ON September 2, John Evans, a member of Barry Probus Club, gave a talk to the Club entitled “A Trip Around India by Rail”, an account of his visit there in 1994.

John started with a comment on the condition of the steam engines and track which generally were in a poor state of repair due to lack of finance for maintenance. Running repairs were carried out track-side whenever the train stopped at a station, and each engine had a crew of five to keep it running. John had several photos of apparently flimsy bridges carrying heavy trains which caused some trepidation amongst English passengers. Landslides are a frequent occurrence obliterating the tracks.

His journey started at New Delhi where many the buildings were designed by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, but some of the earlier buildings go back to the 1600’s one of which is known as the Red Fort. The architecture is a mixture of Turkish, Mongol and European. An odd feature was a simple iron pillar with no history as to its purpose but John discovered that it was erected in 400 AD, long before Europe was manufacturing metal objects. Delhi also has the Gandhi memorial marking the occasion of his assassination in 1948, a simple marble slab on the site of his funeral pyre.

Next, John travelled to Jaipur to see the Palace of the Winds. Built in the 1700’s, it has a highly carved stone façade with 14 decorative windows from which ladies could look out without being seen by men. A well-known tourist trap is the Amber Fort where elephants are used to carry people up the steep paths to the top. John and his party were plagued by photographers wanting to take and sell photos who didn’t seem to understand the word “no”.

Every visitor to India has to see the Taj Mahal at Agra but the pollution was so bad that it was impossible to get a clear view of the most famous building in India.

To escape the heat of summer, the British residents persuaded the Indian government to build the railway up to Shimla in the hills. Built around 1898 to 1903, it follows a winding route up to a height of 6800 feet, with 919 sharp curves, 102 tunnels and numerous bridges. It makes frequent stops when “char” can be bought at track-side but what John remembered most was the fact that there were no lights in the toilets which necessitated careful pre-planning before use. Shimla itself is modelled on an English village with English style churches and a village centre. A welcome feature was that there were no beggars.

Barannise, the holist city for Hindu followers, was full of lepers who bathe in Mother Ganges, the sacred river, hoping to be cured.

Calcutta is full of government buildings built at the time of the Raj era, but many were crumbling due to lack of maintenance, where the normal mode of transport is by decrepit trams or Morris Oxford cars, some lovingly maintained by proud taxi drivers.

During his trip, John was constantly amazed by the way Engineers had managed to build railway tracks through incredibly difficult country with massive gorges and steep cliffs and, when no other route was feasible or the original route had been buried in a land-slide, the new line simply ran down the nearest road and through the centre of a village. Since his visit, the steam engines are gradually being replaced by modern diesel engines but the expansion of the railway network is still hampered by the difficult terrain and varying railway gauges.

The vote of thanks was given by Charles Rees.