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Most
foreigners include Rajastan in their India - itenaries for its historic
cities, forts and Maharaja palaces. I went there for the pasengers
trains on metre gauge, which were among the last ones on the
Subcontinent that were steam operated in 1995/96.
Above:
Right
in
the outskirts of Udaipur, the line from
Chittaugarh passed the famous Debari Gate. The City wall was
originally erected in the 17th Century by Maharana Raj Singh to
protect the city from hostile attacks. As a matter of fact, not even the British could
get Udaipur and the surrounding area under their full control later
during colonial times. Dec.1995.
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Thanks the delay of the Ahmedabad-Udaipur Night-Express,
I was able to catch it near Zawar in the early morning light. According to the timetable, it should have passed hours earlier shortly after dawn. Dec.1995. |
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The Zawar-Udaipur
ghat section featured
the kind of rugged, stubby hills that have inspired painters in
Rajastan for centuries. At Zawar, where the Passenger 85 just had left, a YG banker was attached at the rear end to assist the YP over the 1 in 60
grade. It wasn't until the late sixties, that this difficult line was
finished with Chinese assistance, while the metre gauge steam engines of class YP and
YG were built until 1972 in India. |
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Some fair
degree of good luck was
needed to photograph the Ahmedabad-Udaipur Express at the Ord-Bridge, given
the fact that
according to schedule, it would have passed there in the early morning
before sunrise. In reality, however, the train hardly ever was on time.
Delays of one to eight hours were prevailing during my visit, making a
good shots a matter of
time an patience.
In the tipical hills of Rajastan, a Sabarmati YP assisted by an YG
banker from Ranapratapnagar pounded uphill. Dec.1995
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Same place, opposite direction: The Chittaurgarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad Passenger
86 had just passed the mountain range in the background
through a tunnel and trundled down to Zawar. The crews on the engine
spotted the gricer a greeted enthusiastically - Indians often reacted
with a mixture of admiration and astonishment when they met foreigners
in the middle of a nowhere waiting for their trains. Dec.1995 |
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South of Zawar, the track followed a river valley, leaving the
ghat section behind. Mewar-Passenger
86 with an immaculate YP
headed towards Ahmedabad, still roughly 260km away from where this picture was taken. Even though maximum speed permitted was some 60km/h, it took the train about 10 hours to get to its destination, translating to an average speed of mere 26km per hour, the usual delays not included! Dec.1995. |
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Between
Ranapratapnagar and Udaipur, a typical Indian water was passed by the
Mhow - Passenger. Dec.1995 |
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(c) Markus Fischer, Zürich |
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