Ferozepur: You hardly know that AC bogie train in India ran today 91 years ago. This train is still running on the tracks and taking people to their floors. Although its name has changed now, the old glory is maintained. This was the train named Frontier Mail (AC) in the country. The train started its journey on 1 September 1928 and also traveled by Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The train used to have unique AC bogies. To keep the bogie cool, ice blocks were kept in it. The story of this train is very interesting.
Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose have also traveled in this train.
The Frontier Mail used to travel a long distance from Mumbai to the Afghan border Peshawar. This train has been witness to the freedom movement. Apart from the British officers, it also brought the freedom lovers to their destination. The biggest feature of this train was its AC bogie. Ice blocks were used to keep this bogie cool. When the ice blocks melted, new water ingots were replaced by their water at various stations.A box was placed under this train bogie and the fan used in it used to reach coolness in all the coaches' wells. In 1934, the work of installing ACs in trains started and in this case the Frontier Mail was undervalued. It had the distinction of being India's first AC coach train.
Frontier Mail started its journey on 1 September 1928 from Ballard Pier Mol railway station in Mumbai to Afghan border Peshawar. On September 1, this train will complete 91 years.
The train completed the 2335 km long journey from Mumbai to Peshawar in 72 hours. Its biggest feature was that it was never late. Railway officer SP Singh Bhatia said that once during the British rule this train was delayed for 15 minutes. The inquiry was set up under the leadership of high officials. In 1930, The Times newspaper described Frontier Mail as the most prominent and famous train among the express trains running within the British Empire. After independence, this train is covering a distance of 1896 km between Amritsar and Mumbai. It takes about 32 hours to cover this distance.
The name of Frontier Mail was changed in 1996 to Golden Temple Mail (Golden Temple Mail). Before Independence, this train used to go to Peshawar via Bombay, Baroda, Ratlam, Mathura, Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore, Rawalpindi. Before this train reached Mumbai, the station was cleaned with special lights along with cleaning. On seeing the lights, people understood that the Frontier Mail was coming. Not only this, after this train reached Delhi, telegrams were sent to the officials of Mumbai, that the train has reached safely.
Ferozepur Railway Division DMO SP Singh Bhatia said that the Frontier Mail was the result of the thinking of the then Bombay, Vadodara Central India Railway. This train was started on 1 September 1928 between Ballard Pier Mol railway station in Mumbai to Peshawar. The Ballard station was closed and its initial station was called Colaba.
At that time, even though the Internet was not the era, British officials traveling in it were updated about the latest news. It used to have special management of telegraphic news with a famous news agency. According to railway officials, the personnel of the news agency used to collect news on all the major railway stations from Mumbai to Peshawar through this train. The train had a radio system for British officers.
