Unveiling of Train 18

 

The  unveiling of Train 18

October 27^th, 2018! A bright sunny day! The day passed off like a breeze and I find I am still overwhelmed to describe the magic of the day. I can only try.

 

The unveiling was planned in the afternoon. I managed to get a peek at the preparations early in the morning and again around noon. There were some last minute hiccups but let me not go into that because even I do not know who did what to set things right. The entire team was around. Most of my time was taken up by more than ten TV interviews in the train itself; we had permitted a short preview to all the journalists. Apart from me, based on availability, some other senior officers were also moving frenetically on the train, giving preview bytes independently to media.

 

The CRB arrived post lunch and we gathered in the museum mini theatre; this mini theatre was recently commissioned and I was told that with its state of the art projection and sound system, it was quite unique in Chennai, in spite of the city being a major movie-making centre. Pillai, Member (Traffic), Pathak, Member (Stores) and Trivedi, GM (East Central Railway) had already arrived whereas Gupta, Member (Engineering) had to back out at the last moment due to an inescapable engagement. Most of the officers and some selected supervisors and staff were present there. A large group of senior retired officers, including two ex-CRBs, some ex-members and many retired GMs were already seated there. Such a large presence of IR luminaries is rare and I was happy to see it as it confirmed that they knew that something spectacular was going to unfold today. A short movie on Train 18, which Babu had got made through a professional agency, was screened. It fired but one emotion, that a train of historical significance was going to be unveiled.

 

Five minutes before the time of unveiling, we left for the venue in Furnishing factory in cars and buses. A phalanx of media men and journalists was crowding in front of the veil, the curtain. The whole of ICF also seemed to have descended there. I could see some housewives and children too; God knows how they had sneaked in. But this was not the time to look at all that. The crowd was orderly and Manish had arranged good presence of RPF and other volunteers to steer and control the crowd.

 

The CRB pressed the button to open the curtain. As the Dollu Kunitha group started their loud and intense drumming, deafening cries and energetic jumping, CRB flagged off the train which moved a small distance towards us. Had it been Varanasi, you would have heard, raucous “Har Har Mahadev” but this was Chennai, the shed reverberated with explosive clapping and cheers.

 

 

CRB unveils and flags off the train among a sea of excited people

 

We moved towards the train, got in from the cab and moved right till the end of the train through the gangways. Accompanying us were the members of the Board, Trivedi, retired luminaries, ICF officers, journalists and so many others; there was no stopping anyone.

 

 

Inside the train with the CRB and others

 

There it was, Train 18, the first semi-high speed train set of India, conceived, designed, and manufactured entirely by ICF with the support of so many other Indians. The coming of age of IR engineers. The proudest moment ever for ICF. I looked at the cheering crowd. Multiple labour pains, agonies, irritations and traumas of two years were forgotten in one split second and all that remained was elation and exhilaration, bordering on hysteria.

 

Train 18 was ready for turn-out in October 2018, justifying its name fully as it was another two months before the calendar year 2018 ran out. The Train 18 project had taken exactly 18 months from drawing board to unveiling of a prototype unit ready for turn-out from April 2017 to October 2018. Eighteen months. It had lived up to its name twice over.

 

There were so many requests from media channels and newspapers for an interview with Lohani and me that it was impossible to accommodate all. We tried as much as we could. I was, once again, glad to see other officers also giving bytes to Press and Media in the train and soon they, along with me, were there all over the national and vernacular media. We would again be there, proudly spread over all the major newspapers the next day on the front pages, with a picture of the sublime and majestic train. After the CRB left, it was time to meet the core team members with Shubhranshu, thank them and finish off sessions with media men still lurking around for a byte and then for laddus with the ICF office staff who could not attend the unveiling.

 

 

Train 18 after the unveiling; Inset, talking to media after unveiling and laddus with team ICF

 

I am assuming that most of you are aware of the Train 18 magic and how it took the country by a storm and this I would think is the reason that you are reading this book. You may also have heard of the deliberate negativism, which has halted its proliferation. I will merely cover three things briefly before calling it a day, 1) the sequential happenings like turn out, tests, induction and field service of the train till completion of one year in service, 2) the negativity of antagonism and adversity and 3) the way forward.

 

After the turn out, the train was taken for extensive on-line testing for roadworthiness and safety with full involvement of RDSO. The testing had to be done in various stages on ICF test track, onward dead movement to Delhi, main lines tests in Moradabad division and high speed test on Kota-Sawai Madhopur section. The test continued with some hiccups, some natural but mostly issues concocted by the adversaries here and there. Our team was there to take care of all problems, genuine or fabricated. Came a day in late November that the train breached the 180 km/h speed in testing, with all parameters well within the safe limits. I was in a train near Vizag keeping a tab but keeping my peace by not disturbing the test team with frequent nagging questions. Soon enough, but after what felt like days, Shubhranshu sent me the news about the train clearing the high-speed test. Naturally, I was instantly overjoyed, happy as a flea in a doghouse. Shubhranshu sent a video clip to me immediately after distributing laddus on the train. The video captured two bottles of water in the train shaking ever so slightly at a speed above 180 km/h. I tweeted it then and there. The caption I wrote was, “zor speed ka jhatka dheere se laga” (a take on a popular TV ad by Amitabh Bachchan which, translated roughly, means the shock of high speed was felt very smoothly). Within minutes, the Hon’ble Minister tweeted the same.

 

(to be continued with the experiences of those who were on board at 180 km/h test, final certification and launch of the train by the PM and the sad aftermath...)