A Family on Wheels

Vivid memories of train travel with family remain evergreen

- Lalita Iyer

WHEN I was around 10 or so, my father created a board game featuring a goods train on a sheet of chart paper using pencil sketch markings for the railway track, a shed, siding, etc. There were wagons and an engine cut out in shapes which were the moveable pieces. The goal was to figure how the goods train will deliver (or pick up) two bogies/wagons from different sheds and "move on". Every time a guest came home, this game was produced (some posh cousins hadn't even seen a goods train and were baffled by the possibility of it). The only condition was that none of the wagons could be "loose shunted" and so the trick was to figure out how the engine could leave them at their respective sheds and be free.

For some reason, solving this quest was far more complicated than it appeared to be and hours were spent in permutations and combinations. My father prided himself in knowing the nuances of a goods train enough to be able to demonstrate the answer.

"Not to be loose shunted" is a warning label we often saw on the sides of wagons of good trains, as we waited for other, more important trains that would take us to places. I now know that it is a reminder to railway workers that the wagon should not be moved or shunted unless it is properly coupled. (Shunting is simply pushing the wagon to the correct location).

Loose shunting can be dangerous-especially if the wagon is carrying sensitive cargo: cattle, poultry, petroleum products, etc. Hence, such wagons are marked "not to be loose shunted", implying that they will always be shepherded gingerly into place coupled to a shunting loco.

Appa of course knew this, but information was always given to us on a "need to know" basis.