RailFans - once you meet them, friends for life

I've already updated the dates for GT and HYB-MAS on this site.
Bokaro has a somewhat complicated history. It was a MAS-HWH train initially that was diverted. The MAS-HWH train's history is not fully clear.But it started as MAS-TATA from October 1st/2nd, 1970 (Have to check correct date). I wil update the date for Bokaro after I find some data about it's run before being diverted to TATA.
HWH-MAS mail is a very frustrating train to find history for. The earliest record I...
more...

can find for it is from 1902. The date here on IRI (Aug 15th, 1900) is incorrect. The Godavari bridge at RJY was opened for passenger traffic only on August 29th, 1900. And the KGP-HWH stretch was completed only in December, 1900. So the earliest possible date for a end-to-end service is in December, 1900.
But some details are well known. Initially the mail used to depart from Royapuram and the travel time was around 40 hours. It used depart from RPM around 6PM in the evening and reach WAT around 1PM the next day. From there, it was 20 hours to Calcutta. By 1902, Mail was departing from Madras Beach station. On March 15th, 1907, the Korukkupet-Basin bridge link was opened (along with a bypass to connect BBQ to Washermanpet) and mail was diverted to originate from MAS.
Mail used to carry through coaches for many intermediate stations. Initially it had one through coach between Madras and Kakinada. By the 1940's, it had 3-4 through coaches between MAS and COA and 1 through coach between COA-HWH. Both through coach services were cancelled after Circar was introduced.

Yes, those are the dates as far as I could find.
More or less. Like I said above, East Coast has a complicated history, but it was running from some time in the mid-50's. (The name 'East Coast' was only given in 1975 when it was truncated to run between BZA-HWH, but the train was running for a long time before that). Similarly, Bokaro's predecessor was a MAS-HWH express (used to run via BVRT/GDV). This one was a passenger-cum-express. It was a passenger between KGP-WAT and an express in the remaining part. It was converted to a full express in 1966, but I am not sure for how long it was running before that. But yes, HWH...
more...

mail is the oldest by a huge margin, while Circar/East Coast take the 2nd place depending on how you you look at it.
I am not sure of what those 'Non daily superfast express' trains are. My initial guess was one of the TVC/Cochin/SBC - HWH/GHY trains, but they are definitely not the Cochin/TVC base trains (they were started earlier). I'll check them once and update here.

East Coast is the second oldest train on the VSKP-BZA route sir. It was started on October 1st, 1957. It used to run as Waltair-Howrah Janata express and was extended to Hyderabad from that date to serve as a connection between Hyderabad and Vizag. This was just after the formation of the Andhra Pradesh state, so the train was introduced as a 'capital connection' to the new state. Till that point, there was a meter gauge Machilipatnam-Kurnool express which was the 'capital connection', that got cancelled after the new state formed. The Hyderabad-Howrah train was not called East Coast at that time though.
In 1974, the Krishna express was introduced and there were problems due to...
more...

lack of line capacity on the BZA-HYB route. So, in 1975, the Hyderabad-Howrah express and Krishna express were merged to run together between BZA-HYB. Part of the Hyderabad-Howrah train used to terminate at BZA, with the remaining portion going to HYB with Krishna express. The portion terminating at BZA was now named 'East Coast express'. I have shared more details in this post: /blog/post/2993668