What is your view?
July 08, 2008
July 06, 2008
The Number Game
In one of my earlier posts, I wrote that I traveled by the 6593 Nanded - Bangalore Hampi Link express from Vikarabad to Bangalore. And I returned by the 7604 Yeswantpur - Kacheguda Express. Did you know that the numbering of trains followed a pattern?
Why is it that a majority of trains touching Bangalore are either numbered 65xx or 62xx ? Or trains touching Hyderabad have a 70xx numbering?
Well there is a reasoning for that. The current pattern of numbering was implemented during computerisation of the Passenger reservation System (PRS) of Indian Railways. At that time, IR had 9 zones. However, in 1996, the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar came up with the idea of creating more zones and six more zones were notified. This had to wait till 2002, when not six, but seven zones were carved out of the existing zonal structure. Anyways, the trains numbers were still retained which conformed to the earlier 9 zone plan. Newer trains however got into the new series.
Trains belonging to a particular zone had their numbers staring with specific digits.
0 - Konkan Railway and other passenger trains with reservation facility.
1 - Central Railway, West Central Railway
2 - All superfast trains encompassing all zones. Includes all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Sampark Kranti and Garib Rath trains.
3 - Eastern Railway, East Central Railway
4 - Northern Railway, North Central Railway, North Western Railway
5 - North Eastern Railway and North-East Frontier Railway
6 - Southern Railway, South Westen Railway
7 - South Central Railway and a few trains of South Westen Railway.
8 - South Eastern Railway and East Coast Railway
9 - Western Railway, West Central Railway and North Western Railway.
Also, within each level, there are sub levels.
Trains starting with 7 are mostly trains of South Central Railway. The sub levels are based on the divisions within the zones.
70 - Secunderabad division
72 - Vijayawada / Guntur divisions
74 - Guntakal Division
76 - Hyderabad / Nanded Divisions
( Guntur and Nanded are newly carved out divisions)
75 - Erstwhile MG trains of Hyderabad division
77 - Erstwhile MG trains of Guntakal division
73 - Hubli division of South Western Railway ( Hubli div was in SCR earlier)
A similar pattern follows for all levels and zones.
Even in the Level 2 with superfast trains, there are sublevels corresponding to the main levels.
20 - Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains
21 - Central, West Central
22 - New superfast trains
23 - Eastern, East Central
.. and on and on for other sublevels.
Recently an issue has arisen with a lot of trains being made superfast, the sublevels for superfast trains are getting exhausted. For example, level 26 for SR and SWR is completely full and new SF trains in these zones are being allocated the vacant 22xx series. 28xx and 29xx series are slowly reaching capacity levels.
So, now you know what to expect when someone says he's travelling by 2628 express. Of course he's travelling towards Bangalore from New Delhi by the Karnataka Express!
Why is it that a majority of trains touching Bangalore are either numbered 65xx or 62xx ? Or trains touching Hyderabad have a 70xx numbering?
Well there is a reasoning for that. The current pattern of numbering was implemented during computerisation of the Passenger reservation System (PRS) of Indian Railways. At that time, IR had 9 zones. However, in 1996, the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar came up with the idea of creating more zones and six more zones were notified. This had to wait till 2002, when not six, but seven zones were carved out of the existing zonal structure. Anyways, the trains numbers were still retained which conformed to the earlier 9 zone plan. Newer trains however got into the new series.
Trains belonging to a particular zone had their numbers staring with specific digits.
0 - Konkan Railway and other passenger trains with reservation facility.
1 - Central Railway, West Central Railway
2 - All superfast trains encompassing all zones. Includes all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Jan Shatabdi, Sampark Kranti and Garib Rath trains.
3 - Eastern Railway, East Central Railway
4 - Northern Railway, North Central Railway, North Western Railway
5 - North Eastern Railway and North-East Frontier Railway
6 - Southern Railway, South Westen Railway
7 - South Central Railway and a few trains of South Westen Railway.
8 - South Eastern Railway and East Coast Railway
9 - Western Railway, West Central Railway and North Western Railway.
Also, within each level, there are sub levels.
Trains starting with 7 are mostly trains of South Central Railway. The sub levels are based on the divisions within the zones.
70 - Secunderabad division
72 - Vijayawada / Guntur divisions
74 - Guntakal Division
76 - Hyderabad / Nanded Divisions
( Guntur and Nanded are newly carved out divisions)
75 - Erstwhile MG trains of Hyderabad division
77 - Erstwhile MG trains of Guntakal division
73 - Hubli division of South Western Railway ( Hubli div was in SCR earlier)
A similar pattern follows for all levels and zones.
Even in the Level 2 with superfast trains, there are sublevels corresponding to the main levels.
20 - Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains
21 - Central, West Central
22 - New superfast trains
23 - Eastern, East Central
.. and on and on for other sublevels.
Recently an issue has arisen with a lot of trains being made superfast, the sublevels for superfast trains are getting exhausted. For example, level 26 for SR and SWR is completely full and new SF trains in these zones are being allocated the vacant 22xx series. 28xx and 29xx series are slowly reaching capacity levels.
So, now you know what to expect when someone says he's travelling by 2628 express. Of course he's travelling towards Bangalore from New Delhi by the Karnataka Express!
July 05, 2008
July 04, 2008
Mosaic Tag
Took up this tag from Ria/Solitaire/whoever...
Here are the rules of this tag.
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.
The questions:
1. What is your first name?
Vrijilesh.. can u believe the image I got? It was a railfan's meet at Byappanahalli station, Bangalore in 2003!
2. What is your favorite food? right now ?
Chola Poori
3. What high school did you go to?
Little Flower High School, Hyderabad.. the image is the school logo
4. What is your favorite color?
Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
Rimi Sen (as of now. She's done Dhoom, Hungama, Hattrick)
6. What is your favorite drink?
Chai, what else?
7. What is your dream vacation?
New Zealand.. lovely beaches and countryside, unexplored place!
8. What is your favorite dessert?
Gulab Jamun
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Rich & Famous
10. What do you love most in life?
Intimate moments with wifey ;)
11. What is one word that describes you?
Strange
12. What is your user name?
vrij
Guess what's me like... and take u p the tag too!
Here are the rules of this tag.
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.
The questions:
1. What is your first name?
Vrijilesh.. can u believe the image I got? It was a railfan's meet at Byappanahalli station, Bangalore in 2003!
2. What is your favorite food? right now ?
Chola Poori
3. What high school did you go to?
Little Flower High School, Hyderabad.. the image is the school logo
4. What is your favorite color?
Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
Rimi Sen (as of now. She's done Dhoom, Hungama, Hattrick)
6. What is your favorite drink?
Chai, what else?
7. What is your dream vacation?
New Zealand.. lovely beaches and countryside, unexplored place!
8. What is your favorite dessert?
Gulab Jamun
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Rich & Famous
10. What do you love most in life?
Intimate moments with wifey ;)
11. What is one word that describes you?
Strange
12. What is your user name?
vrij
Guess what's me like... and take u p the tag too!
July 03, 2008
July 01, 2008
Dus Bahane
Tagged by Ankur to reveal ten things u don't know about me:
- I love sleeping. I can sleep anywhere I want to. I have even slept on the first bench of the class with a lecture going on and no one the wiser. My eyes were closed I was off, but my head was nodding frequently enough to make everyone think I was wide awake!
- I love bird-watching. You know the types. Of course, I still do that. Biwi knows about it too. Try hard not to do that when biwi is around.
- You know this. I am mad about trains. What you don't know is that trains can cheer me up infinitely. Whenever I was in a gloomy mood, I used to head to the station nearby (Begumpet, BMT) and sit there for a few minutes. Even if I do not get to see a train, the atmosphere and the smell of the place cheers me up. These days however, biwi does the job of cheering me up.
- I have a short temper that I keep bottled within me. I try my level best not to get it out of hand.
- I love the stage. I am a regular at emceeing at functions, parties, etc.. of course, not professionally yet.
- I used to write shayari in my college days. And try to impress girls. Unfortunately for me, even though my shayari was appreciated, I was not!
- I love surfing and chatting on the web. Prior to getting married, I used to chat till the wee hours of the night. Also, I can actually pass off as a software guy and no one can know the real game. I have done it with a nerd who started getting pally in a local train. Talked to him in a lot of tech lingo and when he asked me which company I work for, I told him I'm a doc.. he was sort of thrown aback. In fact my cousin, who is an MCA, regularly calls me to fix her laptop or for any computer related issues.. so much for techies.
- I am a freelance web designer. I have done a few websites including my own www.vrijilesh.com and on my website you can get a lot of railway related information. Very soon, say in a day or two, you will have the entire Indian Railways time table available on my website. Also, you can follow live cricket, tennis, F1 on my website. In July, you can view live updates from the Tour de France.
- I love fast driving. Dad always screams at me that the moment I start the car, I get to 60.. on city roads! Of course, what can u expect from a tifosa?
- I am an avid quizzer. Once in an inter-college competition, we thrashed the opponents so badly, that it basically was boring. We had 80 points while the second placed team had 20 !! It was for my quiz partner's marriage that I headed to Bangalore a few days ago.
I hope I've managed to keep you interested.. but I was'nt wanting to tag anyone particular, coz its a decently old tag, but still if Keerthi, Naveen, Sridhar, Sriram or Ranga are reading this, consider urself tagged !
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