Delhi to Madras by metre gauge in 1976

With the near-complete removal of metre gauge from all important routes starting from the late 1970s, it would be a surprise to younger railfans that as late as 1976 it was possible to travel from Delhi Jn to Madras Egmore wholly by metre gauge. There was, of course, no such train but by a series of reasonably good MG expresses it was possible to make this journey of 2772 km. (In contrast, the standard GT express route would be 2182 km from Delhi Jn to Madras Central).

Let us begin our journey from Delhi Jn. I have taken the distances from the 1976 All India Time Table. Spelling of names are from that period. Inflated distances were being charged between Khandwa and Hingoli, so I have taken actual distances.

Between Rewari and Phulera I have taken the shorter route via Ringas rather than via Jaipur.

Km
0	Delhi Jn
5	Delhi Serai Rohilla
31	Gurgaon
83	Rewari	NR ends
185	Nim-Ka-Thana
232	Ringas
298	Phulera
378	Ajmer
402	Nasirabad
567	Chittaurgarh
620	Nimach
753	Ratlam
872	Indore
893	Mhow
1011	Khandwa	WR ends
1175	Akola
1314	Hingoli
1394	Purna	CR ends
1535	Nizamabad
1696	Secunderabad
1704	Kacheguda
1809	Mahbubnagar
1940	Kurnool Town
1993	Dronachellam
2049	Guntakal	SCR ends
2117	Anantapur
2151	Dharmavaram
2296	Madanapalle Road
2379	Pakala
2409	Chittoor
2452	Katpadi
2462	Vellore Cantt
2545	Tiruvannamalai
2613	Villupuram
2716	Chengalpattu
2747	Tambaram
2772	Madras Egmore	SR

Perhaps someone can look at the timetables of that period and see the timings, and then arrive at a timetable for the proposed Delhi-Madras MG Express.

It would pass through DL, HR, RJ, MP, MH, AP and TN. (TG did not exist then).

From the timetables of that period, this trip should have been possible with changes at Ajmer, Secunderabad, Pakala and Villupuram. But there may have been long waiting times at these places.

Suggested trains: Delhi-Ahmedabad JJ Express, Ajmer-Kacheguda Passenger, SC-Tirupati Venkatadri Express up to Pakala, various passenger trains to Villupuram, various express trains to Madras Egmore.

The train with the longest run on this route was the Ajmer/Kacheguda Passenger with 1326 km.

Appendix: North to South on Metre Gauge.

At that time, Jammu Tawi was the northern-most station, but the northern-most MG station was Kot Kapura.

Similarly, Trivandrum Central was on BG since early 1976 and was the southern-most station. This was about 2 km south of Tiruchendur’s parallel of latitude. That was the southern-most MG station.

We now look at the “Northern Extension” from Rewari to Kot Kapura:

Km
0	Rewari
83	Bhiwani
143	Hisar
225	Sirsa
300	Bhatinda
343	Kot Kapura

And the “Southern Extension” from Villupuram to Tiruchendur:

Km
0	Villupuram
55	Vriddhachalam
109	Ariyalur
178	Tiruchchirapalli
271	Dindigul
333	Madurai
376	Virudunagar
461	Maniyachi
490	Tirunelveli
552	Tiruchendur

So our fictional North-South MG Express would run from Kot Kapura to Tiruchendur via Rewari and Villupuram. We can see from the above distance tables that it would come to be

2782-83+343-159+552 = 3435 Km

Coming soon: West to East by Metre Gauge in 1976 (Okha to Lekhapani)

Also note:

From the above table, we can see the route of a Delhi-Secunderabad MG train, besides one for Secunderabad-Madras.

Also Delhi-Bangalore, which would deviate from the above route at Dharmavaram and proceed south. In 1974, Trivandrum could also be reached by MG via Virudunagar and Quilon. By 1976, Quilon-Trivandrum was BG.