West to East by Metre Gauge in 1976

In this post https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/18/delhi-to-madras-by-metre-gauge-in-1976/

we had explored an all-MG route between Delhi and Madras which existed in 1976, as well as the extremities of metre gauge at Kot Kapura and Tiruchendur at that time,

In 1976, the extremities of metre gauge were Varvala (near Okha) in the west and Lekhapani (near Ledo) in the east. These were also the extremities of IR as broad gauge had not spread to these areas yet.

Here, we travel from Okha (the western-most terminus) to Lekhapani.

Names are as they were in 1976. There do not seem to have been any instances of inflated distances on this route.

WEST TO EAST BY METRE GAUGE IN 1976
Km
0	Okha
29	Dwarka
141	Kanalus
166	Jamnagar
247	Rajkot
289	Wankaner
365	Surendranagar
428	Viramgam
493	Mahesana
563	Palanpur
616	Abu Road
781	Marwar Jn
869	Beawar
921	Ajmer
1001	Phulera
1056	Jaipur
1147	Bandikui
1244	Bharatpur
1272	Achhnera	End of WR
1307	Mathura
1358	Hathras Road
1412	Kasganj
1520	Farukhabad
1660	Kanpur Central
1731	Lucknow
1763	Barabanki
1791	Burhwal
1852	Gonda
2006	Gorakhpur
2076	Bhatni
2125	Siwan
2185	Chhapra Jn
2240	Sonpur
2245	Hajipur
2316	Bachwara
2332	Barauni
2388	Khagaria
2511	Katihar	End of NER
2551	Barsoi
2606	Kishanganj
2713	Siliguri Jn
2761	New Mal

2876	Alipurduar Jn
2948	Fakiragram
2985	New Bongaigaon
3095	Rangiya
3158	Gauhati
3250	Chaparmukh
3339	Lumding
3408	Dimapur
3516	Mariani
3570	Simaluguri
3671	Tinsukia
3725	Ledo
3734	Lekhapani	NFR

As you can see, this route passes through only three of the existing zones at that time.

It passed through the states of GJ, RJ, UP, BR, WB, AS and NL.

While the Sonpur-Muzaffarpur-Samastipur-Barauni section was already broad gauge, most of the long-distance trains continued to run on MG as the BG lines were too limited in these areas.

The Ledo-Lekhapani section had very limited services of one pair of trains per day. It was opened in the late 1950s after conversion of a privately-owned 2’0″ NG line. Later, it was not found worthwhile to convert to BG so Ledo remains the eastern-most passenger station. The BG line continues a little further east to Tirap Siding where coal is loaded on goods trains.

A possible set of trains for this route (from 1976) are:

Okha-Mahesana Janata Express to Mahesana

Various express trains to Jaipur or Bandikui.

Various express/passenger trains to Achhnera or Agra Fort.

Vaishali Express to Siliguri. (Yes, at that time it started from Agra Fort).

Various express trains to Tinsukia (Assam Mail was direct, otherwise change at NBQ).

Various passenger trains to Ledo.

One passenger train to Lekhapani.

Today, we have through BG trains from Gujarat to Assam.

Extreme points of the Indian Railways (2017)

The northernmost station:

This is the station before the terminus at Baramulla. If one looks at the map carefully, it can be seen that it is further north.

In case the proposed line from Baramulla to Kupwara is built in the future, the latter will become the northernmost station. There is also a proposed line to Leh from Himachal Pradesh, but Leh is around the same latitude as Srinagar.

Now, the Kashmir valley line from Banihal to Baramulla is not connected to the rest of the IR network (although this gap can be bridged in a 4-hour road journey from Udhampur to Banihal). The northernmost station on the IR network used to be Udhampur, which is now superseded by

These lines were always BG.

Now we move east. The easternmost station presently served by passenger trains is

However, goods trains run further east for a few km to Tirap Siding where coal is loaded. Although I could not find a picture with this sign, there is this video of a road trip along this route with plenty of coal wagons:

Still further ahead is this now defunct station which was functioning from the late 1950s to the 1990s, when the MG line was converted only up to Tirap Siding as it was not considered worthwhile to extend the BG line here:

Lekhapani was thus the easternmost point of the Indian Railways, but not now. However, it is now planned to reopen this station after the last stretch of a few km is converted to BG.

This plaque can be seen near Lekhapani station:

Still further east are the Tipong colliery railways (2’0″ NG) which are NOT and never were part of IR, though we will take a quick look at them here:

These colliery lines have some B class locos which were earlier on the Darjeeling line. There are several longer videos of these lines on Youtube.

The main line even features in the 1972 film “Ye Gulistan Hamara”. If you are really interested you can see the film on Youtube, though the trains appear only for a couple of minutes. If you like typical Bollywood films of the 1970s and are fans of Dev Anand and Sharmila Tagore, you might as well see it.

A small 2’0″ industrial line was earlier functioning at a plywood factory at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh, though this was also nothing to do with IR.

A new line from a point near Makum to Parshuram Kund has been proposed. When completed, this will be the easternmost station much further east than the collieries at Ledo.

Now to the south. That is easy enough. This line was built with BG.

And for the west, there is

Like Sopore, it is not a terminus but is further west than the larger station of Dwarka and the terminus of Okha. Dwarka is the westernmost station of some importance.

This line was MG and was converted to BG around 1980.

Varvala had this status for a long time. Then the Bhuj-Naliya MG line was built and Naliya became the westernmost station (with a lateral distance of about 10 km). The line from Bhuj to Naliya was closed for several years and now has been taken up for conversion to BG. When the line is completed, Naliya will regain the position-although there are plans to extend the line further west. No picture of Naliya station is seen on the net, so here is one of the next station Naliya Cantt, which is adjacent to the IAF base:

(Google Maps needs to be corrected as Naliya Cantt station is marked as Naliya station.)

 

Next we will see what the extreme points were in the 1970s.