Gentlemen (at least one of you is), "Tigers in Canada?" - Tim de Mello and Mervyn Lobo.
If you were thinking about Royal Bengals you would be right. If you are referring to sabre-toothed Siberians and their smaller cousins the Caspians, you would be wrong. Chinese laborers were indeed attacked by tigers, mountain lynx and other big cats and wolves. Read J M Gibbon's Steel of Empire - A Romantic History of the Canadian Pacific, Today's Northwest Passage.or The New West by G H Ham. By the way the Caspian variety were found in several diverse climatic areas of the world, becoming extinct only in in the last decade of the nineteenth century well after the Canadian Pacific Railroad was built. How did they land in the Canadian Rockies and Pacific? Probably with their main staple the wild boar which were once plentiful in that region. "The British had no intention of leaving India". - Tim. And how did you know this? Perhaps you should have added "Not anytime soon, at the time they built the Railways". But if that was the case you would be making my point. If anything, the Brits were practical colonial administrators with great foresight. You do no credit to their acumen. You are talking of Britannia here not Lusitania who might be accused of wanting to be in India forever. Railways were operating in Canada long before railways were operating in India. - Mervyn Not true on both measures of comparison. a) Although the Albion Mines Railway between the coal mines in Upper Canada and New Glasgow in Nova Scotia opened in 1839, this was used merely to shuttle coal. Most of the local railways in Ontario and Quebec were opened after 1853, the same period that the first passenger train between Bombay and Thana of the Indian Railways commenced service. b) The real comparision is between trans-Canada and all-India rail networks that are precursors of the modern system. Canada's was built in 1878 with the Canadian Pacific Rail network and therefore much AFTER the Indian network connection of various regions in 1867. More than enough time for British engineers to learn the lessons from the Indian experience and apply it to the Canadian Railroad. "The rail cars in Canada are better but the rails they ride on are not. Indian rails I feel are much better laid and allow for faster speed." - Tim. Thank you for saying this is your opinion. The next time you have an opportunity, please look at the condition of the sleepers and the ballast on both the railway systems. Then look at how many nails that fasten the iron rails to the sleepers are missing in rural India. The size of an Canadian locomotive is about twice the size of an Indian one and so also the individual cars. Besides remember the Canadian rails are built for extreme cold weather as well as hot. Now, in ending, a question for Mervyn. Neither has the United States economy collapsed as you were predicting not so long ago, nor has there been a global flight from the US Dollar as you were also predicting. If anything, just the reverse has happened. What are Goanetters to do with their long gold positions bought at just below 2,000 which you advised had a short term target of 3,000. What makes me feel that you are going to advise that people hold it indefinitely until it rises again or ask people to take short positions to profit from the declining gold prices. Ahem... Roland. On Saturday, October 26, 2013 4:20:02 PM, Tim de Mello <timdemel...@hotmail.com> wrote: Roland: Nicely written but IMHO some artisitic licence taken a bit too liberally. "It was as if they wanted to leave their footprint on the Indian landscape much after they were gone . . ." The British had no intention of leaving India. re: Canadian railways "Every mile of track that the Chinese built had the blood of three of their men. Taken by tigers and animals while working in broad daylight,. . . " Tigers in Canada? Canadain trains vs Indian trains I have travelled on both. The rail cars in Canada are better but the rails they ride on are not. Indian rails, I feel, are much better laid and allow for faster speeds. Regards Tim de Mello ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 19:07:45 -0700 > From: roland.fran...@ymail.com > To: goanet@lists.goanet.org > Subject: [Goanet] The Joy of the Journey > > There was a time when long distance travel on the Indian Railways was an event to be looked forward to. If British achievement in India was to be measured on only one criterion, it would be the the excellent network of railways they built. Often sacrificing shorter routes and therefore lower track laying costs, British engineers and rail planners opted for the scenic and more costly equivalents instead. It was as if they wanted to leave their footprint on the Indian landscape much after they were gone and to ensure that their mark on rural India would never be easily forgotten. > > Rolling stock was built in the finest English foundries, and locomotives bore > the name of Sir Roger Lumley a British general from an illustrious noble > family and an Indophile. Railway cars sported brass and fine teak wood and > lavatories were cleaned, burnished and sanitized as often as was needed and > at least more than three or four times during a single trip, even if not > called for, by the Indian complement. > > Anglo Indians and Goans kept on-time operations smooth and almost faultless. > Farmers needed no clocks or time pieces, since they could better rely on the > passing of the Cooch-Behar Mail or the Trichinopoly Express for that. > Starting to work from the age of 17 or 18 as lower rung assistant drivers on > coal locomotives whose duties were ceaselessly stoking the furnace in the > hottest temperatures and summer ambience of the Deccan plains, they climbed > the ladder to drivers, divisional chiefs, general managers and even members > of the Railway Board. In those high positions they knew what they were > talking about and what was needed to improve it. During its heyday, the > Indian Railways was a model of comfort, efficiency and operating success for > any country contemplating building of their own rail network. > > Looking at it today, you could hardly imagine that what exists in the present form would have degenerated so much as to make it impossible to imagine what it once was. But to people who have lived through it, the vision blurs as if from a clear sun of a crispy noon to a heavy rain and mist laden dusky evening. But one can say that of India as a whole. > > The Canadian rail system was built on the Indian model magnified larger than > life so as to cover the enormously wider areas. Financed by Scottish bankers > and laid by Chinese coolie labor, its mighty reach makes up for the network > of many independent lines that colonial India laid. Every mile of track that > the Chinese built had the blood of three of their men. Taken by tigers and > animals while working in broad daylight, they sweated and worked to a man > with little pay except the reward of making the new land their home. > > Its a joy to ride on the VIA Rail extending from Atlantic Canada through Quebec and Ontario through to the Prairies and to the Rockies and the Pacific. The seats are infinitely more comfortable than those on an international airline. The first class is not much better than the economy which is a compliment to the economy standard, not an insult to the first. A regular Canadian railway car has all the comfort that an Indian Maharajah Express or the Palace on Wheels and better service to boot. Its almost like British colonial India travel with all the modern technology included. > > Roland. > Toronto.
