Trainspotting in India

How many have ever wondered or appreciated the amount of effort that goes into operating the trains? For most people, rail travel only reminds them of hassles like delayed arrival and departure, clogged and stinking toilets, dry taps, trains waiting at red signals at remote locations, screaming vendors and rude train staff. 

But there is a low-key group of individuals, who call themselves ‘fans’ of Indian Railways. From taking casual but long trips without purpose to photographing trains traversing through remote wilderness and learning about the engineering marvel of locomotives, and sometimes merely sitting on platforms and observing a train for hours, these rail fans are a different breed of people, who, for long, have been celebrating Railways by forming clubs, which were hitherto unknown to many. 

The Indian Railways Fan Club Association (IRFCA) is one such popular Facebook club with a membership of over 9,000 people. In fact, Facebook was not the forum where the fans begun sharing their passion for trains. A Ramakrishnan, a Chennai-based electrical engineer residing in Dubai had started by collecting photographs of trains from newspapers and pasting them in books, a passion he had inherited from his father Arunachalam, another fan of Railways who used to accompany his brother who was a mail engine driver. 

Ramakrishnan was introduced to rail fans club through the now defunct social networking site Orkut in 2006 when he stumbled upon the group online. “From Orkut, I became a part of SMS group of rail fans, before, eventually, joining a WhatsApp group where we discuss train movement, choice of locomotives, issue of tickets, facilities at stations and everything about railways. Being an electrical engineer, my passion was always locomotives,” says Ramakrishna, who flew all the way from Dubai to Rajasthan to attend the annual convention of IRFCA in Bikaner in 2016. IRFCA has been holding annual conventions since 2006 when it first started in Pune, followed by Chennai and many other cities since then. 

“I flew straight from Dubai to Jaipur, took a train to Bikaner and returned to Dubai after the twoday convention. The joy of meeting like-minded people and sharing the same passion is inexplicable. I have rarely missed the convention,” Ramki added, recalling how he sat in a busy wayside station off Bengaluru from 8pm to 8am just to watch the movement of trains. “Once, I just went to Chennai Central, bought a platform ticket and sat there watching trains arrive and depart for three hours and returned home satisfied,” recalled Ramki, who had attended this year’s annual convention in Vadodara, which coincided with his break in February. 

Apart from the engineer, young auditor Aswath, who has been fascinated by trains since childhood, is another rail fan. The busy auditor also has a partner with whom he has travelled 20,000kms last year alone and around 60,000kms in the last five years on trains. 

Remarkably, only once had they booked their tickets in advance. “We just buy a couple of unreserved tickets and board the train running on the route of our choice. Sometimes we get the tickets confirmed by approaching the TTE or just travel in unreserved coaches. Only in the last instance, did we book our reserved tickets to Vijayawada. We start during weekends or during holidays and make sure to return to the city for the next working day,” Aswath told DT Next. Asked about rest, the young auditor says; “There is no harm in losing a few hours of sleep for our passion.” 

Aswath gets busy when trains make unscheduled stoppage in remote locations for want of green signal, a thought which annoys most rail travellers. The red signal is when Aswath pulls out his camera to capture his moments.  IRFCA maintains a gallery of its own where railway photographs of fans like Aswath have been displayed. 

Fans in fact do not stop with photographs and discussing railway journeys on IRFCA website. IRFCA members also post articles about their journeys on the club website where forums exist for people to discuss various issues pertaining to railways. That a senior member of IRFCA is also a member of ZRUCC (zonal railway users consultative committee member) would explain what the fans offer to railways. 

“Even a few railway officials are fan club members. We also invite senior officials for the annual convention during which they take feedback from us. Our relationship stops with knowledge sharing. Neither do they offer any concession nor do we expect any from them,” says Hari, another IRFCA member from Chennai. 

“The essence of rail fan clubs is mingling with people. I prefer to try the local cuisines at every city, like how Lonawala is famous for its vada pav. I had tried it on one of my journeys to Mumbai in the past. Like car and bike fans, we cannot go or stop wherever we want, but we have the choice of routes. Fans who love train ride on scenic routes choose trips to Vasco to catch a glimpse of Dudhsagar falls. We prefer second class sleeper or general compartments, but it varies from person to person,” Hari added.