Carriages, called saloons during the Raj, are intrinsic to a railway official's work, particularly when he is posted in the field. But for an ordinary traveller, says Sonal Prakash, it's an unforgettable experience and you see the world from a different perspective altogether
Being a daughter of an official with the Indian Railways has its advantages. One gets the opportunity to travel in the comfort of inspection carriages and see places which are uncommon on the itinerary of someone travelling India. The officers of the Indian Railways owe the idea of travelling by them to the British. Saloons, as they were nomenclatured during the Raj, now referred to as inspection carriages, are intrinsic to a railway official’s work particularly when he is posted in the field. For someone who has to go on long inspection tours, at times lasting an entire week, they are indispensable to him.
Carriages could be called houses on wheels. The size of a railway coach, they are fitted with all the essentials, necessary for an individual. The main purpose that they serve is the facility of stay in the remotest parts of the country where other arrangements for accommodation are difficult to make. The concept of plying carriages enables the official’s family to travel with him, making his stay away from home more enjoyable.
However, to be fair, not everything is fine with carriage travel. All is well when the train is moving, but when it stops somewhere for a longer duration, then all hell breaks loose. The power supply is limited and if the batteries get discharged in a place where it is not possible to recharge them then you have to get used to the darkness around you. Since railway coaches are steel-bodied, the interiors become hot easily. In a non-AC carriage, which is true of all carriages of junior officials, it almost seems as if one is getting baked in a large-sized oven.
Carriage journey is certainly not for those who are claustrophobic. The furniture inside them leaves little room for walking freely. It is particularly hard on the family members who, if the journey is long, get desperate to come out and breathe in fresh air and feel the sun and wind on their faces. Boredom is something all carriage travellers must get used to. As against officials who are busy inspecting, his or her family members often have nothing better to do than wait for the tour to end.
Since childhood, I have travelled by all kinds of carriages plying both on the metre and broad gauge railway tracks. It goes without saying that the ones operating on metre gauge are infuriatingly slow, testing one’s patience to the extreme. I particularly remember one such journey from Kathgodam to Bareilly. By the end of it, I was ready to jump out of the moving train, and start sprinting towards my destination.
I still recall a journey from Palampur to Pathankot. The views of the dry riverbed which was encircled by the foothills of the Himalayas kept my eyes glued to the window through the entire journey. Another such sojourn, this time from Delhi to Hubli, in which I saw the frequent changes in terrain from the north to the south of India was a visual lesson on India’s geography. However, the trip that left an indelible impression on my mind was the one through the dense forests of Jharkhand. These jungles have a mysterious aura about them, and when I passed by them, I could not help wondering which tribes inhabited these forests and the kind of lives they led. Jharkhand with its dense jungles, the shade of emerald, has always fascinated me and I consider myself lucky that I have viewed them from such close quarters. I would be seated by the side of the carriage window for hours drinking in their beauty.
When I was young I would pack all my favourite toys and books in anticipation of a journey by carriage. At that age, one does not have any sense of the discomfort such a journey entailed, which my mother felt unlike me. Carriages were like the caravans in Enid Blyton books and I thoroughly enjoyed myself imagining that I, too, was like a character in my favourite books. The room I most preferred in the carriage was the inspection cabin. Since carriages are the last coaches attached to a train, the large glass window overlooking the railway tracks and the stations that the train passes by enables the officers to survey the upkeep of the tracks and signals and halt at the smaller stations if the need arises. However, for me, this room was the one from where I could get a detailed view of the landscapes which the train rapidly left behind.
The availability of the type of a carriage to an official depends upon his rank in the bureaucratic hierarchy. Obviously, officials of the highest ranks have access to the luxurious AC carriages. The tasteful wood panelling in the interiors that are quite spacious, comprising two sleeping rooms, one drawing-cum-dining space with a television set,
two bathrooms and one large inspection cabin — all these make the carriages look ostentatious. At the lower level, the carriages, although they do not boast of such luxuries, are nevertheless passable.
There was much hue and cry in India against their operation in the aftermath of the railway strike in 1974. later, the Janata Party Government, too, did not take kindly to them and discouraged their use. They were considered needlessly wasteful and ostentatious, making the railway officials seem like maharajas travelling in comfort with their retinue. However, such protests died soon after, and carriages plied without inhibition, with even greater aplomb than before. If anything, they became even more plush and were fitted with all the necessities that ensured comfort for those who travelled by them.
There are very few parallels to the notion of inspection carriages in other parts of the world. Interestingly, the UK, the country to which we owe this heritage, plies them rarely. The only model of the inspection carriage survives in the form of 0975025 Caroline. Originally, this was an inspection saloon used for rail inspection duties on the railway network in Great Britain. In the present times this saloon operates as a VIP excursion train. It now ferries the British royals and important guests of the state. The British Royal Train carried Prince Charles and lady Diana on July 29, 1981, for the first part of the honeymoon trip following their wedding. A year later, Pope John Paul II became Caroline’s passenger on his visit to the UK. The train commuted him from Gatwick Airport to the london Victoria station. In India, Jawaharlal Nehru used to travel by carriages quite often. This mode of transportation also caught the fancy of heads of state like Rajendra Prasad, VV Giri and, more recently, APJ Abdul Kalam. Interestingly, while former Railway Minister lalu Prasad travelled by carriage as many as 369 times, Mamata Banerjee did not step into one even once during her tenure.
Journeying in carriages is something I would always reminisce as an experience which was at once unique and relaxing. Never very fond of rail travel, I always welcomed the idea of visiting places by carriages where one is spoilt for comfort. But like all good things that come to an end, they, too, have become a part of memory which I fondly remember whenever I board a train now.