Bhopal Shatabdi: chalti hai ek dum hawa ke mafik, speed aisi ke ruka de traffic - Varun

A few historic railway photographs around Hubli. These are from scans of the 'Locomotive, Railway carriage and wagon review', which was a periodical published regularly from 1896-1959. A few issues of these periodicals are available completely on Google books. A request has been made by some railfans to make all of the books available completely.
Pic 2 : Steam locomotive workshop at Hubli, circa 1900. Hubli was a premier MG locomotive shed and workshop. The workshop was setup in 1885, and it was the main traction center for the Southern Mahratta railway. In 1908, it became part of the Madras and Southern Mahratta railway. After independence, it belonged initially to the Southern railway and was transferred to the South Central railway in...
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1966, before eventually coming under the South Western railway. The workshop handled the POH and maintenance of YG and YP class locomotives in later years. Shortly after the formation of SCR, the MG coach workshop at Lallaguda (LGD) was shutdown and all MG coach workshop activities for SCR were transferred to Hubli. After the conversion to BG, the workshop still remains one of the most highly rated workshops in the country.
Pic 1: One of the 4-6-0 standard MG passenger locomotive of the Southern Mahratta railway, homed at Hubli circa 1900. These were the powers for the Bangalore-Pune fast MG mail service.
Pic 3: The Nanjangud-Pune fast mail train, Circa 1907. The mail train which was initially running between Bangalore and Pune, was later extended to run between Nanjangud and Pune, which were the North and South extremes of the Southern Mahratta railway. From 1908, an afternoon intercity (present day 12609/10's predecessor) was started between Madras and Bangalore to connect to this mail train at Bangalore and provide a connection for passengers from Madras to Pune and the Western ghats. The mail departed from Bangalore in the night, and reached Pune on the morning of the 3rd day (about 36 hours journey).
About an year after this photo was taken, the mail train was attached with a dining car as well, as the route had become a favorite one for tourists heading to the western ghats. The coach composition for this train was 2 Guard-cum-third class coaches, 3 third class coaches, a mail-cum-third class coach and a composite 1st-cum-2nd class coach. The coach on the right end (last coach in the train) is the Guard-cum-third class coach, which had a small section reserved for Female 3rd class passengers. The 2nd from the right is a third class coach with separate partitions for luggage and 3rd class European travelers. The next coach,(blocked by the tree in front of it) is mail-cum-third class coach. The white coach in the center is the composite 1st-cum-2nd class coach, with the first class cabins in the center (The door to these cabins is visible in the center) and the 2nd class cabins on either sides. The remaining coaches are pure 3rd class coaches with the leading coach being the Guard coach.