Mumbai, Jan 25 (PTI) For Rajendra Aklekar, who has written books on India’s railway history and heritage, veteran broadcaster Mark Tully was a passionate railway enthusiast and “rail-fan” who cherished Indian trains as essential, democratic public transport.
“Sir Mark Tully was more than a friend. He wrote the foreword to two of my books on India’s railway history and heritage, the first on the dramatic tale of Mumbai’s railway lines, and the other on a short history of Indian Railways,” Aklekar said.
In a post on X, the senior journalist recalled meeting Tully at the latter’s residence in Delhi to discuss his first book on Mumbai’s railways.
“Offering me a drink, he said he had always remained a Calcutta boy. For him, the East India Railway, the Bengal Nagpur Railway and the Assam Bengal Railway—on which he had travelled since his early childhood—were the first and closest to his heart,” Aklekar said.
“We joked for a while and spoke at length about trains and railways, the old world and the new. There was a long debate on Mumbai’s Ballard Bunder, the Ballard Pier Mole station, and much more,” he said. “Like me, he was old school—a devoted lover of trains,” he added.
Aklekar said they were members of various railway forums and remained connected through them.
“For me, he was a co-railfan, an old-school lover of trains who shared the same quiet excitement for railway history, journeys and stories along the tracks. His demise is a personal loss and a significant setback for the railway enthusiasts’ fraternity,” he said.
In 1994, Mark Tully presented an episode of BBC’s Great Railway Journeys, “Karachi to The Khyber Pass”, travelling by train across Pakistan. The well-known railway enthusiast also presented “Steam’s Indian Summer”, an episode of the World Steam Classics series.
Tully was born in Kolkata in 1935 into a wealthy family of British settlers. His father was the director of a railroad and a partner in a holding company that owned a bank, an insurance firm, and tea plantations.
Sir Mark Tully, for many years known as the BBC’s “voice of India”, passed away on Sunday at the age of 90 at a hospital in Delhi after suffering multi-organ failure. PTI VT
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.