This railway line is just behind my house in Urban Estate , Phase 1 , Jalandhar City
When I started constructing this house in 1994 trains passing on this line were pulled by steam engines.
The
engines moved slowly with great effort. Their laborious huffing and
puffing sent very strong vibrations / tremors to my house 's site.
These were like a very mild earthquake . I brought this
to the notice of my civil engineer and asked him whether we should go
for extra strengthening of the house's foundations.
After sometime steam engines were phased out. In place came diesel engines and DEMU s. Tremors disappeared.
Now , by 2022 the track has been electrified . Electric trains / EMU s glide past my house.
The inevitable march of technology.
But
I miss the shrill Koo Koo whistle of the steam engines wwhih now have
been replaced by bland and unmusical honking of electric horns
. My generation 's childhood memories were associated with these steam whistles- I am Nov. 1959 born.
-------------------
Amritsar - Mumbai Railway Line
Engines - Steam / Diesel and Electric - My Memories
I
was very young when I first travelled in ' Frontier Mail ' around 1966
, with my parents , from Jullundur to Bombay . I had always been
fascinated by Railway engines.
Frontier
Mail has a Steam engine from Jullundur onward . But when I woke up
after my second night I found that an electric engine , a new type of
engine for me , was pulling our train. We were nearing Bombay .
I was told that it was a standard practice to change engines from
Steam to Electric and vice versa on return at a station named Dahod in
Gujarat.
After a few years the switch of engines started to be done at Godhra - Gujarat.
Then Ratlam in M P.
In
1976 when I was studying in St. Stephen's College , Delhi while
passing under Tilak bridge, New Delhi I found that the railway line
had been electrified till New Delhi
Finally
in 1980 s entire Bombay - Amritsar line was on electric traction. No
need to switch / change engines but only the engine staff.
Bombay had been renamed Mumbai and Frontier Mail became 'Golden Temple Express .
Frontier
Mail 's rake / entire train's one part which started from Pathankot
and joined the main train at Old Delhi station. This train was named
Kashmir Mail .
Kashmir Mail became Jammu Mail with the railway line having been extended from Pathankot to Jammu Tawi
-----
by
Ashwani Kumar Aggarwal
