BBC Four - Indian Hill Railways (Episode 3/3) - The Kalka Shimla Railways (IRFCA)

from the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiri 's in the south for a century little trains have climbed through the clouds into the world of the indian hill railways another train leaves the station one of eleven thousand departures every day on the vast network of Indian Railways but this train is leaving the crowded alleyways and ramshackle houses of the plains behind from the little railway town of Calca this train is heading into the foothills of the Himalayas in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh the land of the gods 150 years ago a narrow Ridge of mountain villages was transformed by the British into the summer capital of the Raj to get there they created this little narrow gauge railway it took five years to lay the 60 mile line for this hundred tunnels 864 bridges and 20 stations it was opened in 1903 every summer it ferried ministers and Generals diplomats and administrators their families and their servants on a five-hour journey into the hills two and a half thousand meters above the plains the British created Shimla with all the confidence of the most powerful nation on earth they built to impress the local population and to govern them in familiar comfort I in the Hills they solemnly created a replica England four thousand miles from home shimla has mocked Judah homes shopping promenades and English boarding schools for six months every year the entire government machine moved from Delhi and the heat of the planes making Shimla the most powerful place in India from the second-floor office of vice-regal Lodge 1/5 of humanity was governed it was from here but India and Pakistan were eventually partitioned when the British left the notions of time and discipline of loyalty and Duty remained intact just like the railway then left behind now six trains arrived in Shimla every day diesel has replaced steam and the carriages are full of Indian tourists but much of the engineering on the line remains from the days of empire the signals the track the rolling stock is maintained by the now state-owned Indian Railways they demand loyalty order and dedication from their staff and Shimla stationmaster Sanjay gira is obsessive about all three Shimla station is a big glass non interlock terminal station this is a nice token instrument invented by you mr. Niels a British man the small numbered metal balls supplied by the hundred-year-old Niels machine are Sanjay's prized responsibility to ensure train safety every driver must collect one before leaving the station is then carried in the locomotive mounted in a circular steel frame at the next Junction it's handed over to show the train has completed that section of the journey and the single line is now free and safe for the next train it's a routine as old as the line it's all system enter the foolproof system it's a good one mr. Niels is a very intelligent man who invented this instrument 100 years back along with safety punctuality is a prime responsibility for 42 year old Sanjay and like Shimla itself he's inherited many British obsessions my main motto is the punctuality of trains the right time arrival and right time departure punctuality is 100% in every aspect of life punctuality is must Indian Railways employ more than a million people who were promotion opportunities for staff who want to stay in Shimla are limited or Sanjay was only one job left Nobita Bosniak a promotion underway from happening across nations of Britain and she bloody ketchup on Sanjay wants his boss's job and as luck would have it station superintendent but algid Gill has applied for the transfer as stations of redundant you are the head of the family everyone is reporting to you and it's the small wheels which are automatically interlocked and they keep on working one works excellently luckily there have been only 18 superintendents in Shimla since 1903 at algid arrived in 2005 but now hopes he'll soon be transferred away I joined here on 23rd 6th 2005 I'll see let's see what in the last 50 years life in the shivalik hills has been transformed the slopes below Christchurch once forests of pine and deer da are now crammed with thousands of Indian homes Shimla's population has more than doubled since the days of the British Empire every day the Train brings hundreds more tourists from all over India looking for a glimpse of the Raj and maybe even some snow but their first encounter will inevitably be with a railway Porter over 40 railway porters earn a living from arrivals and departures Maqsood geun-hye has worked on the station for 27 years his father was a porter here before him Maranatha mihrab kundalini not is easy melody dar was cannot I may have okay Mira Mira not a Amira but I have whose cannot have a hemorrhage or it's not a yes me register a schism then Asia or subcostal a subculture which make a sub push me they receive Masoud sometimes carries bags as far as five kilometers or uphill each job earns him around 50 pence he hopes to get four or five jobs a day Porter's have always filled Shimla's narrow streets since the British times the town center has been closed to cars and rickshaws so the only way to move luggage and heavy items up the hill is on the porters back using nothing more than a few bits of strapping and their own stamina to keep the local economy moving many tourists are attracted to Shimla to see the snow but this winter times are hard for the station Porter's spring is fast approaching and so far there's been none Allah Ganesha Ganesha here sir uber a very young captain Janka armed Kasuga Janka armed comically to loosen he tells Isaiah Khimki Zamindari ljubljana para lo que un cattle bahia he nato un caballo Roxanne who yoga at 46 Maqsood is one of the young reporters the longest serving is a true Ram he's nearly 90 everyday he collects meals from the station canteen and carries them up from the platform to his boss at algid Gil it's a master-servant relationship but with a mutual respect legend of the real me Hollister come kappa ogi they push their avatar give me alright our Ram is a permanent fixture on Shimla station but but algid is just passing through he's hoping his new posting will come soon but like the porters and the tourists there's only one thing he'd like to see before he goes I hope and pray we must have snow you know the nectar slows itself it's really an island you have to experience it but algid may soon get his snow temperatures are starting to fall Shimla is the only place in India with a skating rink where the ice formed naturally it could soon be in use when the British left India at the end of the forties Shimla fell on hard times the local economy collapsed but in 1971 new town was made the capital of a new state in child Pradesh and government and prestige returned today the tricolour flies proudly over the town and Shimla celebrates its independence as a flourishing Indian City but everywhere in Shimla traces of the former rulers remain nowhere more so than on the railway the British Viceroy travelled in his own personal vehicle the rail car today there are four of these strange little locos still in service diesel driven and with all the comforts befitting power and privilege in their eight-year history rail cars have carried Prime Minister's politicians and leaders of the independence movement to Summer Hill the Viceroy private station and when the Viceroy arrived so did British government and Shimla came alive only a handful of these Imperial mansions remain the oldest and best preserved is chaps Lee it was built in 1835 for a director of the East India Company and transfer to Indian hands in the 30s now Ratan Jeet canvassing a descendant of a local Maharajah returns every year in time for the Shimla season essentially it will our summer we only came up here and maybe late April early May and September October you know when the chill settled then we moved up so we had various homes over a period of time we may have had five homes at one time in the old days aristocratic families like the Singh's lost much of their wealth after independence to pay for the cost of repair and staff chaps Lee is opening this season as an upmarket bed-and-breakfast we decided that you know the house must earn its keep at the same time they were very very definite that they should not be any changes whatsoever at the bottom of the line lies Kalka the Gateway to the hills today buildings are being demolished to make way for a wider faster road position life most of the traffic uphill travels on the road nowadays but Calcutta is still an important railway Junction intercity trains bring tourists from all over India before independence the platform's would have been teeming with English children catching the train back to boarding school after the winter break the only Englishman resident in Shimla this season will be John with Marsh night at 68 after a globe-trotting career he's coming back as a schoolteacher my mother and father were both educated in the hills when they were young in the 20s and I'm the fifth generation in Dearborn in this been very good to the family and it's my way of repaying that as well John is off to teacher Bishop cotton Shimla's oldest boarding school the schools boom when the railways made the town more accessible before the Train the journey would have taken four days on the back of a bullock cart English children suffered in the heat of the plains so they were sent to Shimla for the school year the parents had a simple choice they either lost their children from nine months of the year or they risk their children dying of heat snakes and insect bites on the plains and there were cases actually one of my ancestors actually died of heatstroke from traveling on a plane on a train other planes yeah u-turn Ramon Cota this is huge panorama color and space in question very very very free that I want you to bring the views from the train as it weaves its way up through the Shivalik hills makes the line one of the great Indian railway journeys rail freight services ended in the sixties and the road up the hill was first widened traveling by car is usually the quickest way to Shimla over the ticket costing only 50 P the Train is cheaper and more comfortable today's train has only tourists aboard and one Indian born expat I feel very strange that you're gonna leave as if it has Porter's gathering like wolves coming down on a flock of poor defenseless lambs Thank You Jeremy very nice very nice your English is very good well done very well Maqsood takes john's luggage at the end of his two-day journey from England for the next nine months Zhang's home will be the exclusive Bishop cotton school while on the other side of town the railway provides another home in exile or Maqsood and the station's Kashmir reporters they are Muslims economic migrants from the Kashmir a region that was awarded to India during partition in 1947 Pakistan has always disputed it and two wars have been waged over the territory since Maqsood and his fellow Kashmiris have come to Shimla to earn money and escape religious intolerance Abdul seasick me me to talk about the hoteliers Ianto yet I am still a Hindu hey Usagi headmistress after I suppose from ETS I hear some Italy mechana koala employee be Who I am Claire Kali Durga Kali way problem would arise I Sonny gigantic mass merchants Max's wife and two children still live in Kashmir and he works to send money back to them ma'am miss gotta become Kobe may miss Khatami mrs. Kobe mascara applicator cabeza who will be our decoy be beta apne Baku be miss car Santa happy family co-op Nagar Valley coffee but you that's a Jason yes Emma Cara the railway provides a place to live for all its workers at Shimla in the railway colony just below the platform here junior staff lived with their families in apartments and flats above the station live senior staff in two and three-bedroom bungalows for the drivers and guards who don't live in Shimla there's a dormitory called the running room where they stay overnight before their return journey it's very much a male preserve a place to unwind eat and catch up with railway news at the Running Room tonight there's a retirement party for the driver is a chance to say goodbye to old friends and colleagues after 30 years service staff live and work together the railway is a giant family but life as the head of the station family can be lonely but algid is still waiting for the transfer that will reunite him with his wife from children my family was staying here my mother was with me Milan younger brother my wife and my two kids it was very full of people and it was rather lively house sometimes we feel very lonely now sitting all alone in this big house but Battaglia's not completely alone a shrew Ram lives with him as he did when Battaglia's whole family was in Shimla my kids they really respect him and they call him Baba ji give it I'm the ring of the Ostrava body but out his wife still speak so a true every week like that sir I chose it while Battaglia Thwaites in the bungalow with a Jew ran outside in the railway colony the temperature is starting to fall but will it snow one railway worker has managed to build his own house next to the Viceroy his old station at Summer Hill stationmaster Sanjay gira saved up for and designed and built this thoroughly modern home to share with his wife and two children give an analyst Feeny it's a huge house by railway standards a testament to his determination and ambition um owned with Iowa coffee bar our Mountain Mooji Neela document number amount ignominy her tucker Pamba who merkulov aquella garam teach our local mill Jetta her tea or milk our mechanics land cool a aur makaan bonnet and two Tauruses stop at a comic on the insula Gaelic become a companion jockey four-story building the time to lock Tahir Sanjay's family live on one floor of the house the other two levels are occupied by the friends who helped finance the key opportunities to sub keepers are thinking like Mina like my turning point Oh hurry kill Jane to give me attack kuch locha sweetie season Lily think which look for a delay per job named Judy season Lila team Comicon van Java the whole planning than the interior decoration of this houses go the credit goes to mr. Sanjay no to me he planned the whole things another advantage of a posting in Shimla is access to some of the best schools in India Sanjay went to a government school but he wants his children to go private and have all the things he missed out on America's iconic schooltas and Frances details they needed to on the government's culinary school kitchen were provided for table tennis table Oh Egbert Maggie akka her name which is Muhammad Ali okay a sports teacher epithelia osa hockey - permitted inning of the school came to approve home allow liquor thing happen to object to Booty ball by a channel a gas shortage leaving from platform number one delegate remember ohanga to come on a lumic acid so the ignited into master uri table time is critical zero three Bishop cotton school is one of a handful of private schools built by the British and the oldest in India it's a first day of term for English teacher John Whitmarsh Knight and the new intake of boys India's future elite you are only lending them to us for nine months of the year I say this year in and year out you give us a boy we give back to you a man thank you good morning Jazmin thank you please sit down Julie Caesar act 3 scene 1 page 42 John was born in India before independence and has watched institutions like the railways and the schools as they passed to Indian control the reasons for doing Shakespeare in school investigation interpretation imagination and information linkage those are the skills that will enable you to survive after you leave school make no mistakes about it you're going into a war zone and you will need those skills to survive ok war zones have always been part of the mindset of Shimla's rulers under the raj it was a garrison as well as a resort even now there are still as many troops as tourists like all railways in India a primary function of the kalka-shimla line was military from these ridges in the north the British could move troops to the borders with China and Afghanistan and bring in reinforcements on the railway shimla is still a strategic base for the indian army and a close relationship between railway and military as endured for generations both institutions were created by the British both are now cornerstones of the Indian state Rudyard Kipling was a frequent traveler in these mountains Shimla was a setting for many of the stories that make up his first book plain tales from the hills set amongst the ambition and intrigue of colonial life it was also the venue for many treaties that would shape India in 1838 the decision to launch the first British war in Afghanistan was taken in chap Slee which tonight is opening its doors as a bed-and-breakfast I would describe it as a time warp that it hasn't changed at all since it was built and this is the way English people lived in Shimla probably a hundred years ago coming from Royals stock Ratan Jeet Singh is a reluctant Hotel yeah but he still manages to charge the princely sum of a hundred and sixty pounds for a night in chaps Li si I don't sell accommodation neither do i sell food i sell an ambience I sell loved a lifestyle I said the period lifestyle I make every attempt to maintain the old standards which I have grown up with which I have seen as a child and which I've appreciated very much because I find a lot of grace on that life is very much more informal today than useful I mean if I wanted salt I had to say please pass the crew it steamed could you better get it's late I think this is like we used to have it screwed this is difficult week at school this is very very much nicer than delicious ginger ginger steamed pudding that's yummy school days in Shimla have hardly changed in a century boarding far from home is a tough rite of passage we were in boarding schools I hated it cried myself to sleep one night with my next morning you had a choice you either went on crying you just got on with life abort I'm missing them they don't serve a pardon sir I don't know have it I will pass this eight Peaks are you have to be aware now good night at the bottom of the line just before dawn passengers are waiting to board the Shivalik Express the railways luxury train to Shimla passengers pay ten times as much as standard class travelers for this they get soft seats curtains and waiter service like most Hill railways the line is losing money but closure is unthinkable these first-class excursions give Indians a taste of the Raj and raise much-needed income per Indian Railways the line has 20 stations most a tiny created just for the steam engines to fill up with water today there are no steam engines but the stations have adapted halfway up the hill lies Station number 10 borrowed now the lines main refreshment stop while the first-class passengers there's waiter service and a breakfast of scrambled eggs tea and toast the second class is a quick - down the platform for tea and samosas 2008 the lion and its stations were included on the unesco world heritage list and that helps the railway to target foreign visitors among the first-class passengers are British tourists train spotters and their wives on a hill railway pilgrimage associated mountains because they're a good way of getting transport in and out of mountains and some of us have an interest in the North Wales narrow gauge railways which are similar in many respects to the railways that connect the Himalayan foothills in Shimla and in dodgy we just saw this tour which included the sights in India we wanted to see and everything else and it wasn't trains every day so that was fine unlike British Railways now Indian rail is state-owned and very labor intensive it's just like our railways used to be 50 years ago to put all the facilities we've got in the stations of a complete signalling system it's just quite fantastic today the baroque is not just a refreshment stop it's also a memorial to one of the lines creators two kilometres away from the station lies the remains of the tunnel that is responsible for the station's name baroque was the English engineer who started digging only to realize that the two ends wouldn't meet unable to live with the shame he shot himself the tunnel was eventually built and it's a kilometer in length the longest on the kalka-shimla railway on its five-hour journey up to Shimla on this luxury train passengers enjoy a personal service and unlimited cups of tea and it only costs two pounds each way stationmaster Sanjay Kyra's wife Sapna is one of the few people who depend on the train every day she catches the 8:30 in from Summerhill to Shimla part of a new breed of Korea women with a full-time job as a supervisor at an insurance firm in town our wages help to pay for the family's lifestyle hard-working job has become the part and parcel of the lake now we are used to it we don't like to sit idle because for the past ten or twelve years our life is like this so now I miss a title we don't like it we have to work hard to rise nothing the couple have been married for ten years and Sanjay shares his wife's ambition he's a straight forward truth loving sincere devoted towards his duty whether at home or office all aspects of life on Indian Railways are subject to strict procedures every action must be accounted for everyone has a role particularly when an accident occurs every year a dozen or so people die on the line most commonly their people hit by the train as they walk on the tracks station also instructed people don't come on that railway track but they what people's don't don't care about this mostly staff have to deal with minor accidents on the railway but today I think it's very serious the two women a mother and her daughter are badly injured they jumped from a bridge as a rail car approached just down the line it's Sanjay's job to coordinate the emergency services at the station a station must have board on Shimla station say Sanjay Guerra - ah please stimulus station take ambulance Bay - RDJ foreign the accident occurred just 500 yards down the line they decided to bring the injured women in on the railcar and direct the ambulance to the station the porters arrived with stretchers on the railway police are on hand the thirteen-year-old girl is lying in the railcar injured but not critical her mother is unconscious and in grave danger of a stinky tofu jelly gaki which Tecna is the young girl has suffered several broken bones but her mother's breathing is erratic and her pulse is failing despite everyone's efforts she dies on the way to hospital it's a difficult time on the railway but you do kiss birthday almost legally but Japan although staff work hard to prevent accidents the line is now a hundred and six years old and the years are taking their toll on bridges tunnels and embankments land along the line has also been built up threatening the structure of the track every year there are landslides derailment sand collisions do occur the 17 diesel engines are nearly 30 years old and the sharp bends and steep inclines where the rolling stock there's a rigid maintenance regime and the diesel sheds at the bottom of the line and engines are checked before every journey to make sure procedures are fully understood as a weekly quiz at the railway Institute with prizes for the winners Joe basil paella bodega Lucy say both of all Putrajaya or ossicles key marks milling it bharatiya the LMA kotani-san challenge but the Thiele GU has 80 K correct answer these quizzes are taken very seriously knowing the answers is essential for promotion dónde or Koike mosa making it but I tell away that their egg not dealing dope dope attack' ahead of Italia there's no chance of any promotion for Porter Maqsood the only thing he wants is the snow that will bring tourists and the chance to earn some money Bull Barako Bull a barber a parade to yawn sub coach Rose got Sapporo's Garmin a Yank a lagoon car big Barack say he can't just die - Cabela's and Part B sakta Navy personnel Bhagwan 200 per valid extra hello mercy callo definitely the oldest one they didn't externally for us that's my prediction whatever the weather for 70 years the train was Shimla's lifeline every day mail still arrived from the plains to be sorted at an office above the station where once it contained dispatches from London and letters from home now it's the latest postings and orders from railway headquarters every day but algid expects that the next letter he opens will confirm his next posting today is a special day for Sanjay although he's eager to step into his boss's job another ambition is about to be fulfilled or it on the Internet paid for by credit card he's about to take delivery of his cherished table tennis team Sanjay's dream house will soon be complete first they have to carry it up four flights of stairs momentously a cocky like the ambitious Athena fulfill over yet yes the great moment as clouds gather around the station one of petal jet streams could also be fulfilled I hope and pray we must have snow at least you can have a look of white chamber the British white Shimla it's experience to live in Lake once in a lifetime just walk along the track after somebody station that's all you will really enjoy it the British rarely saw these cold evenings they like the summer cool but returned to Delhi or Calcutta and the warm Plains as winter temperatures dropped in China while but algid a match shrew Rams spend another night in outside something magical is happening I just woke up and I just saw clicks coming down see the white sham llama if I get busted out definitely this is going to be the last and Dave to enjoy the white it's good for just a few hours at the very end of winter Shimla is transformed everyone is happy you know you can see the same blog people are enjoying it do this I will enjoy a lot today and the train comes you see the faces of people you know they are snowman it may not be very deep or last very long but snow is a precious citation it even makes the news in Delhi most tourists have never seen it so it's a special day for those lucky enough to be in the hills but it's live not yeah so how do you feel it's freezing we are not evil the snow goes as quickly as it came with winter soon replaced by the first signs of spring it's a time of change in Shimla on the railways is the season when promotions and transfers come through March my pains the Agra boss under fool dog flower hair or vilify who don't know what a fool dengue 2 saravanan Sanjay is expecting to make the move up from stationmaster to superintendent the chemical think positive my Ivanka child thank you very same blank posting movie Shimla station play the Shambala station peor kisi ki requesting cya merely Sanjay is confident about his prospects for promotion and for a stunning garden display by the side of the line spring means the trains pulling into Shimla are now packed full of tourists looking to escape the warm planes for the porters there's a heightened expectation of work British backpackers are usually Maqsood favorite customers they tip well and even carry their own luggage your you tired then you tell me I help younger you bag out sir while kashmir remains unsettled Maqsood will stay in Shimla it's not home but still a place where he can earn money and live a settled life typically viral sunny kissy-poo arose a healthy couple the one thing he can depend on is the railway it will continue to provide him with a home and a living for as long as he chooses to stay will be merely Bhavani real just like Amira Maha Amira Bali Amira karate derive Amira pachinko parlor a snail I'll just have made him a flea market Etna part is a very technical style which go from Salaam katta7 yamaraja in Shimla the Kashmir reporters have found a home from home after a life spent travelling around the world John Whitmarsh night has also decided to stay he now feels he belongs in the country where he was born I never I never realized how deep the feeling was to be needed one and having lived as I worked as a businessman which is a pretty taketake situation now it's a give give situation and that is refreshing but no idea would grip you like this for over a hundred and fifty years Bishop cotton school has been educating the country's leaders fluent in English familiar with Shakespeare but now all Indian and for almost as long the train has ferried them up and down the line for the next seven years Bishop cotton will be home for these new boys difficult for me McManus all right I will be okay here mine will be a gentleman I was in school I really feel happy I'll inhabit totally at home those vanities remarkably rewarding really as as I say carry me out feet first the last Englishman in India when spring starts Indian gentleman get the chance to cover themselves in paint and powder as they celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi throughout the town the new season is heralded in by a celebration at welcomes all classes and religions and it's a tradition that there was nothing to the British on the railway the arrival of spring has finally brought the news but Elliot has been desperately waiting for unmanned happy man happy happy manager thank you very much sir thank you yes Archie Victor I got it the station superintendent at algid Gill has got his posting and he'll take charge of an entire line down on the plains the long wait is finally over he could move back to live with his family you want something you're not getting it and you have to wait for it and then when the day you get it - you definitely leaving means saying goodbye to all the station staff including his servant a shrew Ram he is taking care of me for the last six months its iconic to even repay him back given Amita conscious of such a society which reiki optimizer such a liar I'll be posting to up with a but algae's posting has created a vacancy at the station Shimla but Sanjay won't be filling it the railway are sending a man up from the plains so Sanjay must wait a little longer or his planned promotion during the day our carpool awfully to cook - oh yeah but Jovi like they haven't elected me to be just what mean it was capita will merely be like a Hoover in accordance with railway policy Sanjay will eventually get his promotion in the meantime there are always other skills to learn in six years Shimla station has generated a mountain of paperwork for Patel j't but he will take something else with him when he leaves that old man has got very clear vision about life relationship how to deal with the problems and sometimes when I get disturbed I just just give him a blank stare and all over his face I can just get my all answers back now that I guess how much have that old man gave me no this is life you have one has to go all over town so that's a great dead man's philosophy a true Ram prepares the bungalow for this next incumbent station superintendents come and go ummbut algid is just the latest in a long line they all hold a place in their hearts but at you I think I will never fathered this woman in my life a true RAM remains a porter at Shimla station a place he's lived and worked for the last 50 years and at nearly 90 he's no plans to retire Shimla is a town of memories but a place where the echoes of the past grow ever more distant the British left their school's their legal system their trappings of government they also left division but perhaps their greatest unifying legacy who can be heard five times a day winding its way up to Shimla the queen of hill stations our brand new series Syrian school continues here on BBC four on Wednesday at nine and coming up next tonight stay with us for another chance to see our brand new corridors of power season drama on expenses you

Channel: Trains Unlimited !!!

Views: 362,894

Keywords: IRFCA, Indian Railways, Rajdhani Express, Trains, Railfanning, NDLS, New Delhi, Steam Locomotives, Engines, Locomotive, Shed, Indian, Local, Railfan (Hobby), India (Country), Station, Shimla (City/Town/Village), Class

Id: DQAgceyF3Bw

Length: 59min 3sec (3543 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 20 2016

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