Update: The line to the mysterious station of Pattabiram Military Siding

Update: In June 2018 the Southern Railway floated the idea of ending the through EMU services between  Chennai Central/Chennai Beach  and the branch to Pattabiram Military Siding E depot. This was a consequence of the accident on May 5, 2016 when the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Mail collided with the side of an EMU which was crossing the main line to go to the Pattabiram branch. A contemporary report:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Loco-pilot-to-face-action-for-Pattabiram-accident/articleshow/52159697.cms

A more recent report:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2018/jun/19/ptms-emu-trains-may-terminate-at-pattabiram-1830178.html

Here it is mentions that EMUs will shuttle between Pattabiram on the main line to the terminus at E depot, which means that passengers will have to get off there to change trains.

In situations where crossing on busy multiple lines is involved, overbridges may be used where the line crossing has heavy traffic. An example is the bridge carrying the harbour line over the WR main line north of Bandra. A few more can be seen on main lines. Examples are in the vicinity of Barddhaman and Mughal Sarai. But in this case the traffic on the trains to E depot is not so heavy, so the commuters will have to face the inconvenience of changing trains.

We look into the geography of this peculiar branch which is among the more obscure corners of the Chennai suburban system.

First, a map of the region surrounding Pattabiram on the Chennai-Arakkonam section:

From Chennai to Arakkonam (right to left) you will pass Hindu College, Pattabiram and Nemilichery in succession. Note the turnoffs towards the north from Pattabiram. There are several EMU locals a day from Chennai Central and Chennai Beach to Pattabiram Military Siding E Depot, where the E supposedly stands for Engineering. There are turnoffs from both sides of Pattabiram station, although no scheduled passenger service uses the the one on the east.

As you would have read, one of these locals was moving from one track to another when the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Mail collided with its side, probably after over-running signals. Or there may have been malfunctioning signals. Fortunately there were no fatalities although eight were injured.

Those familiar with this route would know the separate platforms for the branch which are to the north of the main line. After turning north and crossing the West cabin, the line passes the station called PTMS and then continues to another station called Pattabiram Military Siding E Depot (PRES) where the EMUs terminate. That would be clear from this map, which shows the area slightly north of the first map.

You can check the timings of these trains and find no reference to PTMS.

Of course, in this era of Google Maps blanketing the country it is impossible for any station to hide its existence unless it is in a restricted area. But 2005 was a long time ago. In March of that year I spent a few days exploring the unknown corners of Chennai including almost all of the suburban rail network existing at that time. I visited the now-vanished branch to Anna Nagar, and later took one of the locals bound for PRES.

After crossing Pattabiram West cabin the local came to a halt. The station sign said Pattabiram Military Siding, which I took to be the terminus. I found it odd that some passengers continued to sit in the coach. The train then zipped off towards the north to its ultimate destination.

It was then that I realized that this was a “ghost” station with no mention in timetables.

Fortunately a picture of the sign could be found on the net:

Not sure when this picture was taken, but clearly this was painted a long time ago compared to other signs in the Chennai area.

Here is a newer sign at the same station:

Some years later, when the RBS charts became available on the net, I found the Railways finally acknowledging the existence of the “orphan” station:

and if you approach from the west:

It is strange that this table does not acknowledge that the trains from the east do stop at Pattabiram station (though at a platform slightly away from the main station).

If you still doubt the existence of this station, it does have a ticket counter which issues tickets to all stations in the Chennai region, as you can see from this ticket I purchased on 24 March 2005:

It’s a long, long way to Gummidipundi (76 km at Rs 16 at that time), but only a railfan interested in studying the Chennai network in detail would make this journey.

Making the most of limited chances-bowling

Today we take up the cases of those who got to bowl in only one match or innings. First we consider Tests, followed by ODIs and T20Is.

5 wickets or more in their only Test:

Only one ten-for by CS Marriott, though the best innings bowling here is 7/95 by WH Ashley in the 19th century. All instances of fivers in their only Test are included above.

Also note the 1-Test careers of PJ Cummins and JP Faulkner who probably will play again. There is also CA Smith who spent most of his life in Hollywood and was known as Aubrey Smith

Also note the strange case of the two unrelated Banerjees who bowled well in the only Tests they played in the 1948-49 series against the West Indies. We will meet another 1-Test Banerjee in a moment.

3 wickets or more in their only Test innings:

WH Ashley is the only one with a five-for in this category. Hill, Lyttelton and Nazir Ali bowled in only one innings in their multi-Test careers. Lyttelton’s 4-19 is the best innings bowling by any designated wicket-keeper. A few others such as Boucher and Kirmani have taken 1 wicket in an innings.

A few more players from India here, including ST Banerjee. All 3 players with this surname played exactly one Test each, despite getting reasonable returns.

Now for ODIs:

Three or more wickets in their only ODI:

While an unknown player from PNG tops this list,the only well-known player here is BS Chandrashekhar who was one of India’s leading bowlers of the 70s. Stott played his only ODI during the 1979 World Cup. DV Lawrence played a few Tests with some success.

Three or more wickets in their only ODI innings:

The only addition is England’s veteran Test player Fred Titmus who, like Colin Cowdrey, earned a recall to the ill-starred England tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1974-75.

Now for T20Is:

2 or more wickets in their only T20I:

The best performances here are by little-known players such as Mansoor Amjad and CG Burnett. The better-known Test players here are MS Panesar and CT Tremlett.

2 or more wickets in their only T20I innings:

Here we have several instances of those who bowled only once in a relatively long T20I career (notably Younis Khan in 25 matches, Sarwan and AR White in 18 matches). There are also AC Voges and AJ Redmond (primarily  batsmen).

Next we will take up the best fielding performances by those playing in their only matches and innings.

 

 

Making the most of limited chances-batting

There are many unfortunates who got a chance to play exactly one Test (or ODI or T20I). Some of them did well enough to deserve more chances but somehow this never happened. We look at the batsmen who made the most of their chances in limited Test opportunities, and then in ODIs and T20Is.

Scoring at least one fifty in their only Test:

Of these, only Redmond scored a hundred and a fifty, and Ganteaume scored a hundred. SC Cook played his only Test so far in 2016 and should get off this list soon. Ronchi is the only one to score over 100 runs without a century, while three others scored over 90.

There are various reasons why they did not play again. Eyesight issues were the main reason for Rodney Redmond not playing again. His son Aaron Redmond played 8 Tests in recent years with a top score of 83.

Zulqarnain Haider stopped playing for Pakistan under peculiar circumstances. Cook and (perhaps) Ronchi should play again. India’s sole representative the Yuvraj of Patiala (also known as Yadavindra Singh) dropped out of cricket to concentrate on politics, though he might well have captained India in the 1936 tour of England where he would certainly done better than Vizzy. His son Amarinder Singh is still active in the politics of Punjab state.

Now we look at

Scoring at least 50 runs in their only Test:

This includes a few others who made 50 or more runs without a fifty. The highest total among these is JK Moss with 60. There is also Humayun Farhat, who did score 54 runs in his only Test but also became the only wicket keeper who did not make a single dismissal in his career. (There are some other keepers who did not make any dismissal on their debut).

Scoring at least fifty in their only Test innings:

Ganteaume and Stollmeyer lead here. Albie Morkel probably deserved to play a few more Tests, but is now unlikely to get another chance. And McGirr played his only  innings in his 2nd and last Test, as he did not get to bat on his debut. Law is the only one in these tables to remain unbeaten in his short Test career. His fellow Australian debutant RT Ponting went on to bigger things.

Now for ODI matches:

30 or more runs in their only ODI:

Barnett and Woodcock are the only ones to score fifties, though there are several others close behind. Some of them were moderately successful in Tests, such as AV Mankad.

30 or more runs in their only ODI innings:

We get exactly the same list as above.

Now for T20Is:

20 or more runs in only T20I:

India’s lesser-known S Badrinath has the highest score here. Dinesh Mongia’s only T20I was India’s first. Some prominent Test and ODI players such as Dravid, Ganga, Gillespie and North find a place here, along with the hapless Reifer who was once asked by journalists “Are you smoking something which sounds like your name?”. This was at that the time he captained a West Indies C Team which gave Bangladesh its first two Test victories away from home.

20 or more runs in only T20I innings:

We get exactly the same result.

To be continued with bowling, fielding and all-round performance in their only match or innings.

 

 

Hyderabad and Gujrat are not only in India

Have a look at these pictures and decide whether they are in India or somewhere else:

Note the Sindhi signboard in the right picture, which should help you to locate it. The first one is in Pakistan’s Punjab.

The “other” Hyderabad can be reached from India by the Thar Express, which you board at Zero Point after leaving India from Munabao.

Up to Partition, one had to refer to Hyderabad (Sind) and Hyderabad (Deccan) as both were important cities in undivided India.

Also this one:

While the river of this name flows through a part of India, this town is in Pakistan’s Punjab. One Indian Prime Minister (not Manmohan Singh) was born nearby.

The railways of Arunachal Pradesh

Updated with additional information in October 2023.

First, a sidetrack:

But is this in Arunachal Pradesh? The top script is in Bengali.

It is indeed adjacent to Silchar, in a part of Assam where Bengali and not Assamese is the official language. This picture was taken in metre gauge time. The large number of concrete sleepers strewn around indicates that broad gauge is on its way, and it has already been converted. This is the first station to the west of Silchar, on a BG line which now sees trains from Kolkata and Delhi. It is also the junction for the branch to Jiribam, presently one of the two stations in Manipur:

A limited passenger service served this station in metre gauge days, and broad gauge services are expected to start soon.

The line mentioned here is from Harmuti in Assam (on the Rangiya-Lakhimpur section) to Naharlagun (near the capital Itanagar) with an intermediate station at Gumto (which is also in AP ). You can trace the route here (by expanding the map if needed). Note that the line to Naharlagun makes a U-turn from the main line at Harmuti.

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Harmuti+Junction+Railway+Station/@27.1225941,93.8239808,14z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x3746acd30fe01975:0x81330bfea204e39b!8m2!3d27.1191784!4d93.860541

The three stations:

It includes a daily express from Guwahati and a (sort of) Rajdhani from New Delhi, which does not seem to have catering facilities. By 2023 Shatabdis with Vistadome coaches were running on some days of the week between Guwahati and Naharlagun, and between Naharlagun and Tinsukia. Also the average Indian citizen will not be allowed into the state without an inner-line permit or whatever it is called nowadays. More about this at the end.

Details of trains at Naharlagun :

https://indiarailinfo.com/station/news/news-naharlagun-itanagar-nhln/10452

But what is forgotten is that there was a metre-gauge connection to Bhalukpong in the western corner of AP which was opened in the 1980s. In 1994 the timetable listed one pair of passenger trains between Rangapara North and Bhalukpong. The junction was at Balipara. They seem to have stopped running around 2000. More recently the line was converted to broad gauge.

The wayside stations are all in Assam except Bhalukpong station which appears to lie just inside the Arunachal border. Most of Bhalukpong town is in AP. You can see the map here and trace the path from Tezpur:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Bhalukpong+Railway+Station/@27.0021598,92.6426437,15z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x3744a509499d68a3:0xd49629361597570f!2sBhalukpong+Railway+Station!8m2!3d27.002155!4d92.6448324!3m4!1s0x3744a509499d68a3:0xd49629361597570f!8m2!3d27.002155!4d92.6448324

Also see the timetable of the present pair of trains, which run from Dekargaon which is now the station for Tezpur. The original station at Tezpur may have been abandoned as there was not enough space for a BG terminus there.

Passenger services on this line must have started in the last couple of years, but without the publicity that accompanied the line to Naharlagun which served the state capital. This line connects a town which may not be that important in AP.

http://erail.in/?R=55719-DKGN-BHNG#

http://erail.in/?R=55720-BHNG-DKGN#

These are some of the stations on this route:

And finally Bhalukpong in metre gauge days and the present. Note that the sign has English and Hindi, but not Assamese. This appears to mean that it is located in Arunachal and not Assam.

So you have now seen the full extent of the railway system in Arunachal Pradesh. Perhaps one day the rails will reach the borders of Tibet and Myanmar.

Footnote 1: Anyone from the rest of India wishing to enter Arunachal Pradesh needs a permit. This is apparently available online as well as from various offices of the AP government in Delhi, Kolkata and several cities in the Northeast.

Checking is done as you get off the train at Naharlagun station. Railfans who just came for the rides say that if you do not leave the station, you can manage without the permit if the policemen are in a good mood. On the other hand, if you are staying the night there you may have to go outside for dinner. But then, there will be no one to check if you are going out of the station.

Footnote 2: see this map extract:

https://www.google.co.in/maps/@27.6968092,94.8153323,14z

It can be seen that the Rangiya-Murkong Selek railway line briefly enters AP between the small stations of Dimow and Dipa. This stretch may be around 500 metres long, and presumably the AP authorities do not bother about “outsiders” passing through their state this way.

Numerous Youtube videos can be seen covering trains on either side of Harmuti. The Naharlagun-Tinsukia train crosses the 4-km Bogibeel bridge near Dibrugarh.

Oddities in station signs in India-1

First, we look at examples of station signs in some languages which you may not see often.

The only major station with Maithili:

And the only station in Manipur, which naturally has Manipuri:

Note the brand new broad gauge line above.

As you would know, the language policy for railway stations (and most Central government buildings, such as post offices) would be to have English, Hindi and the regional language. If Hindi is the local language then there would be two languages on the board, and more if some other language is common in that area.

Examples of English + Hindi are common in Rajasthan , Haryana and Madhya Pradesh although a few stations do have Urdu as well.

From Rajasthan:

Note that the picture from Jaipur shows a metre gauge line which will not be around for long.

From Haryana:

 

Now we move to some states where English is the main official language (although other spoken languages are commonly used). You would probably not heard of most of these places:

Dimapur, Nagaland:

Bairabi, Mizoram: (This is from metre gauge days but broad gauge has now come here)

Mendipathar, Meghalaya:

Naharlagun, Arunachal Pradesh:

Note that in Hindi-speaking states the Hindi inscription is at the top. In most states the regional language (say Bengali or Tamil) is at the top. In the signs above from Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya English is at the top but in Arunachal Pradesh the Hindi inscription is at the top.

At the moment Sikkim is the only state with no railway line at all, though the mileage is negligible in several of the North-eastern states (Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland). In some states there is precisely one station about a kilometre inside the border. Assam and now Tripura are somewhat better served.

A typical trilingual sign would be this one in Gujarat, much beloved of cricket fans:

Meanwhile, there are signs in four or even five languages elsewhere on the Indian railway network. More on these later.

Station signs: Indian languages outside South Asia

Rail fans have many interests, and in recent years a wide variety of information sources have appeared on the internet. On the Indian railways, you can probably get pictures of virtually every variant of locomotive which has existed over the past few decades. And Google will probably find station signs for every station of importance (as well as many which are not of importance).

I will come to odd Indian station signs (such as those with 4 or 5 languages), with rare examples of Maithili signs, Bengali signs far from Bengal, and so on. For the moment we look at station signs outside South Asia with Indian languages.

This would be the most famous:

It is possibly the only multilingual station sign in England (though Scotland and Wales do have Gaelic and Welsh respectively on their signs).

For more on Southall station see this

and this

And now to Singapore with its four official languages: English, Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil. Most official signs (including the metro signs) are in all 4, though place names in English and Malay are often the same. I was not able to get a picture of a station sign with all 4 languages on one board, but here are a few examples:

Other signs are in 4 languages, like these:

In the upper one other languages have been added. Can someone clarify what they are? Burmese and Sinhala perhaps?

From the Dubai metro:

Though one would think that signs in Malayalam and Urdu would be understood by more people in Dubai.

And finally

Apart from the four official languages of Singapore, a line in Bengali has been added presumably for the benefit of workers from Bangladesh.

Next we will explore some oddities from India.

Same bowling figures in both innings (Revised on 26/02/2017)

This is a logical follow-up to the last post

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/same-score-in-both-innings/

Here we consider cases where bowlers have recorded the same bowling analysis in both innings. This means that wickets and runs were the same in both innings. We are not getting into overs and maidens.

Taking a minimum of 3 wickets in an innings, this has happened only 8 times in all Tests:

Only three instances of tenners. The second one was historic as India recorded their maiden Test win in Australia. This was a victory by a large margin, while India had lost the first two Tests of that series by narrow margins.

Strangely Hyderabad in India figures in two of these instances, though at two different grounds. Abdur Rehman recorded this on debut.

Looking at Indian bowlers alone with a minimum of 1 wicket in an innings, we get:

On debut, there are only two who have taken at least 1 wicket in an innings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same score in both innings

It is fairly well known that Duleep Mendis scored 105 and 105 in a Test against India, and that this is the highest case of identical innings in a Test. Here we look at all such cases above 50. We have considered both dismissals and not outs.

Same score in both innings (Excel)

Or (in a compressed form):

None of these instances were on debut. The highest such double on debut was 36 and 36 by the lesser-known South African Dan Taylor. All such instances above 25 + 25 are given here:

Abid Ali also took 6 wickets in an innings (and 7 in the match).

A more detailed post on same scores in each innings on debut (as of May 2015) can be seen here: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/an-unusual-record-same-score-in-both-innings-in-debut/

Eclectic score cards for ODIs

This is a follow-up from the last post

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/eclectic-score-cards-for-tests/

Now we take up ODIs in the same way. Though others interested in cricket statistics may disagree, I have removed ODIs involving multi-national teams such as the ICC World XI, Africa XI and Asia XI.

First, the highest scores at various batting positions in all ODIs:

Interesting that Kapil’s 175* in 1983 is the oldest record standing, followed by Viv Richard’s 189* in 1984. That was the only ODI played at Tunbridge Wells, and there is no video of this match available because of a dispute with the BBC at that time.

Now for Indian players:

Interesting that the records for numbers 9 and 10 came in the same match.

Now we look at all debutants in ODIs:

Interesting that Haynes’s record of 1978 still stands.

No debutant from India in the above table. Their details are here:

Oddly enough Brijesh Patel’s 82 from India’s very first ODI in 1974 is still a record.

Some may be thinking of Yuvraj Singh’s 84 at No 5 in 2000. But that was in his second ODI, while he did not bat in the first. (Shahid Afridi’s 37-ball century had a similar story).

 

Eclectic score cards for Tests

One of the first cricket books I acquired about 40 years ago was “Figures of Cricket” by Sudhir Vaidya which had records up to 1976. It was perhaps the only inexpensive book on cricket statistics available in India at that time. He brought out one more edition in 1990, and does not seem to have written any books after that.

One of the interesting topics in this was the “Eclectic score card” which listed the top scores for each batting position in Tests. (ODIs were not significant enough then to attract the attention of statisticians). As a tribute to Mr. Vaidya and his book, here are some eclectic score cards under different conditions. Points of interest are mentioned in the Remarks column.

First, the highest scores at all 11 positions for all Tests as of April 2016:

The record set by Ben Stokes earlier this year may not have attracted the attention it deserved. The previous record for No 6 was 250 by KD Walters, Aus v NZ in 1976-77.

While WW Read’s record has stood from 1884, there is one better-known record set in the very first Test in 1876-77 which still stands-Charles Bannerman scoring 67.34 per cent of his team’s innings. See Link

Next, the highest scores at all positions scored by Indian players:

Now we come to the highest scores made by debutants from all countries:

And finally, the highest scores made by debutants from India:

Plenty of food for thought here if you go through it closely. Will take up ODIs later, although data for T20Is may be too scanty at the moment.

DC traction on India’s railways-sidelights

Much has been written about the final days of DC traction in Mumbai, more specifically on the Harbour line from CSTM to Vashi which was the last holdout of this form of electrification on the Indian railways. This is not exactly true – the Kolkata metro will continue to be on 750 V DC indefinitely, and it is officially a part of the Indian Railways (unlike the other metro systems in Delhi and elsewhere).

At its peak, the 1500 V DC system in Mumbai covered these sections:

WR: Colaba to Churchgate to Virar

CR: CST Mumbai to Pune and Igatpuri via Kalyan

CST Mumbai to Mahim and then in parallel to WR up to Andheri

CST Mumbai to Kurla via Harbour branch and then to Mankhurd,Vashi and Panvel.

(Mankhurd was the terminus until the 1990s).

Diva-Vasai Road

(Apart from CR and WR, some lines of the Bombay Port Trust were electrified with DC as well).

A typical news item about the conversion of the last route:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Harbour-line-trains-run-on-new-25KV-AC-traction-from-today/articleshow/51762468.cms

What most railfans may forget is that 3000 V DC existed on some routes out of Howrah for about a decade and 1500 V DC on one metre gauge route out of Chennai for several decades.

From an official IR publication of 1964, we can get the early history. It makes things simpler if we use the names of places which were prevalent at that time

The years of completion were:

Bombay VT to Poona and Igatpuri: 1930 (299 route km) on the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, predecessor of the CR

Churchgate to Virar: 1936 (60 route km) on the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway, predecessor of the WR.

Madras Beach to Tambaram: 1931 (29 route km, metre gauge) on the South Indian Railway, predecessor of the SR.

Howrah-Bandel-Burdwan

and Seoraphuli-Tarakeswar: 1958 (142 route km) on ER.

Coming back to Bombay, the VT-Reay Road section was opened in 1925 with electrification, as the 1 in 34 gradient at Sandhurst Road was felt to be an insurmountable obstacle to any other means of traction. Diesel traction existed but was not considered a serious option at that time.

Reay Road to Kurla had been running on steam since it was opened in 1910.The extension from Kurla to Mankhurd was completed by 1927 and was electrified in 1936.

The Karjat-Khopoli branch was one of the first lines opened in India (in 1856, when it became the railhead for Poona for some years). It seems to have been electrified only in the mid-90s and timetables of 1994 show diesel-hauled passenger trains on the CR main timetable (not the suburban timetable).

The Diva-Vasai Road line was built in the 1980s and was electrified with DC soon after it was opened.

On what is now the WR, electrification was completed to Borivli in 1928 and to Virar in 1936. Colaba was the terminus for long distance and local trains until Bombay Central was opened in 1930, and the lines between Colaba and Churchgate were electrified but this line itself was closed at the end of 1930. Churchgate has been the terminus for local trains since then.

The short stretch from Madras Beach to Tambaram was electrified at 1500 V DC in 1931. Apart from the EMUs on this route, long distance trains continued to run on steam from Madras Egmore. By 1967 the Tambaram-Villupuram section was electrified at the then standard voltage of 25 KV AC and the Beach-Tambaram section was converted to AC to enable through running up to Villupuram.

After independence, the first steps towards electrification of ER lines out of Howrah were taken with Howrah-Bandel-Burdwan and Seoraphuli-Tarakeswar being completed by 1958. These too were converted to AC in the mid-60s, and virtually all subsequent electrification in India was at 25 KV AC. The only exceptions were the extensions from Mankhurd to Vashi and then Panvel, Thane to Vashi and extensions,  and electrification of Karjat-Khopoli in the 90s which had to match the existing DC system in Mumbai.

Some of the DC locos from ER were converted to 1500 V DC and sent to CR, where they continued to serve for many years on the slopes of Bhor Ghat and Thull Ghat. Some EMUs were also converted and sent to WR and CR with mixed results.

More about DC locos, AC/DC locos and operational aspects to follow.