around 21:15 Hrs and ran towards platform no : 01 to take platform ticket for my elder brother who had came to drop me!
== Observations at LTT :
Our train was put over pf no : 02, Rajendranagar Janta Express was over pf no : 03, over pf no : 01 was Guwahati LTT Express with loco detached, Kushinagar Express was put over pf no : 04.
We reached our coach but was disappointed to find it as an old coach without any charging ports for electronic devices, well who worries for it as I had nice power bank with me to assist me railfaning! Thereafter we strolled over platform for sometime towards loco, but still loco was not attached, around 21:45 Hrs aBDKhalasi' was coming smiling & humming a hindi bollywood song 'Pyaar bina chain kaha re!' He gave me smile & I asked about loco to be attached, while he pointed over far end to a WAM-4 loco that was gliding. Well we were a bit astonised & disappointed on seeing a old WAM-4 from Itarsi, withing 5 mins the coupling was over & LP/ALPs were testing various motor components, We were still standing near loco but LP/ALP didn't look such friendly as that Khalasi was! Well it was 21:55 hrs we were walking fast to our coach & at exact 22:00 Hrs we said good bye to our lovely Mumbai with some sorrows & excitement!
Till Thane run was nice, we arrived TNA around 05 mins and were doing 50KMPH through Parsik tunnel, but fate had it's another story to tell tonight!
Our train was halted at Diva.Jn & again at Dombivali (Pic 01) here the problem was all services towards down direction were suspended due to signalling issue, so all EMUs were stopped & getting piled one after the other, while local commuters were running towards over train which was fairly vacant but one thing is Mumbai local region people very rarely encroach upon seats of reserved coaches. We some how glided till Kalyan.Jn by that time we were almost 1 Hr late, heard people that Howrah Mail is just before us (don't know weather it was Mail via NGP or ALD) Till Kasara it was nice non stop run in 70KMPH. And left from KSRA after halt of 10 mins to reach Igatpuri & just after us was Rajendranagar bound Janta Express with WAG-7 (shed unknown) After some 10-15 mins halt at Igatpuri wer left & it was boring speed at 60KMPH to stay awake or enjoy some night watch! so decided to sleep, but my co passenger was a nocturnal animal, so I slept and he was keeping vigil over the belonging, oh forgot to mention our co passenger was to accompany us till Rourkela.Jn (ROU).
So after nice sleep woke up with meek smile of winter sunshine at Badnera.Jn (BB) (pic 02 & pic 03) here there were many vendors selling 'Kachories' & 'Samosas'. Here vendors were already hurrying for arriving Mumbai bound Gitnjali Express to sell their wares. And yes our yesteday night 1 hr late running was mitigated by this WAM-4 loco & yes lots of generous slack! Here we left from Bhusaval divn to enter Nagpur divn, throught the time there is nothing worth mentioning except found stranded Shirdi bound weekly Express for green right behind WAP-4 SRC, the place was Chandur (pic 04 & pic 05). Dhamangaon past (pic 06), came Ajni (pic 07), thereafter we were gliding slowly towards Nagpur, while Chennai bound superstar GT Express with WAP-4 Erode greeted us Vannakam! (pic 08 & pic 09) entered Nagpur to witness our all weather friend fondly called as 'Bango Bandhu' (Bengal's friend) Mumbai bound Shalimar Express with WAP-4 Howrah at pf no : 04 (pic 10) while I alighted to get some cold water & later do some railfaning (pic 11 & pic 12) but we were spotted by RPF clicking loco pics, some how gave churan (slip) to him. At around 13:30 Hrs we departed from the city of Oranges towards city of Rassogollas! (pic 13)
Glided over the loop line to reach Itwari admist the slums! (pic 14) After Kalumna we gained speed as we meet with mainline, and then it was regular halts in intervals (pic 15) After the halt at Gondia.Jn for 5 kms we later proceeded to enter Chattisgarh (pic 16) At Rajnandgaon saw WAG-9 hauled 'Mukhya Mantri Teerth Yarta Special' train, (pic 17 & pic 18) later again that train was seen at Durg.Jn, as we were before time here. Spotted here a WAP-7 BIA & later WAP-4 ET hauled Barauni Gondia Express (pic 19 & pic 20). After around 20 mins of halt we departed, Raipur arrived nearly 10 mins later and later I took a short nap to wake up at Bilaspur outer, here train was made to wait and back to back 7 trains including freight & passenger trains overtook us! It was miserable situation as train was deliberately made later & passengers here in train had no clue why the hell train was humiliated by freights/passengers! At last around 23:10 Hrs we were made to enter Bilaspur.Jn slowly crossing the tracks crisscrossing (pic 21). At Bilaspur we alighted & tried to know of delay but even LP was not there! WAM-4 was here giving us a lonely & scary look at night! (pic 22). Clicked some pics of coaches & train name board too! (pic 23 & pic 24), There was total chaotic situation in general class coach (pic 25) and here in sleeper coach a group of people had placed food order from pvt restaurant, that delivery man was forcefully giving me food saying "Seat no : 57, Aapka khane kaa order diya gaya hain" he was continuingly persuading me accept the food but then I asked "Bhai coach no kya hain?" he replied "S11", I said "Yeh S10 hain" he quickly apologized and ran to other coach, but again after 10 mins he arrived and the same thing repeated! After around 45 mins of halt we departed from BSP!
===REMAINING PART AFTER BILASPUR===
As our train was delayed by good 01:15 mins, we were going through 1st line towards Raigarh, the arrived at Naila (NIA) at 00:50 Hrs (pic 26) and later I was awake till we crossed Champa.Jn at around 01:10 Hrs (pic 27), still I was clueless f what made our train over 2 hrs late...?
===3rd DAY'S FATEFUL JOURNEY===
The third day morning we were greeted before Rourkela.Jn (ROU), our co-passengers were all ready with their luggage to leave, so bid good bye to them & proceeded to brush up teeth but found no water in coach! sad but then was the water tap over platform, which empty, so quickly rushed to rinse up mouth & brushed well, but while brushing teeth, one I was seeing train coach and again rinsing mouth, this got repeated, as to make confirm that I didn't miss my train! To my bad here train was halted for good 25 mins & local general passengers were happy to found all over my seat, smiling & shyly a good looking girl gave me side to sit over my own reserved seat! as if I was encroaching in my own seat, strange but this is the speciality of such crawlers in IR...
Departed from Rourkela, saw a lone WAP-4 SRC probably this is the loco of Ispat Express (pic 28), then Rourkela Steel Pant greeting us! (pic 29) and crawled to get halted at Bondamunda.Jn (pic 30) as scheduled stoppage, there after our run was nice admist the semi-green Saranda forests! (pic 31 & pic 32) and in between kept halting at small stations (pic 33). From Chakradharpur (CKP) bought coffee, as here in train there was only 'Kharab sey kharab chai' was available! I wonder why they sell their tea saying "Kharab sey kharab chai" or "Ekdum bekar chai" that too was for Rs.10, strange thing! Run from CKP to TATA was decent but again halted at TATA outer! Arrived Tatanagar.Jn (TATA) in pf no : 05 around 10:30 Hrs & saw a train with ECoR coaches ready to depart, while it's train name board read as 'Nandankanan Express' (pic 34 & pic 35) Then arrived Howrah bound Gitanjali Express in pf no : 04, with a WAP-4 SRC, the coaches were jam packed (pic 36 & pic 37). Gitanjali was made to go before us after halting for 10 mins & I was busy updating status over IRI as trip update, but then IRI member
#Mr.Amit_Kumar_Singh gave some vital information regarding why was train late yesterday night in SECR - That was, due to goods train derailment at Raigarh all down direction trains were late running! Came to coach and found that out coach was still not watered! this made me furious - as all watering guys were busy attending other trains such as Gitanjali Express & others! Hate you SER for neglecting your own train! After brief halt of 50 mins we departed at 11:20 Hrs and this made our train even more late! Spotted number of WAM-4's and WAG-5 locos at TATA ELS (pic 38). Rakhamines (RHE) arrived at 11:40 Hrs (pic 39) and thereafter it was decent run through till Nimpura yard, halted for just 3 mins here and proceeded to arrive at Kharagpur.Jn (KGP), but here again saw 'Nandankanan Express' departing. Left from Kharagpur after 10 mins of halt & here after we were crawling through mid line till Panskura.Jn (PKU). At PKU outer saw Puri bound Shatabdi Express with WAP-4 SRC (pic 40). After PKU we were frequently halted as before us an EMU was there right from Kharagpur, and this made me more frustrated, so begin to click various pic of coach interiors itself! (pics 41, 42, 43, 44) not a single time during journey the coaches were swept not even at much touted "Clean train stations" like Bilaspur.Jn or Rourkela.Jn - such was the sorry state of affairs in this train! Then the halt at Mecheda was culminated with overtake by Howrah bound Yesvantpur Duranto Express whizzing past pf no : 01 (videos will be uploaded shortly). halt at Ulubaria was short and sweet, and somehow we managed to reach Andul & train halted just after the platforms (pic 45) to enter loop line - ACC chord, to crisscross the main lines near Maurigram. Sensing the opportunity, we alighted from coach like moneys! (pic 46) With this culminated the end of our tiresome journey of around 1940 Kms & the clock showed it was already 15:50 Hrs...
So from Andul took EMU till Sankrail & there saw Howrah bound Ahmedabad Express with WAP-4 SRC (videos will be uploaded shortly). __/\__
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Ratings :
Cleanliness - 03/10
Food - 04/10
Punctuality - 06/10
Safety - 07/10
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Thanks for reading it & do share your experiences or feed backs!
