Derailment Of Punjab Mail

The derailment of the down Punjab Mail, (6 down in those days) on the East Indian Railway at about 1.20am of 17th July 1937 at Bihta, was a talking point for several railway and no-railway people alike, for a number of years. I was only nine years of age at the time, but being interested in trains and steam engines from a very young age, I used to listen to the "Accounts" and explanations offered about the accident by so many people, each one differing in a number of details, that even at my young age, I never knew which one was the factual one! For years I believed that the main cause of the accident was the XB locomotive, which I was told, was a very rough rider at high speeds. From time to time I heard it said that the Mail was not headed by a XB but, a passenger train ahead of it was, and that locomotive was to blame for the track damage which derailed the Punjab Mail.

It was in 1956 however, while talking to one of my uncles who was at the time, in the Traffic Department, Asansol Division of the EIR, and had retired to Hertfordshire in the UK, that I finally got as close to the truth as anyone could get about the cause of the accident; and even after hearing what he had to say, I was none the wiser than apparently, even the investigating team were! My uncle enthused about the accident and told me he was one of the EIR team set up to examine the likely causes of the accident. He confirmed that the train was not headed by a XB, as was generally put about, and then went on to say he had taken photographs during this inspection and disappeared for about ten minutes, returning with a photo-album full of railway photographs; Apart from being a keen photographer he was a meticulous man and went straight to the pages where he had placed the photographs.