Train 18 series 21...virtue out of a necessity

Vande Bharat express, the first commercial service of Train 18, is doing great, notwithstanding hiccups like cattle getting run over and stone throwers breaking glasses. It has cut down travel time, clocking an average speed of more than 100 km/h, a quickness not seen hitherto on IR. It has provided the travellers a new travel experience. There is some criticism due to issues like lack of space for pantry and discomfort in seats; I am sure ICF will address these issues in the future rakes, if not in the second, in the third rake for sure. Yet, what amazes me no end is the regular query from people about the future of the train. I had always maintained the belief that train sets would arrive in India and would succeed; after all Indian Railways is not some aberrant entity with its own eco system, detached from the realities of the world. Departmental turf war, jealousy, procrastination, indecision, selfish interests, pretensions and sheer vanity may rule for some time but you cannot keep a good thing down. Team ICF had shown the way; it was a matter of time before more and more train sets would criss-cross across the country. It may be run rarely at its full potential of 160 km/h operational speed in coming days, or its upgradation to 200 km/h may not happen in foreseeable future, you cannot negate or impugn its merits for use even in speed ranges below 160 km/h. It’s been nearly three months since I retired and I am hardly keeping in touch with what was going on in ICF or Railway Board. I can see delays, and even machinations to thwart its proliferations, for sure, but haven’t we waited for more than two decades for train sets? We may have to wait some more but more about that when I conclude. For the nonce, let me derive some expediency from the poetess Noshi Gilani; the second sher may appear to be a bit sexist but forget the literal meaning here and in any case it’s a poetess saying this, not a poet!

Kuchh bhi kar guzarne mein der kitni lagti hai

barf  ke  pighalne   mein  der   kitni  lagti  hai*

Hijr  ki   tamazat   se  vasl   ke  alaav  tak

ladkiyon ke jalne mein der kitni lagti hai**

* Does it take too long to pull something off? How long does it take for ice to melt?

** Do girls take that much time to ignite and inflame from the intense heat of separation to the bonfire of union?

Train 18 is not something novel, not by a mile. It is an idea; an embodiment of a change in course for passenger travel in India whose time has come, or rather has been a long time coming. New ideas are rejected time and time again but as long as the idea envisages the right future, it should never be given up. Just look up the life stories of some great personalities, like Copernicus or Mendel. Their ideas were rejected and ridiculed in their life time and they were even shamed for their theories; what they conceived is today priceless knowledge, celebrated as one of the most significant discoveries in the entire history of human endeavour. We should be inspired by their lives and shun diffidence as sometimes it took a lot of time for people to appreciate a new concept. If this is the story of great ideas by exceptionally great minds, why blench in respect of a relatively such a toy idea like Train 18 for IR?

Our shop floor meetings had become a routine and it was now do or die with some companies who were lagging behind. The meetings were like more of the same, with an occasional key manager from the lagging firms continuing their assurances and of course, sudden disappearance from the factory and the phone network. A déjà vous everyday, been there done that frequently. The news had spread all around that the transformers were not coming in time and we were told by many suppliers as to how their equipment/shop work would align itself pretty well with the delayed time frame. The only thing you could see was that the things were moving fast, very fast but we always wanted them to be faster; we could also see frequent rework but it had become an acceptable occurrence now.

The decision in respect of the livery of the train was rather interesting. The colour scheme is of paramount significance as far aesthetics and the first impact go. All your good work on the exterior, and even the interiors, would come to a nought if the livery of the train did not match with the spirit of the train. Selection of the colour scheme was an exercise in itself; too much of consultancy and democracy among all the cooks was tending to spoil the broth. Had Sri Srinivas, the CDE/M been friendly with Polonius, who says in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment”, he would have perhaps frozen it without much ado. I was told that Sri Shubhranshu, PCME had to intervene and the team carried extensive trial and error with various colours on miniature models and finally arrived with a predominantly white colour with dark blue lines. A rather embarrassing part of the exercise was to choose a colour and finish which would hide the undulations in the body as much as possible; in spite of all the design and process improvements worked out with the consultants, the exterior finish of the side walls still had some waviness at places. We needed improvements in respect of spot weld indentations, rigid clamping before welding, use of lower heat input welding etc. But these were aspects to be studied and rectified in the next rake. The die was cast as far as the prototype was concerned and we had to retrieve whatever we could.

I made jest with the team, borrowing from the silver-tongued Mr. Gratiano of Shakespeare’s The Mechant of Venice, “Let me play the fool. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come”, and modifying it to convey to Mr. Ravichandran, the PE/PL, in charge of prototype shell production, “Let no one play the fool, sir, and indeed, there will be no mirth and laughter if old wrinkles come on this not so old but spanking new prototype.” The bard meant that ageing people should not worry and treat wrinkles gracefully as a part of life but what I said was that should wrinkles be seen, please worry, worry like hell, like nobody’s business. The Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Sri Piyush Goyal himself had visited ICF in June 18, when it was still early days of manufacture, and showed us some wrinkles; he was, otherwise very appreciative of all our efforts not only for Train 18 but the overall improvements and transformation in ICF. Thinking caps were on to somehow get rid of the undulations and choice of a suitable colour scheme, without compromising on the aesthetics, was also one of these last ditch comeuppance efforts.

Meanwhile, a mismatch occurred between the blue colour advised to the manufacturer of the plug doors and blue colour of the paint scheme; the former was some shades lighter. This divergence was excusable as it took a while before the paint scheme was ready and the manufacturer of the doors was advised to go with whatever blue was the favourite at that time. Well, the doors arrived and we now had a situation. Sri Chandrashekhar, the Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/Planning approached me one morning with some gibberish about this imbroglio.

By the way, this gentleman was brought in this assignment by Sri Trivedi, the ex PCME, from the Design office in the face of stiff opposition because he was doing a very good job in design works. I played along as Sri Trivedi desperately wanted him; this so called ‘planning’ assignment is actually akin to that of the Principal Secretary to the PM, if you replace India with ICF. So there Sri Trivedi was, assisted by a very capable officer but it was good for me too. I had another officer with an ear to the ground right next to me in addition to Sri Babu, the Secretary/ICF.

Well, what was this gibberish about the paint scheme? While there was a thinking that the doors be painted again to match the blue lines of the car body exterior, there was a worry that we may not be able to exactly match the colour and of course, do a paint job on the doors that would be worse in finish than the one the doors already had. And the team was now looking at someone to decide. Indecisiveness and irresolution at hands of superior acuity and competence was looking at inferior proficiency for the requisite savvy and perception to take a call! We rushed to the shop floor, we looked at the blue lines of the train exterior and the doors and it took me no time to declare that the doors would be fitted as they were; simply because I could not see the well-appointed finish on the doors getting tarnished by our repainting work. Let us try painting one door and check, someone said. No sir, please do not experiment, I remember saying. The inferior competence had taken an earth-shaking decision and thankfully, Sri Shubhranshu, the PCME supported me. Fully unintended though it was, the colour scheme was reportedly a hit, with some worthies well-versed in the art of aesthetics and finish actually applauding it. We immediately arrogated to it a lot of virtue from what was essentially a necessity.

Chaucer’s “to maken vertu of necessitee” or Shakespeare’s “to make a virtue of necessity”? Who cares? I was writing my own pidgin poetry in the colour scheme of the train, little realizing that it would actually bring us some acclaim!

And in the middle of this excitement, Sri Dash, the CDE/E turned up one day with the news that barring the prototype transformer for testing, all the other would actually start arriving in ICF only from the second week of October. We were happy with the specification of the transformer prepared by the supplier of the propulsion system and with the selection of the manufacturer who had pan-European credentials but now this! In spite of the litany of lectures on the doctrine of quality that the French lady of the company had showered upon us, we had all the hope that the transformers would be here in time for mid-September turn out of the prototype.

But what could we do? Could I spring some Ghalib on these French people, who were obviously great electrical engineers doing a splendid, although slow, job on our transformers but they had not shown any affinity towards the poet; our baby, even with miscellaneous birth pangs here and there was slated to debut in September and it was clearly postponed to October now.

Ham  ne  maana   ki   taghaful  na  karoge  lekin

Khaak ho jayenge ham tum ko khabar hone tak**

** I agree that you would not forsake me but by the time you take notice, I would be turned to ashes.

Time to regroup. October, huh? Fine but let not the dream of train 18 in 2018 be turned to ashes!

(to be continued...)