Train 18...Virtue out of a necessity

I had last talked about Train 18 in the blogs on blogspot.com at

http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2020/05/chapter-22-sisters-of-train-18-and-rdso.html

And on LinkedIn at

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sisters-train-18-rdso-s-mani/

I had digressed to other issues of late. Today, I restart the journey even as the book has now gone for publishing.

Our shop floor meetings had become a routine and it was now do or die with some companies who were lagging behind. The meetings had, quite disconcertingly, become 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 Srinivas 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 Shubhranshu 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 rake was concerned and we had to retrieve whatever we could.

I made jest with the team, borrowing from the silver-tongued Gratiano of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, “Let me play the fool. With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come”, and modifying it to convey to Ravichandran, 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’bl Minister of Railways 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. Chandrashekhar approached me one morning with some gibberish about this entanglement. 

By the way, this gentleman was brought in this assignment by Trivedi from the Design office in the face of stiff opposition because he was doing a very good job there. I played along as 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 was Trivedi, 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 Babu.

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. In any case, procrastination is always a thief of time. 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, Shubhranshu, supported me. Fully unintended though it was, the colour scheme with two distinct blues 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 bring us some acclaim!

And in the middle of this excitement Dash 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, not September. 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 September turn out of the prototype train. 

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? Turn out of the train may get postponed to November and that would be a great dampener, a killer of all the enthusiasm. Fine but I had to now see that the dream of Train 18 in 2018 should not be turned to ashes!

I was now learning to change tack. I shamelessly told the team to go and read Romeo and Juliet; they would not only enjoy it but come back with the takeaway from Friar Lawrence “Go wisely and go slowly. Those who rush stumble and fall.” and this would overrule me. You must hear explanations when things were not going well. And then you had to egg them on again. Was Shakespeare an inspiration for business leaders or the last resort of those who bluster a lot but manage poorly? Take your pick! 

(to be continued...)