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Indian Railways Works Manual (2000) [pdf]
- Lammy 5y agoFun fact: BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit district) is the only extant North American railway using this track gauge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_6_in_gauge_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_ft_6_in_gauge_railway
- tibbydudeza 5y agoDoes the dabbawalas (Indian Lunch Delivery) system have a works manual ???. How do you learn it if you are new to it ???.
- davchana 5y agoYou request somebody already working in the system, to take you as intern. Internship can go for multiple years.
- samspenc 5y agoAm I missing something about how and why this made it to the HN front page? Seems to be a fairly trite government publication that is more of interest to civil engineers. I thought maybe there was something in the document that would provoke a few laughs but can't find anything there either.
- uwagar 5y agofew laughs? we are a laughing [rolling] stock, us indians.
- ohlookcake 5y agor/canconfirmiamindian
- aravindet 5y agoPerhaps it was posted here because it seems to have a remarkably broad scope going well beyond what might be considered railway-related? Just guessing, not the OP. I am curious though, what part of the title indicated to you that there was something humorous in it?
- surajs 5y agoYawn, figure it out
- samspenc 5y agoThis was the pattern I read in the title: "[Country] [Government org] Works Manual". Surely, I thought to myself, the only reason this would have made it to the HN front page is if there were a few guffaws in it related to how asinine a government document could be, but I couldn't find anything in there that indicated the same.
- hungryhobo 5y agopretty sure there are quite a bit of indian viewership on HN
- fieryskiff11 5y agoAre the location of toilets specified in this document?
- ece 5y agoNot much about trains, but more about stations and yards. Page 116: > All toilets should be gradually converted into Pay & Use system.
- Aperocky 5y agowell that explain the smell mentioned by another comment..
- jimmyed 5y agoI found the focus on first class passengers quite interesting. There are guidelines along the lines of "no provision to be made of toilets if there are no first class passengers", "make sure to have separate waiting rooms for different classes of passengers".. The British era recommendations hadn't been removed by 1967 at least.
- dilawar 5y agoBritish class systems and Indian caste system worked together very well.
- throwawayy37r3 5y agoThere is a crucial difference. If you become a great inventor or by luck if one becomes wealthy, one can move over the class system with the British system. Its not the case with the indian caste system, it is all about privilege by birth.
- pfiwxruxta 5y agoVarna is decided by karma, not birth. Dalits can and do become brahmins by following diets, rituals and become temple priests. Brahmins also have become kshatriyas by picking up weapons of war. [1] https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala-dalit-priests-government-temples-any-hindu-can-be-a-brahmin-4890673/ https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala-dalit-priests... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmakshatriya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmakshatriya
- throwawayy37r3 5y agoVedic scriptures is very clear (rig veda) and prohibits any move. Even "Richard Stallman" (RMS) understands this https://stallman.org/articles/ramayana.html https://stallman.org/articles/ramayana.html which native indian people act like they don't understand. I can site recent and better example that happened in TamilNadu (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tamil-nadu-dmk-temples-appointment-non-brahmin-priests-subramanian-swamy-1842003-2021-08-17 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tamil-nadu-dmk-temples...). 120 or so priests were appointed who were not from priest families. This is not allowed by the vedas(the hindu book). It is because government intervened and fought against the temples decisions. There is some progressive things happening in these states. Thanks to Periyar.
- gjkood 5y agoThe Indian Railways is definitely an interesting organization. Doing a cursory glance at a Wikipedia entry, some of the stats: 1. Established in 1832 2. 3rd largest railway network in the world 3. 8th largest employer in the world. I was hoping to see something about the actual Rail Track details but this is more of a civil engineering specs for building construction. I am curious about when and how Indian Railways will incorporate high speed rail such as the French TGV, Japanese Shinkansen or Chinese CRH. On a visit to China in 2017 and taking a short trip in the Chinese CRH, I heard stats about 2,000 high speed trains a day. It was an interesting experience traveling at speeds greater than 300 kmh and not feeling a thing. Of course I am curious about when the USA will incorporate the same. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways
- zmix 5y ago> high speed rail such as the French TGV, Japanese Shinkansen or Chinese CRH You forgot the German ICE[1] ;-) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity_Express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity_Express
- ausudhz 5y agoHe forgot many if that matters. There are high speed rails in many countries not only these. just to name a few: Italy, Spain, Korea, Taiwan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-speed_railway_lines https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_high-speed_railway_l...
- zmix 5y agoComing from Germany I just could not hold it back... ;-) Besides that, I doubt, that they all are independent products, but rather one of the named platforms.
- DocTomoe 5y agoTechnically, he did not. Both the CRH and the current ICE models are based on Siemens' Velaro platform: https://www.mobility.siemens.com/global/en/portfolio/rail/rolling-stock/high-speed-and-intercity-trains/velaro.html https://www.mobility.siemens.com/global/en/portfolio/rail/ro...
- stillblue 5y agoFor what seems to be a fairly organized system, they still have not figured out how to not have the compartments smell like stale urine. I am not even joking. The moment you step into a compartment even the air-conditioned ones, the stench of urine is unbelievably strong. This has been this way since 2000s. Such a shame for a system that could be so much better.
- lazyninja987 5y agoInteresting. i had issues only with seats closer to the edges of the coach. if i get seat closer to the middle of the coach, i could avoid smell.
- willyt 5y agoCould be a hangover from British Imperialism, somehow the Pendolino’s in Britain manage to smell slightly of urine as well. It must be something to do with poor aerodynamics around the vent openings for the AC and the soil vent for the toilet tanks as they’ve never managed to fix it.
- ciphol 5y agoIn my experience, Caltrain in Silicon Valley smells of urine. So it's not just a third world thing.
- alex_smart 5y agoHave you been on an Indian train recently? The cleanliness on Indian trains has really improved much in recent years. I mean I still avoid using the toilets, but it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.
- stillblue 5y agoI went on one two weeks back. Nothing has changed my dude. And my seat was not even close to the toilets and it smelled like everyone was peeing solid yellow concentrated blocks. You can't make this up. I really wish they'd improve cos trains are super convenient. It maybe went from worse to bad. I'll give you that but it is nowhere near normal.
- hermitsings 5y agoDon't know why it's posted here
- snambi 5y agoIndian Railways was started by the colonial British for just two purposes. 1. To Return multiple times returns for British investors on the expense of Indian colonies. 2. To move supply of Raw material to the ports and manufactured goods from England to the natives. The British left India. But the Indian Railways is still in India. This organization was not built to serve the people of the land. The Indians have improved it, despite being ruled by socialist governments for 70 years after independence.
- matthewmorgan 5y agoThey also brought manufactured goods back and helped unify India as a nation. Get that chip off your shoulder.
- alex_smart 5y agoIs it still cool to use colonialist apologist arguments?
- unmole 5y ago> helped unify India as a nation Pakistan would like a word.
- nonamechicken 5y agoRegarding 'helped unify India as a nation', they are not the first. Referring to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN41DJLQmPk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN41DJLQmPk, India's map looked close to the present day multiple times in the past. Maurya Empire-284 BCE [1:57] Delhi Sultanate (Tughlaq)-1345 [8:45] Mughal Empire-1692 [10:24] As for 'they also brought manufactured goods back', they exported raw materials from India and imported back finished goods, thereby destroying the local industries in India. >By the mid-19th century, the Indian economy had been fully transformed into a colonial trade pattern, where its export consisted mainly of agricultural commodities such as foodgrains, and the home charges were met by exporting such commodities, while the imports consisted of manufactured goods, especially cotton textiles and machinery (Siddiqui, 2015c). After the 1880s, the trade imports became more diversified, due to the growing penetration of foreign manufactured goods such as cotton textiles, capital goods, machinery etc. (Siddiqui, 1996) This in turn further undermined the position of the local producers and hastened the decay of indigenous industries and handicrafts. https://worldfinancialreview.com/the-political-economy-of-famines-during-the-british-rule-in-india-a-critical-analysis/ https://worldfinancialreview.com/the-political-economy-of-fa... Dr Shashi Tharoor did a nice speech about the British rule in India listing out the damages they did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4. Text version of this speech available here: https://www.news18.com/news/india/read-shashi-tharoors-full-speech-asking-uk-to-pay-india-for-200-years-of-its-colonial-rule-1024821.html https://www.news18.com/news/india/read-shashi-tharoors-full-.... His book on the same topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglorious_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglorious_Empire Then there is the famines. Famines during british rule is estimated to have killed from 20-50 million Indians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_I.... Google image search of 'british india famines' should show some photos for those who haven't heard of this before. An article talking about why famines occured: https://worldfinancialreview.com/the-political-economy-of-famines-during-the-british-rule-in-india-a-critical-analysis/ https://worldfinancialreview.com/the-political-economy-of-fa...
- imdhmd 5y agoTrains fares are very low in India. For example you can travel by a sleeper coach from Hyderabad to Chennai (628km) for just $5.38. Unfortunately the low cost reflects in the poor quality of service.
- einpoklum 5y agoThe train fares are not intended to reflect costs; it is a public (well, state) enterprise funded via taxes by the overall economic activity of Indian society. Which is to say that the quality of service is the result of political decisions at the social level rather than the fares. The fares could well have been 0 with great service, or much higher with the same poor quality.
- imdhmd 5y agoAh thanks for clarifying. That does make sense.
- alex_smart 5y agoThe price for the air-conditioned coaches are much higher.
- bjourne 5y agoThe rules on page 32 for calculating the appropriate number of water closets are very interesting. I wonder how they came up with rates for many is required per person.