Trainspotting

Singh, a brand manager at Reckitt Benckiser, has also been chugging along obscure rail tracks from Ghum—the world’s highest narrow gauge line near Darjeeling—to Simliguda, Orissa, where the highest broad gauge track is located, for his forthcoming quiz book on the Indian Railways.

As a member of the Indian Railways Society, Singh champions the cause of the steam engine and has traversed some 3,000 km to track locations of movies such as Sholay, Parineeta and Gandhi. He usually travels sitting atop trains to discover little known lines like the one between Jayanagar, near Madhubani in Bihar, and Janakpur in Nepal. “In some places, the load of people is so much that the train barely moves,” he says. Maitreyee Handique collects some nuggets from the exhibition.

1 First Things First While the first train steamed off on the 34 km Boribunder-Thane route on April 16, 1853, the first stamp was released more than 80 years later. The 4 anna Mail Train stamp was the first to be released on the Indian Railways, in 1937. It shows a portrait of King George VI and the 4-6-2 steam loco, manufactured by Swiss Locomotive Works in 1914.
2 Engine Driver The GIP No 1, manufactured in the UK, was the earliest engine used in India, between Bombay and Thane, in 1853.
3 By Demand F/1 was the most widely used S class engine on the tracks before Independence. While the first engines came from the UK, the Ajmer Railway Workshop began manufacturing trains in 1895 and was withdrawn in 1958. The one on the stamp was manufactured in 1895.
4 Yes, Minister India ranks high when it comes to issuing stamps on political leaders. Only two such stamps related to the railways have been issued so far: Of Lalit Narayan Mishra, the first railway minister who died in a bomb blast in Samastipur in 1975. And of Madhavrao Scindia, who died in a plane crash in 2004.
5 Grand Dame To mark the 100th birthday of Bombay’s Victoria Terminus in 1988, a special first day cover was issued. The Italian medieval Gothic structure took 10 years to build. It was so called to celebrate the Queen’s golden jubilee on June 20, 1887. Now it’s the only listed heritage railway station in the world.
6 Coin It The first railway-inspired coin was issued in memory of freedom fighter Chittaranjan Das, after whom the locomotive factory—Chittaranjan Loco Works—was named in November 1950; price, 8 annas. The second one bearing the image of Bholu the elephant, the mascot of the Indian Railways, was issued to mark 150 years of the Indian Railways. Denomination, Rs 2. Both the coins were released in 1997.
7 Expensive Taste The much coveted miniature sheet (where a useable stamp comes attached to a larger sheet) was issued in 2002 to mark 150 years of the Indian Railways; at Rs 15, it is the most expensive stamp.

FULL SYSTEM AHEAD : Date of Issue 1993 THE RAIL WAY • India’s route circuit is 63,000 km long • Has 7,000 stations • 14,444 trains • 8,702 passenger trains run daily • Carries 5 billion people and 350 million tonnes of freight a year NERAL-MATHERAN Set up to carry the British to the hills, it began running in 1907. Deemed a commercially non-viable proposal, it was left to private “native” Abdul Hussein Peerbhoy. KALKA-SHIMLA Considered a romantic line, with Roman aqueducts dotting the track, it boasts of the world’s longest narrow gauge tunnel. Built between 1904 and 1935 in Great Britain, it started operating in 1903. Mailer Daemon When France and Vietnam signed a treaty on the temporary division of the country after the war, India was part of the UN-led International Control Commission group, comprising Canada and Poland, to oversee an election that never took place. This 10-paise stamp was issued by the Army Postal Services for soldiers stationed in Laos between 1965 and 1968. DARJEELING-HIMALAYAN “Darling, if you can’t move forward, why don’t you move backward.” This advice from the wife of the chief engineer led to the invention of the zero reversing system to move along a steep gradient. The world’s highest station Ghum, at 7,407 ft, lies on this line and is the second railway location on the Heritage List, after Knysa-Deepwalls line in South Africa. Story continues below this ad NILGIRI HILL RAILWAY: Built between 1885 and 1908 to cover the 52 km between Mettupal-ayam and Ooty. The stamp depicts a 1914 steam loco.