From the Bradshaw of June 1944, long before today’s Maitri Express or even the East Bengal Mail of the early 1960s, though it followed the same route as the latter.
At that time the route was on the short-lived Bengal & Assam Railway.
As you may know, it crossed the future Radcliffe Line between Banpur and Darsana and terminated at Goalundo Ghat, which was a terminus from Pordaha on the main line to Siliguri. The passengers than got on to a ferry to Narayanganj, and then got onto a local train for the short journey to Dacca. The present main station in Dhaka called Kamalapur is at a different location from the old station, which closed in the 1960s.
Summary of the overall journey:
Here the Dacca Mail (No 7) leaves Sealdah at 21.10, reaches Goalundo Ghat at 05.05. The ferry left at 05.50 and reached Narayanganj at 13.00. A local train left there at 13.12 and reached Dacca at 14.10. Note that some passenger trains ran beyond Dacca to destinations such as Mymensingh.
At the bottom of the page you can see the 8 Mail leaving Dacca at 11.30, reaching Narayanganj at 12.04. The ferry left at 12.45 and reached Goalundo Ghat at 21.30. The train left there at 23.00, reaching Sealdah at 06.20.
Here you can see the full timetable between Sealdah and Goalundo in both directions:
The above timetable does not show timings between Sealdah and Ranaghat. These can be seen below:
You can also see the timings of the Darjeeling Mail of 1944 (from the same source) here:
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