A small vittakorai thottakorai from my school days' Timetable grazing days. I have always been fascinated by the series of stations with the prefix 'New' coming up on the NFR line before Rangiya Jn. I used to think why a special treatment to those places alone?!
This got rekindled after a post in IRFCA forum. Now presenting you a sequence of posts (photos with commentary) with some information on the West Assam/ North Bengal portion of NFR.
Please zoom in as much as you can and see the photo.
Yellow line is Bangladesh border (down of line is Bangladesh). Green line is MG (now BG), lines just next to Bangladesh border are abandoned. Red line is direct BG.
Look at how beautiful the Himalayas are at the top (North). A river coming out of each of its valleys and ultimately joining into Brahmaputra. To our bottom left corner is Katihar Junction. The gateway for people coming from North and West. Trains from Katihar ran straight (pre 1947) after Barsoi Jn ( marked BOE), into Parbatipur in Bangladesh, marked as P. They had a reversal there and proceeded North to Siliguri. Trains from Kolkata used to enter Bangladesh far down South itself and entered Parbatipur from point marked as 2
These are trains meant for Siliguri (and pax to Darjeeling). Trains carrying passengers to Guwahati took a right turn after reversal at Parbatipur, proceeded East and entered through the point marked as 3. They went via Mal Jn. Post independence, the railway rights via East Pakistan got severed and we had to invent a new line without touching them. The line North of Barsoi Jn didn't go all the way till SGUJ then.
So, when planning for the new line, they had to make sure that there were odd number of reversals between KIR and GHY so as to match the one reversal we earlier had at Parbatipur. This was required because MG coaches can be coupled in only one direction. There is now a reversal at Barsoi, if trains had to go from KIR to Aluabari Road and then on new alignment till Siliguri. Post Siliguri, the line joined at Mal Jn from West side, requiring another reversal. So two. It was decided to bring in the new line from Aluabari Road to Siliguri from North side so it will make a third reversal there. Instead of handling three reversals, it was then decided to realign the path at both Barsoi and Mal so that only one reversal is there at SGUJ. Remember we are talking only about MG days (marked in Green in the photo)
Now look at Barsoi post realignment. The middle green line was the newly laid MG line to eliminate reversal. Trains coming from KIR and proceeding North need not reverse. This arrangement was retained in BG as well (red line) with a less pronounced curve, to facilitate higher speed and BG standards. While this line was converted to BG, a new line was laid from Aluabari Road to Siliguri bypassing the troublesome areas like Naxalbari. This new line (red colour) can be seen moving SW of the original line in the overall photo shared at first.
We will now move on to Siliguri area. Please zoom in fully to see more info.
The top left green line is the new MG line post 1947 from Aluabari Road to Siliguri. The bottom red line is the new BG alignment from Aluabari Road. MG line reaches Siliguri first while BG line reaches New Jalpaiguri first, then takes a left turn to go to SGUJ. I haven't marked NG line to DJ here. As you can see NJP is far away from the actual Jalpaiguri marked JPG which is on the line from Parbatipur.
The new BG line follows the old MG alignment for a short distance taking right from NJP, till Raninagar Jalpaiguri, marked RQJ. It then branches off via Jalpaiguri Road JOE to go towards GHY. The original MG alignment (now BG) from SGUJ towards Mal Jn can be seen shooting up North from SGUJ in this photo.
This scenic line goes upstream North, crosses two to three dozen rivers and goes inside deep forests as seen in the first/ overall photo shared earlier. The new BG alignment in red moves much downstream and eliminates the need for two to three dozen bridges. Clearly visible in the overall photo. Please compare section from SGUJ to APDJ via Mal in MG and NJP to APDJ via NCB in BG.
We will now proceed to Mal. The line from West left comes from SGUJ and entered Mal Jn (now named Mal Bazar MLBZ).
The line from Bangladesh comes from South down and enters MLBZ. The line to GHY takes a sharp right top turn out of MLBZ and proceeds to our Right East side. We can clearly observe the circular loop that was constructed to avoid reversal for trains coming from SGUJ and proceeding to GHY. New Mal Jn was constructed in BG and you can see there is now a bypass (red) directly to NMZ bypassing Mal Bazar and avoiding the loop altogether.
We will now move on to Alipur Duar area. If you observe the overall picture shared first, you can see that there is a line coming from Bangladesh (South side) via Cooch Behar to Alipur Duar. This is pre 1947 MG line. The line coming from Mal enters Alipur Duar from North side (green line) in this picture. It proceeds straight to Bangladesh, crossing three stations in this town. Alipur Duar Junction, from where the line to GHY takes a sharp left turn, Alipur Duar Court and finally Alipur Duar station. This was MG, now BG.
Remember the new BG alignment from NJP? It enters APD town from the South side (comes via Cooch Behar, we will see it in detail in the next photo). The alignment in red runs almost parallel to the original MG line from Bangladesh, has a separate station New Alipur Duar (strangely station code NOQ), takes a right turn and joins the original MG alignment towards GHY, proceeding via Samuktala Road SMTA (right side in this photo)
As mentioned above, we will now take a look at Cooch Behar area. Pretty busy, isn't it?
As mentioned earlier, the MG line from Bangladesh comes from South bottom side of this photo, has Cooch Behar station COB and proceeds straight north to Alipur Duar (via Baneswar). The new BG line from NJP comes from top left, has New Cooch Behar station, turns left and goes parallel to MG line, via New Baneswar, to New Alipur Duar.
The new BG line from New Cooch Behar that goes to our bottom right goes to Golakpur Junction. This was needed as that line was cut off from NJP side due to a portion of the old MG line being transferred to Bangladesh. You can see this in the overall photo shared first, as a point where Bangladesh border swallows a portion of an MG line. The straight line alignment from Alipur Duar to Cooch Behar was changed to a sharp curve to allow trains from Alipur Duar to enter New Cooch Behar first and then take a right turn to proceed towards Cooch Behar. To that extent, the small portion of the MG alignment that bypasses NCB is since abandoned.
The MG line coming from (SGUJ/APDJ) North in this photo as a Green line, stopped just short of Brahmaputra river bank at Amingaon. The station on the other (South) bank was Pandu. There were no through services and all passengers have to avail steamer service between Amingaon and Pandu. Upon opening of the Saraighat bridge, Amingaon and Pandu were abandoned. Agthori and Kamakhya were constructed as replacement stations in the new alignment.
The line from bottom left coming to KYQ is the new BG line from Bongaigaon, crossing Brahmaputra at Jogikhopa. This can be seen in the overall photo. Since the new BG line branched out before Bongaigaon station BNGN, a new station was built prior to the take off point and named as New Bongaigaon NBQ.
So, this explains the difference between the Olds and News in West Assam 😃
Please go through when you get time and let me know if you have questions!
There are numerous quotas available in Railways. I am attempting to explain some of the major operational quotas that affect berth/ seat availability in this post: General Quota (GN) Remote Location Quota (RL) Road Side Location Quota (RS) Pooled Quota (PQ) Please note that whatever is explained below is not a sweeping general statement for that quota. Please read the post in full and look out for exception scenarios explained elsewhere in it. General Quota As the name explains, this is the General Quota i.e. anyone can book from anywhere to anywhere in the path of the train. Eg. T. No. 22671 Tejas Express from Egmore (MS) to Madurai (MDU) with stops at Tiruchirappalli (TPJ) and Kodaikanal Road (KQN). All six booking combinations possible – MS-TPJ, MS-KQN, MS-MDU, TPJ-KQN, TPJ-MDU, KQN-MDU do not have any specific earmarked quota available for them and will be booked under the omnibus General Quota (GN) only. If there is no room available for further booking of confirmed tickets, the next booking will go to RAC and if RAC is also exhausted, it will move to a dedicated waitlist sequence, GNWL. Prior to preparation of first chart, which is prepared exactly 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train at the source station, GNWL will be cleared against any openings in PQ (to be explained later), followed by vacancies cropping up due to cancellations in GN quota. However, this is subject to order of priority. Refer example below: T. No. 12635 Vaigai Express. Assume there are only two waitlisted tickets. GNWL1 Egmore to Madurai GNWL2 Egmore to Villupuram If a person holding an ‘Egmore to Villupuram’ ticket cancels it prior to charting (and assuming that seat is multiplexed with another Villupuram to Madurai confirmed booking, the system will check whether it can offer to the person first in queue. In our example, it is not. So, assuming no further cancellations till charting, GNWL2 will be cleared ahead of GNWL1 with a confirmed berth, since GNWL1 cannot be accommodated in the train. If there is another cancellation of an ‘Egmore to Madurai’ ticket, both GNWL1 and GNWL2 will get a ‘confirmed’ message/ SMS prior to charting itself. They will be allotted the exact seats during charting. GN usually has the largest number of berth/ seat allocations. More on GN quota will be discussed in PQ. Remote Location Quota (RL) RL is typically for long distance trains, which have stations enroute that may supply patrons to fill a significant amount of the available seats. These trains may have lesser end-to-end travelers. A classic example is T. No. 11021 Dadar (DR) – Tirunelveli (TEN) Express. End-to-end passengers in this train are not a sizeable population. This train starts from Dadar (Mumbai) in the evening, 9.30 PM, reaching Hubballi the next day around noon, reaching Yeshwantpur (Bengaluru) in the late evening and finally reaching Madurai and Tirunelveli the next day before noon. It can be observed that this train offers a convenient overnight connection for Mumbai – Belagavi/ Hubballi, Bengaluru – Madurai/ Tirunelveli combinations. So, to ensure that travelers from Hubballi and Bengaluru are getting their fair share of seats reserved for them, a bunch of seats are clubbed together to form a dedicated quota called Remote Location Quota. One train can have more than one RL quota. The stations from which these RL quotas operate are called as Road Side locations (RS1, RS2, RS3 and so on). In our example, for T. No. 11021, Hubballi Jn. (UBL) is RS1 and Yeshwantpur (YPR) is RS2. This train has only two RS locations and hence two RL quotas RL UBL and RL YPR. Passengers booking in this train with origin station as Hubballi (RS1 station) to Tumakuru (one station prior to RS2) will be booked against their dedicated quota, RL UBL. Passengers booking in this train with origin station as Yeshwantpur (RS2 station) to Vanchi Maniyachi Jn. (one station prior to destination, Tirunelveli) will be booked against their dedicated quota, RL YPR. If there is no room available for further booking of confirmed tickets, the next booking will go to RAC and if RAC is also full, then to a dedicated waitlist sequence, RLWL. Each RS location having a dedicated RL quota will have separate charting and RL sequence. For example, assuming all berths are booked in the train, a person booking UBL-TEN will get RLWL1 in RL UBL quota. If the next person is booking YPR-TEN, he will be getting RLWL1 in RL YPR quota (and not RLWL2 as RL YPR has a separate Waitlist sequence). Prior to preparation of first chart at the RS location charting station, RLWL of that location will be cleared against any openings in PQ (to be explained later), followed by vacancies cropping up due to cancellations in that RS location’s RL quota. However, this is subject to order of priority as explained in GN paragraph. Road Side Location Quota (RS) The main objective of this quota seems to be protecting the seats of genuine end-to-end passengers, in a long distance train that also has patronage from its RS location stations. RS quota is the complementing quota of a respective RL quota for a station. In our example of T. No. 11021 above, if there are say 500 berths in a train, 300 of them in GN (DR to TEN) and 100 each in RL UBL and RL YPR quotas, to protect travelers with origin as Dadar and destination beyond Hubballi and upto Yeshwantpur, encroaching into those 300 berths meant for long distance travelers i.e. Madurai or Tirunelveli, bookings from Source to a particular RS location (having a dedicated RL quota) are restricted to the number of berths earmarked for that RL quota. In our example, the number of berths available for Dadar to Yeshwantpur will be 100 only. This will be called as RS YPR quota, acting as a mirror of its corresponding RL YPR quota of 100 berths. Extending the logic, the number of berths available for Dadar to Hubballi will be 200 as the berths available for RS YPR quota (100) will also be made available for booking along with RS UBL (100). If there is no room available for further booking of confirmed tickets, the next booking will go to a dedicated waitlist sequence, RSWL. Prior to preparation of first chart, RSWL will be cleared against any vacancies cropping up due to cancellations in RS quota. However, this is subject to order of priority. Similar to RL, RS can also encroach on PQ berths prior to charting, if RS is not available and PQ is available. Pooled Quota (PQ) The most debated quota of the four operational quotas, PQ is aimed at restricting short distance travelers encroaching on berths available for end-to-end travelers, which may otherwise result in revenue loss. Assume all seats in Vaigai Express are in GN quota. If all the seats are booked by travelers from Egmore to Chengalpattu, the train will run empty from CGL to MDU, resulting in revenue loss. In trains where PQ is available, GN quota is earmarked for long distance travelers by having First Nodal Point (FNP) and Last Nodal Point (LNP) defined. GN quota is available only for a person who is travelling from a station that is ‘Source to FNP, both inclusive’ and to a station that is ‘LNP to destination, both inclusive’. Any source-destination (S-D) combination that does not have a dedicated GN or RL or RS quota will fall under PQ, if it is defined for that train. In our example, T. No. 11021, the FNP is Lonavala (LNL) and the LNP is Dindigul (DG). Let us look at the various quotas available for S-D combinations in this train. Note that some stations in the path of the train given below are combined to make more meaningful. Dadar (Origin) Lonavala (FNP) Pune Satara to Dharwar Hubballi (RS1) Haveri to Tumakuru Yeshwantpur (RS2) Banaswadi to Karur Dindigul (LNP) Madurai to Vanchi Maniyachi Tirunelveli (Destination) Quotas – Berths (Actual data): GN – 87 RL UBL and RS UBL – 20 RL YPR and RS YPR – 75 PQ - 100 Source: Dadar to Lonavala Destination: Pune to Hubballi – RS UBL 20 + RS YPR 75 + PQ 100 = 195 Haveri to Yeshwantpur – RS YPR 75 + PQ 100 = 175 Banaswadi to Karur – PQ 100 Dindigul to Tirunelveli – GN 87 + PQ 100 = 187 Source: Pune to Dharwar Destination: Satara to Hubballi – RS RS UBL 20 + RS YPR 75 + PQ 100 = 195 Haveri to Yeshwantpur – RS YPR 75 + PQ 100 = 175 Banaswadi to Tirunelveli – PQ 100 Note that destination from DG to TEN, unlike the earlier case, does not fall under GN quota because the source station is after FNP. Hence only residual quota of PQ will be applicable. Source: Hubballi to Tumakuru Destination: Haveri to Tirunelveli – RL UBL 20 + PQ 100 = 120 Source: Yeswantpur to Vanchi Maniyachi Destination: Banaswadi to Tirunelveli – RL YPR 75 + PQ 100 = 175 If there is no room available for further booking of confirmed tickets, the next booking will go to a dedicated waitlist sequence, PQWL. Prior to preparation of first chart, which is prepared exactly 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of the train at the source station, PQWL will be cleared against any vacancies cropping up due to cancellations in PQ quota. One can easily infer that the waitlist sequence for PQ will be the most interesting of them all. Let us see that with an example: Assuming our train (T. No. 11021) is fully booked. A person who books 6 tickets for Dadar to Karur will be allotted PQWL1 to PQWL6. If a person books Bansaswadi to Salem next, he will get PQWL7. The sequence number will be misleading in these cases as there are multiple combinations that contribute to PQ. This will be more amplified in a fairly long distance train with no RL quota like Pandian Express or Nellai Express. Note that there is no concept of RAC in RS and PQ quotas. Charting: Having seen what happens until charting, let us take a look at how vacancies are allotted during charting: Vacancies from GN quota are cleared against GNWL first, followed by Tatkal (TQWL), RSWL and then PQWL. Vacancies from RL are cleared against RLWL Vacancies from PQ are cleared against PQWL, then GNWL. First chart is prepared exactly 4 hours prior to the scheduled departure of a train at a charting location. Vacancies are cleared in the order mentioned above and surplus vacancies are offered to current reservation at 10% discount. Second chart is prepared exactly 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure of a train at a charting location. This chart is handed over to TTR and no more online booking will be allowed for that charting location. Surplus vacancies are passed on to the next RS location to clear its RLWL. Other quotas: I have not discussed other quotas like Tatkal (TQ), Premium Tatkal (PT), Lower Berth (SS), Ladies (LD) and all other internal quotas like HO, HQ etc. as they do not pose any interesting insights from a common traveler perspective when it comes to analyzing complicated dynamics in how they work.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer or videographer. Photos and videos are only amateur level. Videos are not monetized. Feel free to watch them
Let us for the sake of convenience, call it ‘laziness’. Sounds that lazy, doesn’t it? The trip to Vadodara for the convention was easily one of the best trips that I have ever made. Shouldn’t it be topped up with a trip report? It has been almost a year now, with even the ARP for UBL2019 having got started… And now, of all threads in the forum, there comes Adithya with his trip report, kindling that sleeping lazy (yes lazy!) person in me to wake up and jot down what happened during the trip.
It was a simple affair with just three people – Prabhu, Appa (‘Father’, Sethuraman) and myself, who have planned to take the trip. I am more like Ganesh (‘GI’) when it comes to doing things meticulously. My mileage map of IR showed a lot of untravelled sections over SWR and SCR. So, my plan had to accommodate tracing a black line in the map for a few of such sections as well. For those who have attended UAM2014, Prabhu and Appa are not new faces. It took just one bullying phone call to Prabhu – demanding that he takes three days off in February, to get his buy-in. It was even easier to convince Appa, when I told him that I am planning to take the Bangalore – Poona trunk route. He happily agreed to join as he had never travelled in that trunk line after Gauge conversion. It was too late for him to retract his consent once I told him that we will be taking the 1A class! ('Holy H as Aswin calls it).
This was the plan:
22601 MAS-SNSI Express from Chennai to Yelahanka Jn
16508 Jodhpur Express from Bangalore City Jn to Vadodara Jn
12656 Navjeevan Express from Vadodara Jn to Ahmedabad Jn
A red eye flight from AMD to MAA.
Leg 1: Tracing the ‘Thatha’s Trail’
I became/ was made/ was made to discover a railfan by my grandfather (‘thatha’). He used to tell tales of his exotic trips to Bangalore by His Highness Brindavan Express. So, for the railfan in me, travelling in Madras – Bangalore section means enacting that tale as an actor. I strongly suspect that my Appa became a railfan himself after travelling extensively with my grandfather to Kanpur, Howrah, Miraj, Poona and Bombay. Not to forget the main line trips to Thanjavur delta. My thatha was a dealer in musical instruments and did these travels to meet the sculptors of those instruments in person to place orders and collect instruments. His narrations include how the catering people used to bring Idly vadai and coffee at Arakkonam to Ice creams and cutlets at Krishnarajapuram in H.H Brindavan and how the VLR ‘mama’ at Vijayawada Junction will serve full meals on a plantain leaf for people coming by 3 Mail from Howrah to Madras. “Don’t worry saar, even the driver is eating here – the train will not leave for another 15 minutes!” type dialogues getting quoted here and there adds the seasoning essence in his tales.
The sole purpose of booking in SNSI Express is that it was the only train to get multiple diesel locos for the run in MAS-SBC FEDL section. Call me an old-timer (I am not that old though!), my best trips to Bangalore were the ones when JTJ-SBC was not under wires and H.H. Brindavan Express used to switch to diesel(s) from JTJ. The hidden curves (where is Sridhar Joshi?) of Mulanur and Patchur and Kuppam in the ghat section are a treat to watch with the diesel locos notching up. Who on earth will not love the sweet smell of the diesel exhaust smoke when it comes and hits your face! The only equivalent thing I can think of is the sweet smell of the burning brake shoes when a running train is coming to a grinding halt. Do you agree?
So, with lots of excitement, and with some careful planning in advance to ensure that there will not be any pending work at office front on the preceding Tuesday evening, I tried to get some sleep. I got transported to that very sultry night of May 1989, the night before the day when I was to take my first ever trip in my dream train – the Brindavan, to the then dreamland i.e. pre-1995 Bangalore. Anyway everyone agrees, directly or secretly, that post-1995 Bangalore is not Bangalore at all. I couldn’t get any proper sleep that night due to excitement.
I requested my mother to prepare us Puliyotharai with vadaam (Tamarind rice + papad) and Curd rice with pickles for our trip, repeating what she did in May 1989. With food and bags packed, we got ourselves dropped at Central just in time to say a quick hello to some of the MAS gangsters going by 2656 Navjeevan.Sathya and I jokingly remarked that he is coming to MAS for going to BRC and I am going to SBC to go to BRC! Never did we realise then that we will get tagged once more like this during the quiz finals on Day 2. Customary selfie and they were off.
Left to Right: Aravind, Sridhar Joshi, Satheesh, Sathya, Dr. Swaminathan, Harish, Ramkrishnan, Aswin, Prabhu and Sethuraman
We then pushed ourselves to PF11 at Madras Central. A few confirmations beforehand through two contacts have assured me that it is indeed a multiple diesel power for us and there are no surprises. For those who have got used to my syntax – S7 15 SL FF NBE it is. Coach 01382. Mandatory visit to check the power revealed that WDM-3A #16882R TNP SHF leading + WDM-3A #16859R TNP LHF trailing were in charge, all cylinders ready to charge up the hills. There were two more reasons for booking in this train – 1. It will help me trace the third line in the CSDR triangle (KJM-CSDR) having covered the other two earlier (BYPL-CSDR and BYPL-KJM) and 2. It is easier to go to my Periappa’s house (Appa’s elder brother) in Sultanpalya from Yelahanka than from SBC, considering the evening traffic.
It was an on dot departure at Madras. My mind all along the trip was trying to compare my first trip in 1989 with the ongoing one. At every stage, I was able to get one interesting item to compare!
* Platform 11, not 3 – 11 did not even exist then.
* Fast line till Arakkonam, the switch was post Avadi then.
* The Up line is just next to Down line now till Katpadi, it used to be a good distance. The 9 year old boy and his 7 year old younger brother fighting for that elite window seat can comfortably see and enjoy a train in the Up line, even if it is passing at good speed – it is all flash of blue coaches now with a trace of white or red at the head.
* The Up line is now not disappearing amidst coconut trees after Vaniyambadi. It is uninterestingly enough, accompanying the Down line all the way till Jolarpet.
* Jolarpet is still largely unchanged. The lazy afternoons are almost the same as 1989. A bunch of red serpents, calling themselves ‘goods’, having some humming and angry looking brownish AJJ WAG-5 locos (with some WAG-9s here and there), the big ‘Welcome to Jolarpet’ cement board at 30 degree angle, lots of lines and turnouts – the charm is (touchwood) retained and unaffected.
By and large, MAS-JTJ run was uneventful, except for a loop line halt at Vinnamangalam to allow precedence to HWH-YPR Duronto hauled by WAP-7 #30534 TATA.
The much expected mainline ripping was so-so ('Pongal' run in Rakesh Joshi's terminology) at Gudiyattam and Ambur, however Vaniyambadi did not disappoint.
The fun-filled action part started post JTJ. The multiple diesels started showing their full might while climbing the ghats. All the three of us were transported to our own childhood days in taking turns to stand at the door or peeping out of emergency windows to see the engine while negotiating a curve.
Notes from my diary:
SKPT 1355h
PU 1404/06 a brief halt to obtain block clearance
MAR 1426
KPN 1434
It was 40 minutes of sheer bliss in that February afternoon sun, who was not so harsh on us. He let us enjoy the scene! Looking at the smoking diesels while negotiating the curves was the peak moment we were all looking for. And we were fully satisfied.
Kuppam, the beautiful curvy station, was crossed non-stop, followed by a few more. Bisanattam 1444, Kamasamudram 1448 and Varadapura at 1452. SWR’s embarrassing ‘Kamasamudram Caution Order’, for a bridge that was ever ‘under repair’ state was no longer there.
Bowringpet (Bangarpet) halt was for two minutes 1457/1459. We got down and got a cup of coffee to refresh ourselves. A brief stop-and-start moment at Byatarayanahalli 1520, where we crossed the Double Decker to Chennai, followed by a halt at Malur, simultaneously getting precedence over the passenger from Marikuppam was at 1527/1529. 40 UP was crossed at 1541, just before Whitefield.
WFD 1544
KJM 1552/1555 – we then took the NE side of the triangle to march towards Channasandra.
CSDR 1604, pass through loop, getting precedence over a freighter.
Finally, we entered Yelahanka almost RT, into PF1. Happy to have traced the third line in the triangle, and most importantly, living that memorable trip of May 1989 once more. We booked an Uber to go to Sultanpalya and spend some time sharing this trip with my Periappa, who is a railfan himself (“why are they killing the 8 Mail with Karnataka Express, don’t they have brains?”).
Leg 2: The Deccan Odyssey Having decided to put some catchy title phrases for the parts, this is the best I could conjure, ‘The Deccan Odyssey’.
After a sumptuous meal my Periamma had put together (did I mention that she is a railfan as well? Her type is like, “Why are they not running more trains from Bangalore to Tiruchi? How will people go to Srirangam – 6231 is always full!”), we bade good bye and booked an Uber to Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bangalore Station), simply ‘City’ for us people from Madras. The other one is ‘Cantonment’. Yeshwantpurs and Yelahankas do not exist in our dictionary.
We were a bit early to reach, so got to watch 6589 Rani Channamma Express leave, the multi-passenger from Arsikere side arrive and (‘Kamadhenu!!’) the Jan Shatabdi with WDP-4D #40530 KJM arriving a few minutes BT portraying to a random visitor that he has never been late in his life-time. We need to ask all those people who have had their hearts in their mouths when this train was counting decimeters and centimetres after Tiptur. Anyway, our train got packed in PF8 in the meantime. WDP-4 #20054 KJM was the power. Shishir Jairam later informed that it is actually a 4B, but the marking is incorrect. H1 A Cabin 1 LB RF NBE. Coach 16001.
I was tired after the day-long railfanning from Madras and hit the berth. The coach was comfortable and cozy. It was an RT departure from SBC. I got up only when we have hopped almost 450 km, crossing Gudgeri at 0536h. The run was good. I went to the door and was doing some star gazing. The night sky, without the puntures of city lights, was adorable. The air was cold and the chillness was biting. I had to come back and get one some woolens to protect me. Being the third coach from the LHF running loco, the hum from the loco was resonating like divine music. The way the sound caught up when the loco starts accelerating after coasting through the down gradients of the Deccan plateau was simply mesmerizing.
Gudgeri 0536
Saunshi 0544
Kundgol 0552
Hubballi South 0608/0614. We were looped on the West line. I was sure it was for the crossing with 2726 Siddhaganga Express. It was not a surprise as we were a bit BT for a 0630 arrival at UBL. The scheduled departure for 2726 at UBL was 0600 and it is quite obvious that we are shown our place in the loop line! 2726 pierced the eerie early morning silence with a short hoot and dhadak-dhadak sound of the coaches that were accelerating in a brisk pace.
After a brief halt at ‘avuttar’ UBL Home for 4 minutes (0621/0625), we arrived in PF1 at 0630. By this time, Appa and Prabhu have got up. Having heard my marketing from my earlier Dandeli trip about how neat UBL PF1 was, and how it was designed like an airport, Appa wanted to get down and have a look. In the meantime, I walked towards the loco and got a click in the early morning light. We were door plating from Hubballi Jn to Dharwad. It was full of gentle gradients and hills with morning mist on the leaves of trees and shrubs that were dotting along. The EMD loco was fully powered up to his eighth notch and was singing songs in various ragams with its hum.
DWR 0715. Post my doorplating session, I had a very nice bath in the shower room of the H1 coach. No disappointments as the shower, the handle, the plumbing were working fine. The stainless steel walls were neat and stain-less, and overall, the room was ‘roomy’. Good space to sing your favourite songs and have a happy bath
LWR 0751/55
LD 0836/38. It was a brief halt at Londa Jn. Approx. 550 km from SBC. We packed our tiffin from the vendor, who has the big stall in the main platform – I became a slave of his dosais after tasting it once when I was aboard 6590. I haven’t travelled beyond Londa Jn towards Pune. 6508 covers this entire section in broad daylight – one main reason for my booking in this train. The block immediate North of Londa Jn (to Khanapur) was awesome. It was cutting through a thick reserve forest with good gradients. The lovely hum of the EMD loco was even lovelier with its echo from the forest. The first 20 minutes of run after Londa inside this forest, is something that should not be missed.
Gunji 0858
After a brisk run of about 30 minutes, we reached Belagavi at 0932. We were allotted PF1.
We welcomed a WDP-4D #40400 KJM hauled 1021 Chalukya Express into PF2. Soon after his arrival, the starter turned amber for us and with a long horn, we moved at 0940. For some good reason, even when the mainline was free, we crossed Sulebhavi at 0959 through East loop, while a multi-passenger from Miraj was waiting in the West loop. Appa decided to read some books and get some sleep as he was a bit tired after doing some doorplating. We were asked to halt in the East loop at Pachchapur (1027/1044).
As railfans, we wanted to do what a railfan ought to do during a crossing – get down and put scene that you know it is a crossing and you know an inch more than what common janatha know Not to be an exception, Prabhu and I got down the track side (non-platform) and took some photos. Soon, a multi-passenger arrived from Miraj side with a Kazipet Alco in the lead. We were near the loco, when the starter was given and even before we realized it is time for us to get back, the horn was sounded and two notches were deployed. To our horror, the door of H1 was locked from inside by the attendant. With the train starting to move, we perched on to the steps in front of the door. I assured a visibly concerned Prabhu that the next halt Ghataprabha is only 15 or 20 minutes away and we can manage – having travelled in the footboard of units in Madras, this discomfort was not threatening. I took my phone out and called Appa – lucky for us, both Vodafone and Airtel had mercy on us – he picked up the call and opened the door for us. We would have travelled for a good 5 – 10 km distance by then.
Chikodi Road 1124. This stretch post Londa was having one of my favourite trees, Palaash (Flame of the forest), growing abundantly.
Raibag 1136, crossing with another multi-passenger from Miraj with #11388 as the power.
Chinchili 1148, crossing with WDP-4 #20022 KJM SHF hauled 6533 BGKT-SBC Express
Kudachi 1153. Bridges over Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Krishna were a good treat to watch.
We were adopted by Central Railways just before Miraj Junction. With a departure of WDG-4 hauled BCNA goods through Kurduwadi line and with a parallel entry from Kolhapur, we entered Miraj in style, and also with a hungry stomach. We bought lunch boxes from the platform vendor – a box of vegetable rice and a cup of curd was felt sufficient at that moment.
I cried out happily in an FB post:
“Inniki saayngaalam varaikkum... Ende state Maharashtram
Ende baashai Marathi
Ende Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
Ende ommaachi Panduranga Vittal jeeeeeee.....”
(Till this evening, my state is Maharashtra, my language is Marati, my CM is Fadnavis and my deity is Vittala – posted in Malayalam, similar to a popular joke in Tamil cinema, where Actor Vivek, in order to woo his Malayali girl friend, will dress up like a typical Malayali and say a similar dialogue).
Appa was recollecting his trips to Miraj with thatha, when even the Kolhapur line was MG. We decided to take rest for a few hours and prepare ourselves for the run down the ghats before Pune.
Koregaon 1455/1505, crossing with Pune-KOP Passenger hauled by #11176
Satara 1517/1524
Cool comforts of the AC coach and some doorplating in hot sun, had its own side-effects. I decided to take an afternoon nap for a few hours, but got reminded of how Krishnan Sir teases me during my chord line trips – the overnight crossings in Chord Line are like Viswamithra, the Lower berth or an AC coach is like Menaka. A railfan who has vowed to witness all overnight crossings in the single line Chord Line section between Villupuram and TPJ should not fall to that Menaka and should be strong in his Tapas.
I got up when our train was made to wait for a crossing at Wathar. Koyna Express it was.
It is now time to go through the ‘Backyard of Pune’ (as Apu calls it), and put a check mark against these pilgrimage sites:
1. Rock Cutting at Adarki
2. Daundaj omega curve
3. Tunnels in Shindavane ghat section
4. Viaducts in Shindavane ghat section
5. Spotting the line from Daund
6. Spotting the remains of the MG line in the ghats.
All the above were done.
We crossed Shindavane station and were made to halt for a crossing at Sasvad Road. I used this opportunity to take another refreshing bath in the Shower Room. We then passed through Ghorpadi yard and entered Pune Jn PF1, 30 minutes BT.
With 35 minutes at our disposal, Appa decided to have a short walk out of the station, just to get the look and feel of how the City has changed over decades. It has been almost 40 years since he had visited Pune. In the meantime, Prabhu and I bought Vada Pav and Misal mix for our evening snack. The evening sun was painting his typical tinge on the face of the loco.
It was an RT departure from Pune. We slowly negotiated the points and started our downhill journey towards Mumbai. I was busy munching the snacks and didn’t get to witness the Harris Bridge or the scenic curve along Indrayani River near Kamshet. I was eagerly looking forward to enjoy the tunnels and hence came to the door at Khandala. We took the third line after a brief halt. A travel in late evening ensured that the view of the valley on the Western side was available and with all the lights on, it was glittering. The old and the new highways were glittering like a string of golden beads. The Khopoli town was like a hot oven with melting gold in it. After observing the restrictions at Monkey Hill cabin, we took the third line towards Nagnath Cabin. A few tunnels later, we were asked to close the doors and stay indoors as there have been nuisance observed during mandatory brake testing halts with stray complaints of lost baggage as well. We came back to the cabin and took some good rest. A brisk run ensured we were in Kalyan Jn in no time. I settled for some rotis and subji offered for sale by the pantry guys. The route from Diva triangle to Vasai Road was the last pending ‘untravelled’ section in my list for this trip. I retired for the day after getting to view the mainlines from the girder bridge at Kopar station. Our scheduled arrival time was 0440 the next day, so early to bed and early to rise.
With a full-day railfanning that happened, I slept like a log, only to be awaken by the alarm from the mobile. I tend to fully agree that the tune that a person hates the most will be his alarm tone. We reached BRC PF3 at 0440. After getting to meet Harsh Vardhan and a few railfans, we set off to NAIR by an auto.
No amount of reporting will cover even 25% of the pleasant experience that we had at the convention venue. So, I am skipping that part. Those who have attended have already experienced it, and those who haven’t yet, look forward to UBL2019!
Leg 3: The Opposite End
For a person from Madras, Ahmedabad is always ‘the opposite end’ if you talk about Navjeevan Express. I had initially booked in 22959 Jamnagar Intercity Express from BRC to SBI in FC class as that train, at the time of booking, had its unique First Class Sitting coach. Unfortunately, a circular that was since issued by WR mentioned that one of the two rakes will have its FS coach removed and a normal 2S coach will be attached with a sticker ‘Vice FC coach’. This put off my enthusiasm to travel in the last remaining FS coach. I booked in 2656 Navjeevan Express in SL. Travelling in Navjeevan in his last leg on the other end, still seems to be a bit weird to me. S8 1 LB FF NBE. Coach 13304. Power WAP-7 #30358 RPM. PF8.
It was a gingerly run all along, with technical details available in the trip report posted by Adithya (he joined us from BRC). May be the train knew very well that he is returning home after a long trip of 3700 km. The same feel what we get when we board the taxi home from airport for the last mile.
VTA 1811. Vatva was very different from what I observed in my 2015 (first) trip. It was during peak monsoon – enjoyable drizzle not hampering my doorplate. I sang loudly, “yeh mausam ka jadhoo hai Vatvaa!!”. It was a bit dry and cold, even the diesel locos near the shed seemed to be not having a forthcoming face. After negotiating Vatva, we halted before Mani Nagar station for the LC to be closed. A longish wait, long enough for Adithya and myself to get down, cross the Up line and click some photographs. Anyway, there is no risk here as the LC had to be closed, no Up train will be able to cross that LC, our train will not move until the LC is closed and more importantly, nobody will lock us out by closing the SL class coach doors!
We rolled into Ahmedabad Jn almost RT. One of my colleagues, Sasi came to the station to meet me. We took a BRT Bus and went to a hotel near Ellis bridge. Two more colleagues joined us here for a typical Gujarati thali dinner. Adithya signed off. We then went to the Sabarmati river front to enjoy some views of trains passing through the girder bridge over Sabarmati river. I was lucky to capture an accelerating 5667 GIMB-KYQ Express over the bridge.
After spending an hour there, my colleagues dropped me at the Airport. A boring wait to board the plane and we were back home a few hours later. Took an Uber back home and enjoyed by Sunday, preparing mentally and physically to be back to the routines in office from the week ahead.
Thank you for your patient reading. Comments, feedback are most welcome!
- Aravind (Ara / 'Saidapet South Cabin Controller')
