Metre Gauge in 1976

From North to South by metre gauge in 1976

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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.

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/west-to-east-by-metre-gauge-in-1976/

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.

This North-South MG route was touched upon here:

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

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).

Km Station Name Note

0 Kot Kapura
43 Bhatinda
118 Sirsa
200 Hisar
260 Bhiwani Jn
343 Rewari NR ends
445 Nim-Ka-Thana
492 Ringas
558 Phulera
638 Ajmer
662 Nasirabad
827 Chittaurgarh
880 Nimach
1013 Ratlam
1132 Indore
1153 Mhow
1271 Khandwa WR ends
1435 Akola
1574 Hingoli
1654 Purna CR ends
1795 Nizamabad
1956 Secunderabad
1964 Kacheguda
2069 Mahbubnagar
2200 Kurnool Town
2253 Dronachellam
2309 Guntakal SCR ends
2377 Anantapur
2411 Dharmavaram
2556 Madanapalle Road
2639 Pakala
2669 Chittoor
2712 Katpadi
2722 Vellore Cantt
2805 Tiruvannamallai
2873 Villupuram
2928 Vriddhachalam
2973 Ariyalur
3051 Tiruchchirapalli Jn
3144 Dindigul
3206 Madurai Jn
3249 Virudunagar
3334 Maniyachi
3363 Tirunelveli Jn
3425 Tiruchendur SR

Madras to Bangalore by metre gauge in 1976

Aside abn397 X , , , ,

The Madras (MAS)-Bangalore (SBC) route by BG was 358 km.

But it was also possible to travel between Madras Egmore and Bangalore City entirely by metre gauge at that time. Here is the distance table for the stations:

This was entirely within SR. Unlike the BG route, it did not touch Andhra Pradesh.

1 possible set of trains would be:

Madras Egmore: Leave 08.10 by 137 Madras-Quilon Express

Vriddhachalam: Arrive 13.05 by 137, depart 19.15 by 130 Tiruppapuliyur-SBC Fast Pass

Bangalore City: Arrive 06.40 by 130

This takes a little less than 23 hours. Further fine-tuning may be possible.

At this time, the BG trains such as the 7/8 Mails took 8 hours. The fastest was the 39/40 Brindavan Express which took 5-6 hours, and the 23/24 Express took 6-7 hours.