INDIAN RAILWAYS IN OLD DAYS DURING THE BRITISH RAJ - PART-II

INDIAN RAILWAYS IN OLD DAYS DURING THE BRITISH RAJ - PART-II

Classes of Accommodation in Trains in British India 

When Railway operations began in India, there were varieties of coaches providing various classes of accommodation since there were quite a few companies who were managing the Railways. However, there were four classes in general viz. First, Second, Third and Fourth. First and Second class passengers used to travel as a privileged class with highest level of comfort and privacy. In addition, there were special-purpose luxury saloons for very High Level Government Servants and Dignitaries.

It may be noted in this respect that the Doors of all these classes used to open outside.  It is from 1908 that Inward-opening doors were introduced on passenger coaches.  

First Class

The old First class coaches were non-corridor type so that the compartment ran the full width of the car, thereby making it super-luxurious in terms of Space. Entire coach was divided into 6 individual cabins or suites (one 6-berth cabin, two 2-berth cabin, and three 4-berth cabin). Each cabin was a separate room or suite with its own doors opening on either side of the carriage right onto the platform and each of these cabins had a plush toilet facilities in the Western style and an attached shower room, as well as a narrow compartment at one end with a bench and sometimes a single berth above, for the travelers' domestic servants. The interior of these coaches was ultra-luxurious including royal-size beds/berths, carpeting, wood-work, all paneling and good electric lighting with each berth also having individual reading lights, and a minimum of two electric ceiling fans. 

It is to be noted at this juncture that no light or fan was provided in lower classes. In fact it was after many years in 1952 that Fans and lights for all compartments in all classes of passenger accommodation were made mandatory.

 

                                              View of Old First class coaches 

Some of the First classes even had rudimentary “Air-Conditioning”, where a big block of ice bought from the platform could be lowered into a slot in the floor or roof and fans would be directed at it for cooling effect! Here is a photograph of it:

 Ice supply for the air conditioning in First class coach of the Frontier Mail at Bayana Junction on 11.09.1942

These compartments thus provided excellent comfort and privacy, which made the long journeys enjoyable especially with a certain coziness and privacy with night travel, when it was possible to lock the compartment doors and have a secure and good night's sleep in one’s en suite compartment, which was solely for one’s use between the hours of nine in the night and seven the next morning. This was luxury at its best, a kind of opulence that is not seen probably anywhere in the world on general trains today. Only the most distinguished Europeans could travel by First Class. Today’s First Class AC is no match to this class. Such coaches with these 'servant quarters' were built as late as 1940 and were in service in India till 1955.

Second Class

Second class was also a non-corridor type coach divided into individual a few Four - Berthed and two to three Two - Berthed cabins with its own doors opening on either side of the carriage right onto the platform and having Toilet attached to each Cabin having facilities in the Western style, but it was much less luxurious than First Class and did not have Servants’ Compartment or Shower units. These were having heavily padded and cushioned seats, which could be converted to Beds for Sleeping at night. These coaches were reclassified after 1955 as First Class due to abolition of the original First class.

Third class

Third class consisted of plain carriages with wooden benches having insufficient space or facilities for sleeping and without lights, fans, toilets or even bars on the windows at first. These had doors opening outside, instead of inside, as was the norm in those days. Indians usually travelled in these and the coaches were filled with dirt and filth. They were like the general second class compartments of today, but only far worse. Two-tier seating was introduced in Third Class (typically 50 passengers on the lower seats, and 70 on the upper level, thus nearly doubling the capacity of the already overcrowded third-class coaches) in 1862, but the lack of toilets forced Third Class travelers, usually the Indians, to line side ablutions when trains stopped at stations. In fact, traveling in this class was under the harshest and humiliating of conditions, as may be seen from the photograph shown here:

It is interesting to note at this juncture that Toilets were introduced in Third Class following complain from a passenger Okhil Chandra Sen in 1909 to the Sahibganj divisional railway office in West Bengal - a fact enumerated in the Indian Railway Archive. The image displayed at India's Railway Museum is presented here. Note that Name of the Passenger was Akhil Chandra Sen, who spelt his name as “Okhil” and see his English writing !

   

Fourth class accommodation was introduced on several railways in 1874, which were basically just empty box cars with windows and without even benches, crammed with people to the brim in unimaginable conditions, worse than the third class. The Railways did not care about them. Indians, wretched as they were seen as by the British could only afford and were allowed to travel only by third or fourth class while their overlords wallowed in luxury in First and Second class. Although most railways had them at some time or the other in the 1860s, they were already going out of favour by the 1870s so that by the early 1880s not many lines had Fourth class.

Intermediate or Inter Class

Later on in 1885, this Fourth class was abolished by the expedient of providing benches in the carriages, thereby reclassifying these carriages as Third class. Consequently, existing Third class was then started to be provided with cushioned seats and renamed as “Intermediate  Class” or  “Inter Class”. These were, more than often, of five berth variety, with a central lower berth. This was possible owing to width of compartments, there being no corridors. This gave more seating space during the day, which also meant they were more crowded than the First or Second Class compartments, which were very rarely overcrowded. Intermediate Class also had cooling fans but toilet facilities were of the Oriental variety rather than the Western style! Inter class was seen to be a class between the Second and Third, providing an economical form of travel with better seating and bit of better comfort for those Indians who were better off than the poorer majority who could only afford the lowest class of accommodations, and where they would not be bothered by the 'low-class' travellers (Indians or Europeans) travelling in Third class. First class and Second class were generally the domain of Europeans, although very wealthy Indians did occasionally travel in First class.

Classes in Trains in Post Indepence India

The class system of British Period as enumerated above, continued till 1955. I vaguely remember a journey to Bombay, alongwith my mother and elder brother in Second class in Bombay Mail of EIR via Allahabad from Bardhaman to Kalyan in 1951 (at the age of four) for going to Pune where my uncle was working in the Meteorological Department of Govt. of India.

During 1955, First-class was abolished and the erstwhile 2^nd and Inter classes were renamed as 1^st and 2nd respectively, Third remaining Third.

These First Classes (old second class renamed) were non-corridor coaches divided into  a few Four - Berthed and two to three Two - Berthed individual cabins with its own doors opening on either side of the carriage right onto the platform and having Toilet attached to each Cabin having facilities in the Western style. Subsequently by 1961, these were replaced by Corridor type coaches with four Toilets – two at each end, with two Indian and two western type Lavatories. Since more space was available now due to abolition of Toilets attached to the cabins individually, the typical configuration became Five Four-Berthed and Three Two-berthed Cabins – Total 26 Berths.

Views of interior of such Non-AC First class Corridor Coaches of 1960s are shown here.

                                                 Four Berthed cabins 

 

Corridor

                                                            
                                                Two Berthed cabins 

The huge advantage of First Class Non-AC is that it doesn't insulate from the environment like the AC classes do – one’s interaction with the outside environment is not disrupted by a heavily-tinted glass window.  However, unlike other non-AC classes, First Class Non-AC also gives one a significant amount of privacy, as if one have a whole cabin or coupe to oneself, shutting and bolting the door totally cuts off any contact with other passengers, vendors and beggars. The disadvantages of First Class Non-AC are that

(a) since it is not AC, it gets extremely hot in summer and very cold in winter

(b) all First Class coaches are extremely old, and some extremely rundown,

(c) bedding is not automatically provided as in the AC classes, and while it can be obtained from the attendant on payment of a nominal fee of INR 25, finding the attendant can be difficult at times, not to mention the fact that bedding is very limited,

(d) since coaches aren't insulated from the outside environment, they're usually far dustier than their AC equivalents.

The railways are phasing it out in favour of AC Sleeper class as it is rather un -remunerative. Today, First Class Non-AC is found in a few a few Broad gauge trains in South India (mostly Tamil Nadu), a handful of Metre gauge trains in the north and also in the Narrow gauge Jabalpur-Balaghat Line (this was upto Gondia Jn. Earlier). I traveled from Jabalpur to Gondia several times in 1980-81 at night by Non-corridor First class coach having Five berths – Three lower and Two Upper and one attached Toilet. This line is now operative from Jabalpur to Balaghat.

Photo of Present First class of Satpura Express in this route is presented here.

The Third Class was having wooden benches as usual, but was provided now with lights, fans, covered windows and toilets.

In 1956, the first fully air-conditioned train was introduced between Howrah and Delhi (predecessor of the Poorva Exp.) on a Bi-weekly service with the name “Bi-weekly Airconditioned Vestibuled Express”. It had AC First Class and AC Chair Car connected through the vestibule, but also Non-AC First Class and Third Class.

It was also in this year that Third-class passengers were permitted to use the dining car earlier reserved for higher classes of travel as well as a "buffet-cum-cinema" car was introduced in the Janata Exp. between Kanpur and Jhajha.

However, the original First Class remained in service in the Railways at East Pakistan for some period even after 1955.  It may be noted here that rail links existed between West Bengal of India and East Pakistan carrying goods and passengers. Three trains used to run in these routes  till  1965, when war broke out between India and Pakistan. These were (1) East Bengal Express between Sealdah and Goalundo Ghat via Gede and Darshana,(2) East Bengal Mail between Sealdah and Parbatipur via Gede and Darshana, and (3) Barisal Express between Sealdah and Khulna via Petrapole-Benapole. Therefore, in these trains, “IND I / PAK II” on First Class and “IND II / PAK INT” used to be written the on the First Class and Second class coaches of India respectively (meaning these will be classed as 2nd Class and Inter Class respectively in Pakistan), as was seen by me in Sealdah Station in 1957.

Airconditioned 2-tier sleeper coaches were introduced in the late seventies followed by  Airconditioned 3-tier sleeper coaches in late 90s.

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