Kolar | The Lost Lander

Indian railways have one of the largest networks in the world and forms the lifeline of domestic transportation and logistics in the country. For me as a millennial, the thought of a train journey brings back nostalgia. Over the years, I have experienced the crowd of a general bogey, the liveliness of second-class travel as well as the comfort of the air-conditioning through journeys in the upper-class cabins. Through this article, I would like to share five of my unique experiences of travelling in special trains operated by the Indian railways.

1. Vista Dome trains:

The best experience in these trains is by opting for a day journey to truly observe the beautiful landscape through the glass dome roof. The one that I have done is the vista dome ride from Bangalore to Mangalore. The view of the green forest of the western ghats, dark tunnels and deep gorges is an experience to add to your bucket list.

2. Double-decker trains:

I realized that my ticket from Bangalore to Salem was on a double-decker train only after arriving at the platform. My seat was located on an air-conditioned cabin on the top deck, offering a completely different experience for my journey.

3. Mountain trains:

Listed as one of the UNESCO heritages, the Kalka-Shimla train, Darjeeling-Siliguri and the Nilgiris mountain railways collectively offer a travel back in time. All these trains ply on the OG narrow gauge railway lines and the interiors too are still kept the same way that they used to be.

The Himalayan Queen Trains. Top: The narrow gauge train between Kalka & Shimla; Bottom: The broad gauge train between Delhi & Kalka

4. Luxury trains:

These trains offer opulent experiential tours covering iconic landmarks across the states that they operate in. The Maharajas’ Express, the Golden Chariot, the Deccan Odyssey, Palace on Wheels are some of these luxurious trains one must experience.

5. Rail buses:

These are actually single bogie trains that comprise the engine and the cabin in the same segment which is why they are called buses. The one which I had travelled in was the Bangarpet-Kolar railbus, now decommissioned from service. You can also experience the railbus which are run by the mountain railways.

What is your favorite memory of travelling in train? I would be glad to hear from you in my comments below.

One Saturday off in a month and the crunch for exploration was at its peak… Dad and I decided to board the train to sit in a bus that runs on rails.. I mean.. We wanted to travel in the “RailBus”. There are only 2 railbuses still running in the country, one runs on narrow guage and the other runs on broad gauge. While the former is a part of the Kalka-Shimla mountain railways, the latter is operated by the South western railways. And we were interested in the one closer to home i.e. in South India. It plies between Bangarpet (literally translates to Gold Market in Kannada) and KGF a.k.a. Kolar Gold Fields.

It leaves Bangarpet at 9.00.a.m and returns by noon. Again leaves Bangarpet by 5.30.p.m and returns before its dark. So, technically we wanted to reach Bangarpet before 9.00.a.m. But the laziness that had set in because of a hectic work week, we woke up late and boarded the Bangarpet-Bangalore express at 9.45.a.m from Cantonment railway station. So the entire idea of railbus travel flopped even before it happened. Jeez..!!!

Once at Bangarpet, we walked from the railway junction to the dusty town and boarded a private bus that took us to KGF which had passengers 2.5XFOS (2.5 times the Factor of Safety) the bus was designed for..!! And our arrival at the destination was rather fast considering the time we had before we died of suffocation due to the availability of very little air to breathe(forget Oxygen) in the completely choked up bus 😛 (I seriously don’t know how to put our plight in words..!!)

KGF.. The road welcomes you with a continuous stretch of this really awesome looking hill on one side and an old dusty town on the other side. It is dusty because it is a mining hub and it has a hill because of the same reason.. These hills are called cyanide dumps- the slurry left over after gold extraction from the mines using Cyanide based alkalis are dumped here and this has hardened over time making it look like a hill. It reminded me of the formations in the Grand Canyon for some reason.

From here, we again boarded a bus to reach the “Kotilingeshwara temple”. This place is said to have more than 1 crore Shivalingas, all donated by people. Though I’m not a very religious person, I wanted to visit the place for the history it unfolded. It was soon pack-up time for us as the scorching sun had sucked out most of our energy. But, most importantly, we had to return to Bangarpet before we could miss a glance of the sole reason of our trip..!! And.. We were back at BWT junction as per schedule.

The loner was resting in the shade of a tree. And the loco pilot obliged to open the door and let us have a look inside of the train. It felt nice to see the last one left in the country but the trip ended soon. Ofcourse, it was with a heavy heart that we could not travel in it 😥