Branch AGM and ‘Indian Hill Railways’, by David Brace, 4th April 2023
4th April 2023 Meeting
Indian Hill Railways
It was the time of the AGM, and this was duly held and dispatched within thirty minutes. There were no surprises and the full committee of Chairman Geoff Plumb, Secretary Rob Davidson, Treasurer Richard Dyett, Mistress of the Urn [MOTU] Lizzie Davidson, Without Portfolio [WOP] Larry King [although he does 'the door' and is Assistant Master of the Urn, so actually WOPAMOTU]] and finally former Chairman Rob Freeman [OCM] were all re-elected.
We then welcomed a long-time friend of mine, David Brace, to present an earlier visit to The East on 4th April, which was our first live presentation of the year.
The talk described a tour of India in 2011 to visit three of the most promising hill railways. These were built to allow the British governors to retire from the hot plains and administer India in cooler conditions for the summer months. The first of these at Shimla transfer the entire government from Calcutta. The tour party rode up to Shimla by diesel railcars and then spent a few days exploring the Himalayan foothills. The party returned by dining train down to Kalka and then went to Agra by sleeper train, saw the Taj Mahal and then returned to Delhi to see the railway museum.
They then flew eastwards to Siliguri where they rode on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway except for a short stretch where the line had been severed by a major landslide.
Many took cab rides on some unique old steam engines, the B Class.
The party next transferred by air and rail via Calcutta & Shennai to south India to ride on the Nigiri Railway using a mixture of a rack steam engine and a diesel on an adhesion section.
Nilgiri Mountain Railway metre gauge 0-8-2RT 'X' Class No. 37389 (All India number), NMR No. 11, built by SLM, Works No. 3000 of 1925. Image Credit: David Brace
They finally returned to Bombay (Mumbai) and flew home.
Thanks to David for a excellent presentation, though only fifteen people turned up, folks do not seem to like an AGM.
Rob Davidson, Branch Secretary