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INDIAN LOCOMOTION
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Sir Mark Tully follows in the wake of the legendary Raj train, the Imperial Indian Mail.
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 On a unique 2000 kilometre journey from Bombay to Calcutta, Sir Mark Tully celebrates the 150th anniversary of Indian Railways with the drivers, caterers, ticket collectors, attendants and a thousand fellow travellers taking a modern trip in the shadow of the Imperial Indian Mail.
View Mark's pictures of India and take your own armchair tour>>
 From the world's largest station to its smallest, the Indian Railways system is an astonishing blend of the ancient and the modern, full of curious characters and procedures.
 Minute narrow-gauge trains connect with gigantic trans-continental expresses; electric engines are replaced by diesels in mid-journey; signalmen and stationmasters handle the latest electronic systems and old-fashioned semaphore signals, waving green flags at every passing train; level-crossing gate-keepers cope with hordes of irate motorists and pedestrians.
 In station gardens bloom rare flowers, carefully tended by the engineers. On the platforms, chai, omelette and puri sellers shout their wares.
 As the mail train makes a stately progress through an ever-changing landscape, Sir Mark Tully, himself Vice President of the Indian Steam Railway Society, rides on the footplate, stirs the pots in the pantry car, and travels through its seventeen carriages to uncover a world of dedicated workers and patient travellers, all experiencing some of the particular everyday adventures on the world's largest railway network.
 听Listen again to programme one.
听Listen again to programme two.
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