indian railway - 20% improvement in 50 years

February 13, 1957: Madras-Delhi deluxe train. here

it covered the distance in 41 hours and the fastest train currently takes 33 hours and others much more . the story from the "pages of The Hindu" repeatedly says the "the train steamed". so i think it was a stream engine . either one says indian railways did a gr8 thing then or in my view - things have not improved much over 50 years. the train had "one airconditioned restaurant with modern equipment" and "three airconditioned third class coaches" also.
sadly , the ticket cost is not provided.

Only if we truly understand the past can we have a real feel for the present.
this requires we collect info on our past and present - even if it is in a random manner. more on that later.

but for now it may make sense to be thrifty in our praise for laloo yadav and his team of of railway gangmen!