Page 37 - NMRA Roundhouse September October 2020

The train to Lala Musa with 2,000 hp Alco/Hitachi on the head end in 1989
great believer in “When in Rome---”
I decide to join them. At some point
I must have looked behind me, to see
a passenger offering his seat to my colleague, so I indicated that he might sit beside me. This he duly did, and offered me a cigarette. Now I have never been a cigarette smoker (honest doctor), but I used to be partial to the occasional one when offered. So, much of the return trip was spent conversing with him, bearing in mind the communication difficulties with the shed foreman, while I smoked his cigarettes and he shared our biscuits. We talked about family and careers, and under our breath, religion and politics and he was in Seventh Heaven when he learned that we had started our jour- ney in Manchester. I am not a football fanatic, and had to invent a sudden enthusiasm for United. By the time he left the train, somewhere before Rawal- pindi, I still didn’t know any Urdu, and I suspect that he’d not learned any English, but we’d got by. In the meantime, night had fallen, and a line of thunderstorms had developed over the mountains to the northeast of Islamabad, and I will never forget that train journey, sitting on the floor with my legs in space, sharing biscuits and cigarettes, and watching the lightning over the Himalayan foothills.
Dave Griffiths
The proud engine driver of the Malakwal Shunter. I wish I could have stayed this clean when driving steam locos! probably due to the oil-firing
Stored Class SG/S at Rawalpindi
4-4-0 as well. They had been converted to oil burning, and one, out of steam, was used to supply steam to pump oil up to the tank, tube cleaning and so on, and another, clearly marked “Fit for shunt- ing only” was working the yard. We tried to make ourselves invisible (some chance), and ambled off to the shed, but were soon spotted by the foreman and invited in. He was justifiably proud of
his charges, and showed us two more that were being prepared for the branch freight. His complete lack of English was only surpassed by our lack of Urdu, but nevertheless we managed to determine that the freight only ran once or twice
a week, and the round trip took many hours. So, we had been very fortunate to make our trip when we did.
Soon it was time to get back to the station to begin our return to Rawal- pindi, but by then the two 0-6-0s had left the shed, coupled to their train, and proceeded to another platform to take water. This was a precarious process, as the water column lacked a bag; Southern Water would have had a fit!
However, for me, the best was still to come.We had been unable to reserve seats for the return, and the train was jam-packed. We were something of a curiosity, we were the only Eurasians we saw all day and many passengers offered their seats, but we politely declined. Many were standing, and others were sitting in vestibule doorways, with their feet hanging outside the train. Being a
Outbound train to Lala Musa
ROUNDHOUSE - September/October 2020 - 75th Anniversary Issue
37