It was possible to travel by metre gauge all the way from Delhi to Lucknow in 1976 and for many years after that. This the route via Rewari and Achnera:
Delhi Jn
5 Delhi Serai Rohilla
15 Delhi Cantt
32 Gurgaon
83 Rewari (end of NR)
157 Alwar
217 Bandikui
314 Bharatpur
342 Achnera (end of WR)
377 Mathura Jn
428 Hathras Road
482 Kasganj
590 Farukhabad
595 Fatehgarh
727 Kanpur Anwarganj
730 Kanpur Central
733 Kanpur Anwarganj
750 Unnao
821 Lucknow (NER)
The BG distance from Delhi Jn to Lucknow by broad gauge was then 509 km via Kanpur and 487 km via Moradabad.
By metre gauge, there was an Agra Fort-Lucknow Express which joined this route at Achnera. For a short time in the mid-1970s, the metre gauge Vaishali Express ran from Agra Fort to Siliguri via Kanpur and Lucknow.
The Navjivan Express started running in the late 1970s. It was the first train from South India to Gujarat. Until then the usual practice was to change at Bombay, and the interchange between CR and WR was puzzling to those travelling for the first time. However, it was theoretically possible to travel entirely by metre gauge between Madras and Ahmedabad. This beacame a little simpler with the opening of the Udaipur-Himatnagar line in the mid-1960s. Earlier the terminus was a relatively small station called Udaipur. This new line involved the construction of a larger station for Udaipur City, while the old Udaipur became Ranapratap Nagar.
This would be the MG route:
Today, there are numerous trains from the southern states to Ahmedabad and beyond.
This is probably the last instalment of MG routes from Delhi to the major cities in South India. Trivandrum came on BG in late 1975, so this time we imagine a journey in 1970. One could also imagine a link express from Quilon to Ernakulam.
This comes to 3249 km, which is just over 2000 miles. Probably it would take a week.
In 1970, TVC was indeed the southern-most station in India as its latitude was less than that of Tiruchendur, which remained on MG until 2000 or later.
Our next long trip by metre gauge from North to South involves the Hassan-Mangalore line which was opened in 1979. So we use the route and station names as they were in timetables of the early 1980s. As before, we provide the present station names when they have changed significantly.
Compare the 2845 km with 2524 km by the present BG trains between Nizamuddin and MAQ by the Konkan route, which was not fully opened until the late 1990s. There would also be a nasty ghat section between Hassan and Mangalore.
We have covered various long metre gauge journeys which were possible in 1976, such as Delhi-Madras, Madras-Bangalore, Delhi-Bangalore etc. There was also East-West route from Okha (or Varvala) to Lekhapani. These were the furthest west and east points of IR at that time.
Now we come to the route connecting the northern extreme and southern extreme points of metre gauge.
At that time the northern extreme of IR was Jammu Tawi on BG. On MG it was Kot Kapura:
For a short time in the 19th century MG extended from Kot Kapura to Ferozepur (Cantt?) making it the northern extreme of MG at that time.
In the south, there was Tiruchendur, on a branch line from Tirunelveli was the southern extreme of metre gauge. Earlier Trivandrum Central had this honour, although it was converted to BG by 1975.
Anyway, the full route including important stations and distances is given below. Spellings of place names are those given in timetables of 1976. The distances between Khandwa and Hingoli had a separate “chargeable distance”, although we have used actual distances here.
As of 2022, a large proportion of this route is now broad gauge, while the remaining metre gauge counts off its last days.
This route passes through NR, WR,CR, SCR and SR as they were at that time.
It passes through the states of PB, HR, RJ, MP, MH, AP, TN (besides the future TG).
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 Bangalore City wholly by metre gauge. (At that time there was no train from Delhi to Bangalore, though there were through coaches on the GT Express and Madras/Bangalore Express. The Kerala-Karnataka Express was yet to appear.)
There was, of course, no such MG train but by a series of reasonably good MG expresses it was possible to make this journey of 2389 km. The BG route via Madras would be a little longer at 2536 km.
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 route via Ringas rather than the better-known route via Jaipur, as the former is shorter.
This route passes through DL, HR, RJ, MP, MH, AP and KA. (Also TG which did not exist then).
Those who have timetables of 1976 or thereabout can work out suitable combinations of trains to cover this route. Examples could be Delhi-Ajmer, Ajmer-Secunderabad, Secunderabad-Bangalore.
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 GAUGEIN 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.
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.
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