The 12903 / 12904 Golden Temple Mail is a

Mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

train belonging to

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

that runs daily between (MMCT) in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

and (ASR) in

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. It is named after the famous Golden Temple at

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

. The train is running with modern

LHB coach Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coach is a passenger coach of Indian Railways that is developed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany (renamed Alstom LHB GmbH in 1998 after the takeover by Alstom and now known as Alstom Transport Deutschland) and mostly ...

es from 29 September 2020. The train ran as the Frontier Mail between 1928 and 1996, ferrying passengers arriving by Steamer from Europe directly from Ballard Pier in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

to the city of

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

on India's North-West Frontier before the

Partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

. It operates as train number 12903 from Mumbai Central to Amritsar Junction and as train number 12904 in the reverse direction.

History

The Golden Temple Mail was until September 1996 known as Frontier Mail. Prior the

, it would run up to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

's frontier with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

from which it derived its name. During the autumn months between September and December, the train used to depart from the station. This was for the convenience of the British who arrived in India by steamer. The Frontier Mail also finds a place in romanticised biographies of film actor

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establish ...

who is believed to have travelled to Bombay from his hometown of Peshawar by the Frontier Mail in 1928 to act in films. ''

Hunterwali ''Hunterwali'' () is a 1935 Indian Hindi-language action film by the Wadia Movietone company of Bombay (now Mumbai), featuring Fearless Nadia as the heroine. A story of a princess who fights injustice as the masked crusader Hunterwali (lit. "lad ...

'', probably India's first action heroine, has acted in the film Miss Frontier Mail. The ''Frontier Mail'' was the first

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

train in the

Indian Peninsula The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

, when it got an air-conditioned compartment in 1934. The radio facility was provided for the first time in the Golden Temple Mail.

Coaches

The 12903/04 Golden Temple Mail has 1 AC First cum AC 2 Tier, 2 AC 2 tier, 5 AC 3 tier, 8 Sleeper class, 2 General unreserved coaches, 2 General cum baggage coaches. It also has 1 Railway Mail service coach, 1

Pantry A pantry is a room or cupboard where beverages, food, and sometimes dishes, household cleaning products, linens or provisions are stored within a home or office. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. Etymol ...

car & 1 High Capacity Parcel Van.

Service

The Golden Temple Mail runs between Mumbai Central and Amritsar Junction. It is a daily service covering the distance of 1891 km in 32 hours 15 minutes as 12903 Golden Temple Mail averaging 58.64 km/hr & 31 hours 55 minutes as 12904 Golden Temple Mail averaging 59.25 km/hr.

Accident

The Down Frontier Mail, from Bombay side, with a load of 13 coaches, entered Fateh Singhpura Station on the loop line which was already occupied by No. 1118 up goods train, and collided with it The two coaches next to the engine of the Frontier Mail remained on the line undamaged, the third, a II class bogie coach, derailed, and the fourth, also a II class bogie coach, telescoped into the former. The fifth coach remained on the line but was slightly damaged, and the remaining 8 coaches remained on the line undamaged. The engines of the two trains and goods wagons are reported to have suffered hardly any damage. One, Shri Shiv Charan Singh, retired Principal of Government College, Rupar, a II class passenger in the third coach, unfortunately died, and thirty-four other passengers holding different classes of tickets received minor injuries.https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/55981/1/lsd_01_09_22-03-1955.pdf Page no. 50

Traction

It is now regularly hauled by a Vadodara Loco Shed based

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 Volt, kV Alternating current, AC Electric locomotive, electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for 5 ft 6 ...

locomotive from end to end.

Route and halts

The train runs from Mumbai Central via , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , to Amritsar Junction

Gallery

File:LHB coaches of Golden Temple Mail.jpg, Sleeper Non-AC LHB coaches of Golden Temple Mail. File:LHB AC 3 tier coach of Golden Temple Mail.jpg, AC 3 tier LHB coach of Golden Temple Mail. File:LHB AC 2 tier coach of Golden Temple Mail.jpg, AC 2 tier LHB coach of Golden Temple Mail. File:Vadodra based WAP-7 leading Golden Temple Mail.jpg, Vadodra based WAP-7 locomotive for Golden Temple Mail. File:12903 Frontier Mail.jpg, 12903 Golden Temple Mail older coach HA1 File:12903 Golden Temple Mail.jpg, 12903 Golden Temple Mail earlier used coaches File:Golden Temple Mail - AC 3 tier coach.jpg, Golden Temple Mail – previously used AC 3 tier coach File:The Mail coach of Golden Temple Mail.jpg, Previously used Mail coach of Golden Temple Mail

Notes

References

External links

About this train

Golden Temple Mail

Accident this train page no.50

Golden Temple Mail Route Map

Locomotive link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Temple Mail Transport in Mumbai Transport in Amritsar Railway services introduced in 1928 Rail transport in Punjab, India Rail transport in Madhya Pradesh Rail transport in Haryana Rail transport in Rajasthan Rail transport in Delhi Rail transport in Maharashtra Rail transport in Gujarat Rail transport in Uttar Pradesh Mail trains in India