One of my best friends Karan is a member of the renowned Indian Railways Fan Club of America; better known as IRFCA of course. Somehow I wasn't quite aware of it when he described it at first but later I was amazed at the close-knit network of its fan members spread all across the country.
Now these IRFCA guys keep having interesting conventions and stuff and hang out and basically do everything related to their beloved topic...trains! And one day Karan tells me he and another fellow fan talked to a Mumbai Local Motorman ( read train driver for laymen :P ) and got a chance to actually ride with him in the motorman's cabin!!!! Now this is something! N not stopping at that.. Karan's friend had met the motorman uncle once again and he actually had a chance to work the controls! n not js watch :D
While I was going bonkers with jealousy, there came a surprise call from karan... "Hey mona, remember my ride in the motorman's cabin? Wanna do that??? I talked to him.......n he's willing to take us on!". YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS! was my reply without a second's hesitation. I was supposed to meet Karan at CST Station at around 2 pm and our friendly motorman uncle was gonna take us aboard on the 2:34 Kalyan bound slow local. Now the only hitch was uncle warned us that women are not normally allowed inside the cabin! ( How chauvinistic, I thought ) But he'll make an exception considering we were such sincere engineering students engaged in an active project involving the SIGNALING MECHANISM IN TRAINS. Oh well... that was our alibi to substantiate our sudden interest towards train driving; complete with a permission letter on the most-easily-reproducible "official" VJTI Letterhead with our "project-guide's" signature underneath!!!
So, I reach CST, haunted somewhere by flashes of images of the very same place ravaged by the gruesome events of 26/11, but nevertheless undauntedly excited bout this extra-ordinary ride. After waiting outside the officers' cabin for a while, inside which were a horde of people working on a host of controls and displays that centrally governs our entire central railway system, Karan pointed out to the motorman uncle (Lets call him Joe) who amicably led us to the 2:34 train that he'd be driving. While passing the compartments, which normally never earn a careful glance from hurrying commuters like us, Joe explained to us that, there are three types of dabbas comprising the train:
1. the 76 ones: comprising the motorman's cabin
2. the 70 ones: carrying the driving motors of the train and
3. the 72 ones: extra compartments having only seats.
These 3 dabbas make up ONE unit and THREE/FOUR such units make up the whole 9/12 coach train; which therefore, in technical terms, is called an EMU (Electrical MULTIPLE Unit)! Now thats info for u, right? :)
Thus,I found myself beginning to learn tonnes about a field of info completely new to me and it was fun! After walking the length of the train, we reached the front cabin. Joe rolled up the destination indicator to Kalyan and then we entered into the small cabin for one of the rarest rides I'd ever be on!
What happened once the train started??........to be continued.. Keep dropping in..
