and driving force behind this idea I unquestionably owe to Abhimanyu.

The good news is that Mani has finally come forward with a contribution of his own, a set of breathtaking pictures with vibrant colour and pin-sharp definition, featuring the locomotives and other artifacts on display at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. For the armchair rail enthusiast, this is the ultimate post. Thanks a lot Mani, we owe you a debt of gratitude for making the NRM come alive for us in the comfort of the study, and we hope that some day you will tell us about your very impressive model railway layout too!!

Pictures Courtesy of Abhimanyu Shaunik