Rajendra B Aklekar remembers Mark Tully as the journalist who loved railways

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.

I vividly remember a cold evening when I met him at his residence in Delhi to discuss my 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, if not for a careless ship captain who sank the first carriages.

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 was visibly overwhelmed by my discoveries related to the GIP Railway on Mumbai’s railway network. Like me, he was old school—a devoted lover of trains. We chatted late into the night.

After that, I largely remained tied down in Mumbai, but we stayed in touch intermittently— exchanging emails and occasionally chatting, including once in 2017 when he fell ill after a programme in Haridwar. We were members of various railway forums and remained connected through them.

For the world, he was a gentle giant of journalism—an Englishman who understood India from within and a master storyteller. Sir Mark was accorded two of India's top civilian honours: the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. 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. May his soul rest in peace.

(Rajendra B. Aklekar is well known author and journalist with interests in railway history, public transport & infra, archiving & documentation and also a trained museologist)