Sharing a railfanning trip that I did back in February:

The goal was to cover Mumbai to Solapur on a General UR Ticket, on daytime. The perfect train for my absurd goal was the Indrayani Express, since the same rake goes to Solapur as PUNE-SUR ICE.

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up super early to catch this train, got a window general seat luckily. It was time to enjoy the half-day journey to Solapur. At the lead was PUNE WAP-7 #37002.

The moment Indrayani left from CSMT, it got amazing priority. Arrived at every halt at max 10 min delay or before. Especially at the climb to Lonavala from Karjat, it was given a constant MPS run, which showed me how much of priority it enjoys in the Pune run. I always think Deccan Queen and Indrayani have the same priority towards Pune.

Had an amazing run from Lonavala to Shivajinagar, where Indore Daund was standing at mainline, waiting to get clearance for entering Pune Jn. We finally entered Pune Jn at 9:15 AM, a 10 min delay, which was nothing, since it was to leave at 9:30 AM as the Intercity.

From here was a new route to me. From here, 22105 became 12169. Crew changed and sand filled. The rake remained the same.

Immediately after clearing Ghorpadi, we sped to 110 (no 130 as 12169/70 hadn't got clearance for 130 then). Was surprised at the amount of gradients between Pune and Daund.

Reached at Daund, decent amount of onboarding and deboarding happened. Sped up to 110 immediately after clearing Daund yard. Saw the massive reservoir between Bhigvan and Washimbe. Jeur yard was surprisingly slow, took 15 minutes just to enter, take 2 min halt and clear the loop. Still it reached Kurduwadi 5 minutes before schedule.

What surprised me was the amount of priority 12169 got the whole journey. DEMUs that had started from Pune hours before us were sidelined just for us to run on time. The only time we slowed down was between Mohol and Solapur as we were running half an hour before schedule and there was no platform empty at Solapur.

Still, we arrived Solapur 10 min before schedule. I returned to Pune on the same rake as 12170 SUR-PUNE Intercity, even then it got an aggressive run to Pune, taking halts before time, to the point that it was crawling between Daund and Pune because it was way before time. Reached Pune Jn PF 2 at sharp 6:05 PM.

A BIT OF ADVICE: People that think Deccan Queen has an aggressive run, try travelling in this train/rake towards Solapur. Right from Mumbai CSMT as Indrayani to Solapur as the Intercity, this train got an ultra-aggressive run, had the most priority on this route, despite the sheer number of halts on this route, all while climbing steep gradients and taking technical halts for banker attachment. Just don't travel on the UR coach of this train.

First Vande Bharat Express Experience. Didn't click more pictures as I had luggage and there was incredible rush on Platform. Had made many short videos and shared them on Instagram, which unfortunately cannot be shared here.
Had a Journey in Executive Chair Car of this train in 7th May. People judging this train by Charts and crying in favour of giving this train 8 Coaches NEED to travel in this train and check occupancy themselves.
Humongous rush for this train at Pune Junction. Had to hire a Coolie and pay him 600 rupees...
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in order to get my stuff placed in the train (1 Large Suitcase, 1 Medium Suitcase, 1 Small Suitcase, 1 Large Backpack and one office Saddleback- since I was shifting entirely to Delhi).
It came with decent occupancy from Solapur itself, many people got down at Pune, and the train got full at Pune- confirmed it from the Tablet of Head TTE itself.
From what I had heard about food by people in previous journeys, right now the experience was decent. Food was hot, taste was right- took Omelette as extra so had both veg and non veg options. For the first time I saw catering guys selling Cold Drinks like Mountain Dew chips etc on a premium Train as extra stuff.
Train has a HUGE SLACK, heavily regulated before Lonavala, Kalyan and Diva. Still managed to make it on time at PF#9 of Mumbai CSMT departed from that Platform during return Journey to Solapur as well.

A Triple Surprise at Rajapur Road:

It was a hot summer day in Konkan and I had to board the MAO CSMT Mandovi Express at Rajapur Road and I had arrived an hour earlier to the railway station. I checked the Konkan Railway live trains map to see if I would be lucky to spot any passenger train or even a freight at Rajapur Road. The map showed the following trains close to Rajapur Road:
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MAO CSMT Mandovi Express had reached Pernem
2. TVC NZM Rajdhani was trailing it and had departed from Thivim
3. CSMT MAO Janshatabdi Express had left Vilawade
4. Ajmer Ernakulum Marusagar Express had left Nivasar
5. CSMT MAO Tejas Express was about to reach Ratnagiri.

There were 4 superfast trains (including 3 premium ones) closer to Rajapur Road and I thought that it would be amazing if I could spot atleast 2 of them.

At 11.35 am, 12051 CSMT Madgaon Janshatabdi honked and blasted past Rajapur Road with a 39046 Kalyan WAP 7 from the main line. It was an amazing site for me as I hadn't railfanned for a while after the Konkan trains got electric locomotives. MAO Janshatabdi had a couple of green Deccan Queen LHB coaches attached to it which took me by surprise.

At 12.30 pm, I checked the live trains map again and got the update that Marusagar Express had departed from Saundal and would be making an entry any moment now. I immediately checked the main line down starter signals at Rajapur Road and saw all of them being red. I though that the signalling staff is a bit lazy and would make it green later.

To my surprise, I saw Ajmer - Ernakulum Marusagar Express coming from Panvel side making its way on the 2nd loop line at 12.36 pm. It was hauled by 11431 Ratlam WDM-3D. I Immediately checked the Konkan railway map for a crossing and got to know that MAO NZM Rajdhani had departed from Kankavli and Mandovi Express was trailing it. This meant that the scheduled overtake of Madovi Express by Rajdhani was completed and Rajdhani was marching towards us. This got me excited as I now understood that Marusagar was taken on loop line for the crossing of the Konkan King Rajdhani Express through the main line. This was now a double surprise for me to witness the Konkan King crossing Marusagar Express with an electric locomotive. I checked the main line starter in Panvel direction for the king but it was still red. Marusagar had waited for 10 long mins now and the wait for the Konkan King crossing was getting longer.

While I was looking for the starter on the main line towards Panvel to turn green for Rajdhani Express, I saw a glimpse of a white electric locomotive coming from Panvel direction. I was sure that it was the CSMT-MAO Tejas Express. The WAP7 (37270 KYN WAP 7) was approaching quite slowly and was taken into loop line 1. This was a big surprise and my mind went to doing the calculations. A loop line to loop line overtake is quite rare when none of the two trains have a halt at the station in focus. I immediately checked the loop line 1 starter signal at Rajapur Road which was still red and it became the last piece of the puzzle.

I re-calculated everything in my mind and realized the exact occurence of events at Rajapur Road in the next 10 mins.
The King TVC - NZM Rajdhani would be crossing both Tejas Express as well as Marusagar Express at Rajapur Road from the main line. After the king has passed, there is definitely going to be an overtake. This is an amazing moment for every railfan on the single Konkan Railway section to witness a double crossing along with an overtake. My excitement had quadrupled and I ran towards the Madgaon end of the platform to capture everything.

At 12.52 pm, the king made a grand entry into Rajapur through the main line and skipped Rajapur with a 37371 BRC WAP 7. Finally, I had captured the TVC Rajdhani Express with an electric loco in the Konkan Railway Section and what better moment that a Triple Surprise of double crossing and an overtake.

It was now the moment for the overtake to happen. The logical railfan in me knew that Tejas Express would overtake the Marusagar Express for the following reasons:
1. Tejas is a Premium Superfast train while Marusagar is an ordinary superfast
2. Marusagar wouldn't have waited at Rajapur Road if Tejas was not going to overtake it. Rajdhani was far away from Rajapur Road and the crossing with Rajdhani could have happened at Kharepatan Road.

The statistical railfan in me wanted Marusagar to overtake Tejas for the following reason:
1. Marusagar had only one halt between Rajapur and Madgaon at Thivim while Tejas has two scheduled halts at Kudal and Karmali in the same section

One additional reason from the Indian Railfan in me wanting Marusagar to overtake Tejas Express was that:
Marusagar is an underdog between the two and Indians have a soft corner for Underdogs.

At 12.54 pm, the WAP-7 honked and the logical railfan was proven correct and Tejas slowly departed from Rajapur thus overtaking the Marusagar Express after having a crossing with NZM Rajdhani Express. The Vistadome coaches of Tejas Express passed the Alco of Marusagar thereby successfully completing the overtake.

The Alco of Marusagar Express honked at 1.04 pm thereby departing after providing some exciting series of events at Rajapur Road. For the passengers of Marusagar Express, it was a boring 58 mins of wait at a remote station without a proper platform causing unwanted delay but for the Railfan (me), it was an unforgettable hour.

Regards
Vivek Venugopalan

PS: I request railfans to contribute more to the travelogue section with Travel Blogs and your experiences in writeups because most of the times, the tiniest piece of information/anecdotes from your experience might be too fascinating for others. Blogs (Writeups) have a greater effect than pics while describing a journey as the power of imagination is a wonderful tool that makes the experience magical.

Blog link :- click here

trip link :- /blog/post/4823375


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trip of 2020

2020 has been a year that has change many things in world, and most important that has been affected is how we travel, My first trip of 2020 was on 5th Jan returning to Mumbai by 14707, and from March Lockdown came into enforce and trains resume from June but since then didn’t got chance to travel nor wanted to take the risk, but by December mid the number started to fall and everything started getting back to “ New Normal “ ( wearing mask , maintain social distancing , Using hand sanitizer , etc. ). Himanshu Mukherjee decided to have a trip before 2020 ends. Planning was under way where should we go, which route to be selected, are trains crowded etc. all things were taken into consideration. After few days of viewing bookings of all the trains, Decided to take Deccan queen from Csmt to lnl and in return Indrayani back to Mumbai, although the turnaround time at lnl was hardly less than 7 mins still decided to take the risk of travelling in both the trains. And in mean time a circular was publish by railway which stated allowing all the out station passenger to travel in Local trains; Local train ticket can be issued 3 hrs prior to the departure of the train and till 30 mins after de boarding. So had a good chance to travel in Mumbai local also after 9 long months.

The day of journey.
The wait over 9 months comes to end of travelling in Trains. On 26th December 2020 as planned by us. I, Parth, harsh and Himanshu were ready for the trip, Deccan queen departure was at 5:15 from Csmt so 3 hrs prior to it we all left for Csmt at at 2:30, I Reached malad station where parth was already waiting for me, we both went to the ticket counter and asked for the ticket, The clerk first asked for the Gov ID and then we informed him we wanted to board outstation train from csmt so he asked us to show the ticket , we opened the irctc app and showed the ticket , after verifying the ticket he issued us the local train ticket to Csmt via dadar. Entered Malad station and called Himanshu to know his status as he was boarding local from borivali so we all decided to meet at dadar. After a long wait of 9 months at 2:38 finally we boarded the local train Rake 6001 first medha rake working as Bvi – CCG slow service , The crowd at station seems okay , as it was also time where ladies were allowed to travel , so the ladies rush was more than usual, Train was empty and had social distancing sticker where it was indicating not to seat there. Travelling in local train felt like a dream come true for which everyone are waiting for. The local train journey from malad to dadar was good one , many changes have done in the suburban stretch, New turnouts at Andheri , 15c extension of platforms between borivali to Andheri, new Fob. Brand new Wr marked LHB Ac coaches were stabled at jos yard , Brc wap7 37087 with Lhb Dadar – ajmer crossed at bandra. 2 Brc wap7 30637 & 39126 were stabled at dadar outer. Offlink ET wap4 25047 with Dadar – Bhuj sayaji Express was departing from dadar. Brc wap7 30532 had brought Ajmer – dadar and was stable at dadar.

Dadar seemed to have been packed and as it was during the Pre Covid stage. There was Rush to climb Fob without any social distancing. We had to wait for Himanshu at dadar; we all meet at the middle bridge at dadar and walk towards the central line! As Expected the central line had some other plans for us , we reached dadar pf:-3 ( cr ) at 3:30 and the indicator showed 3:50 cst slow , we were a bit confused how did cr manage not to have a slow local for 20 mins ! Although fast line local was working properly. Csmt slow arrived at dadar around 3:52 and it was jam pack to decide to wait for another local behind it, Next Csmt slow arrived at dadar around 3:56, it was empty and we boarded that, Fast line at dadar had a caution of 50 kmh speed limit on up and down line both. Jhs wdm3a 11401 rebuilt by parel workshop was stabled at parel outer after currey road the coach was fully empty only we 4 were in the whole coach till Csmt.
Reached Csmt at 4:11, we had plenty of time left in out hand, we had to exit the local station and then again had to entry the Csmt from other end, There was no temp screening nor anything while Entering the mail Express platform. We even was ask to go ahead of line as we didn’t had luggage in our hand, As we had only carrying shoulder bag. The New Normal at CSMT looked so different, majority of food stall were closed. Hardly 1 or 2 were open and the option was also limited. The train was already shunted on Pf:-9. Our coach was D4 and it was in the rare part near the guard end, the coach composition had changed of Deccan queen after it resumed its service. After D1 to D3 all were in uktrisht livery and were pleased to see that our coach was in DQ livery, C4 to C1 also were in DQ livery and The iconic dinning car was replaced by pantry car, Pantry car was also in uktrisht livery and till D10 all were in uktrisht livery, D11 and D12 were in DQ livery

Kyn wap7 30800 was getting coupled to the train. And this was all of a different experience that we all were going to have in covid situation or in The New normal stuff. The train departed at Right from Csmt at 5:15 pm with the guard whistle which could be easily audible till our coach. Accelerating through Byculla. Just after crossing currey road trains slowed down following the Temporary speed restriction. Crossed parel at 20 kmph speed and also till dadar outer, picked up speed at dadar and started Accelerating. Kurla skip at flat mps and all the way through the Mumbai suburban section, slowed down after mulund following speed restriction at thane. Skipping Thane at speed of 70 kmph. Thane station was also looking deserted, hardly any person were visible on station. Picked up speed after crossing Thane creek and were approaching the Parshik tunnel. After crossing Parshik tunnel the train slowed down as for the caution order at diva. Skipping Diva at speed of 40 kmph. Hit 105 kmph speed at thakurli. Bhavnagar – Kakinada was waiting at outer for entry into kalyan junction. Had a parallel entry with Darshan Express at kyn , overtook Darshan Express hauled by Brc wap7 37128 probably it was the second last run with icf coaches. After skipping Kyn jn smoothly.

The train slowly picked up speed after crossing Vithalwadi and crossed Nagercoil - Mumbai Special, Skipping Ulhasnagar at 17:59 at 65 kmph speed and crossing with Daund - Indore Covid-19 Special, Skip Badlapur at 75 kmph and then achieve mps of 105 kmph. Crossed Vangani at 100 kmph and xing with udyan Express. Skip bhivpuri Road at 18:25 at flat mps. Entered Kjt at 18:29 4 mins Before Time, Wag7 were already waiting for us ready to get attached, meanwhile from pf:-2 Bia wap7 with 37039 with Spare Ac coaches rake departed towards Kyn. After 6 mins of halt at Kjt we departed from Kjt climbing the Ghats. And at this stage we just prayed we don’t get trolled in Ghats or get delayed in Ghats as our return train had only 5 mins TAT at lnl, we had to catch Indrayani Express to get back home. As we were in Ghats we couldn’t even track Indrayani status also, last when we tracked it, it was 55 km away from lonavala and we had to cover 27 km in Ghats. Crossed Khandala at 19:08 4 mins BT, and that gave us a relief so that we could get extra mins at lnl for climb the fob, Skipped Khandala with a speed of 30 kmph speed. After skipping khandala we all went on doors as to get off the train and change the platform. Entered Lnl at 19:14 , Train was 4 mins Before time at Lonavala and the fob was right in front of our coach , so we had enough time to climb and change the platform and also when we tracked Indrayani on ntes it was still 5 km away from Lonavala . So the queen never disappointed us, it was before time and also had an amazing ride in it. Indrayani Trip Report in next part stay tune.

Thanks for Reading,
Udit Mehta.