Morning at Ambikapur Railway station

Poets have found trains irresistible. Steam's mucky glamour may only exist now between the covers of The Railway Children, but the romance of the railway lives on. Certainly, there's something compelling about the environment to which the train exposes you - it's the train's ability to suspend you between here and there - outside regimented time, away from the quotidian - that attracts. There's something regenerative in the act of boarding a train in one place and disembarking in another, without having actively engaged in the process at any juncture; it transports, in both senses of the word (Sarah Crown/theguardian.com).

The train is running on the track, track, track 

And I’m sitting in the carriage at the back, back, back
For we’re going on a journey that is fast, fast, fast
The fields and the cows whizz past, past, past
We’re going to the seaside very quick, quick, quick
And I’m listening to the wheels as they click, click, click
And we’re going over the hills to the top, top top
But slowly, very slowly, we come to a station and we stop, stop, stop..sssshhhhhhh

(by Brenda Williams)

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Dawn break as soft light from the east envelopes all while moon light in the west sky fades gradually looks as if hanging from the lamp post, train ready to take passengers for their journey in cold winter morning.

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

― Augustine of Hippo

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Listen to the quiet peaceful dawn. Sun touching the rim of spaces' night. Stars fading to brushes of paint In whirlwinds of dusk colored breezes. Passing away the moon's guard To the light of the sun's shift begins Now sweeping into a new day. (share courtesy:Gelene Beverly)

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

The platform of Ambikapur (India) Railway Station in an early morning glow
This railway station became operational on 3rd June 2006

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Side view of the Railway Station building

Ambikapur Railway Station/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Old kingly palace of  'Ambikapur' State (popularly known as 'Surguja' State)

Surguja Palace Ambikapur/©Anjani Kumar Tripathi

http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2013/03/architecture-with-endemic-flavour.html
http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2013/09/romance-of-indian-rail-in-hilly-terrain.html

http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2012/03/train-through-hill.html

http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2011/12/hill-call.html

Colonel Barog: tall upright man of Barog Tunnel

THE 96.54-km-long Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge track in India has 102 operational tunnels that constitute about 8 per cent of the total length of the route.

This rail track, which was open to passengers on November 9, 1903, is a living tribute to those engineers who dared to bore a total of 107 tunnels and set an example of how a railway line could pass through a rough mountainous terrain without destroying the splendour and beauty of the hills.

Barog, the place:

Barog was settled in the early 20th century during the building of the narrow gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway in India. It is named after Colonel Barog, an engineer involved in building the railway track in 1903.

Barog tunnel as of now

Barog, the engineer, was responsible for designing a tunnel near the railway station. He commenced digging the tunnel from both sides of the mountain, which is quite common as it speeds up construction. However, he made mistakes in his calculation and while constructing the tunnel, it was found that the two ends of the tunnel did not meet. Barog was fined an amount of 1 Rupee by the British government. Unable to withstand the humiliation, Barog committed suicide. He was buried near the incomplete tunnel. The area came to be known as Barog after him.

Barog Tunnel Facts

Later it was constructed under Chief Engineer H.S. Harrington's supervison guided by a local sage, Bhalku, in a short period from July 1900 to September 1903 at a cost 8.40 Lakh rupees (Rupees 840,000).

This tunnel is the longest of the 103 operational tunnels on the route of the Shimla-Kalka Railway, which is 1143.61m long. 
Barog station is immediately after the tunnel. 

Barog tunnel is the straightest tunnel in the World. 
Trains take about 2.5 minutes to cross this tunnel, running at 25 kilometres per hour.

And The Man lies forgotten

He was buried in front of the tunnel, 

near the Kalka-Shimla national highway, 

about 1 km from Barog.

Ironically neither the Railway authorities nor the state government has done anything 

to maintain his grave. 

A signboard giving details about the sad end of Barog was put up near his grave 

but that too has now disappeared. 

As a result, it is now even difficult to locate the whereabouts of his grave. 

The forlorn tunnel has now been closed. 

The tunnel has a natural water source 

that meets the water demand of the Special Service Bureau (SSB), Dharampur.

# Reference notes:

* On July 8, 2008, the Kalka–Shimla Railway was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the World Heritage Site Mountain Railways of India. The Mountain Railways of India (including Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway) and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai have already been declared as world heritage properties.

* Kalka–Shimla Railway

 

	0 km	Kalka
	6 km	Taksal
	11 km	Gumman
	17 km	Koti
	27 km	Sonwara
	33 km	Dharampur
	39 km	Kumarhatti
	43 km	Barog
	47 km	Solan
	53 km	Salogra
	59 km	Kandaghat
	65 km	Kanoh
	73 km	Kathleeghat
	78 km	Shoghi
	85 km	Taradevi
	90 km	Totu (Jutogh)
	93 km	Summer Hill
	96 km	Shimla

# Consulted and thankfully shared from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalka%E2%80%93Shimla_Railway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barog

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020615/windows/main4.htm

Romance of Indian rail in hilly terrain of Chhattisgarh state in India

Chhattisgarh (Hindi: छत्तीसगढ़ Chattīsgaṛh is a state in Central India. The state was formed on 
1 November 2000 by partitioning 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking south-eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh.
A state rich in steel, coal, electricity production and forest wealth.

http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2013/03/architecture-with-endemic-flavour.html

Location of Chhattisgarh in India

India's first 5.6-ft broad gauge (BG) engine (the standard in India now) commissioned on 18 February 1853 by Great India Peninsular Railway (GIPR). On 16 April, the country's first passenger train was flagged off from Boribunder in Bombay.

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Trains have always given a flight to the human imaginations.
The GIPR is mentioned in Jules Verne's 'Around the world in eighty days'. In 1872, protagonist Phileas Fogg and his French servant Passepartout went on a trip around the world. India was connected from Bombay to Calcutta via the GIPR with a break in between. Yet, the journey was finished in three days. Vernes mentions that the 80-mile (128 km) rail journey from Allahabad to Benares was covered in two hours - an average of 64 kmph. Well, some of our fastest trains today average only about 65 to 70 kmph.

http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2012/03/train-through-hill.html

 http://throughpicture.blogspot.in/2011/12/hill-call.html

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Poets have found trains irresistible. Steam's mucky glamour may only exist now between the covers of The Railway Children, but the romance of the railway lives on. Certainly, there's something compelling about the environment to which the train exposes you - it's the train's ability to suspend you between here and there - outside regimented time, away from the quotidian - that attracts. There's something regenerative in the act of boarding a train in one place and disembarking in another, without having actively engaged in the process at any juncture; it transports, in both senses of the word (Sarah Crown/theguardian.com).

The train is running on the track, track, track 

And I’m sitting in the carriage at the back, back, back
For we’re going on a journey that is fast, fast, fast
The fields and the cows whizz past, past, past
We’re going to the seaside very quick, quick, quick
And I’m listening to the wheels as they click, click, click
And we’re going over the hills to the top, top top
But slowly, very slowly, we come to a station and we stop, stop, stop..sssshhhhhhh

(by Brenda Williams)

And gradually came the station Boridand, where train entered the much awaited borders of the state, greeting passengers with a sudden change of air with mist, crystal blue sky, 
thick Sal forest trees beside the rail track, 
and people moving alongside....busy in their daily scores..!!

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways

Augustine of Hippo, also known as St. Augustine

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

― Augustine of Hippo

Train Through The Hill

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways/Ambikapur

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways/Ambikapur

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways/Ambikapur

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways/Ambikapur

We who have looked each other in the eyes
This journey long, and trundled with the train,
Now to our separate purposes must rise,
Becoming decent strangers once again.
The little chamber we have made our home
In which we so conveniently abode,
The complicated journey we have come,
Must be an unremembered episode.
Our common purpose made us all like friends.
How suddenly it ends!
A nod, a murmur, or a little smile,
Or often nothing, and away we file.
I hate to leave you, comrades. I will stay
To watch you drift apart and pass away.
It seems impossible to go and meet
All those strange eyes of people in the street.
But, like some proud unconsious god, the train
Gathers us up and scatters us again.

A poem written by:
HAROLD MONRO

Hill Call

©Anjani Kumar Tripathi/Indian Railways/Ambikapur

Pilkha mountain Ambikapur/Google view

Pilkha mountain Ambikapur/Google view

I got posted to a new place and the first day while driving to my work place on a cold December morning, I was just hemmed in the thought of my lost surroundings and friends.

Suddenly on my right window, I saw an image of misty mountain taking shape gradually. For a while, I saw it was a chain of two or three.....

For a second I felt if I was not alone.

Since then we have grown a link with each other. Every morning they are on my right side, as if assuring me; and evenings when I am back from office, they are on left, as if saying, never mind..never be tired..we are together.

When I plan my journey, they are the first to greet me on the railway station, and when I am back....they cast a heavenly shadow and I feel if I am riding on a toy-train of my childhood.

Note:

Last two pictures of the described place were obtained with the help of 'Google Map'.