Hello Everyone 🤗

First Video is of Kanchenjunga Express arriving at Malda Town Railway station

Today on my way to home from school, I visited Malda Town Coaching Complex where I...
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saw the expanded pit line no 3 where Amrit Bharat express is mainly maintained but unfortunately I saw some scratch ICF placed there. Then I asked the CDO staff & they answered that Amrit Bharat Express is stabled near Goods Marshalling yard & MLDT CDO will not maintain any LHB Rake today. Then I captured TBs of 13415/16 Patna Express & 13154/53 Gour Express where staff was mostly active maintaining that rake .
After walking for few minutes I saw the links of Patna exp & Gour exp which are DDU WAP-4 22946 for Patna Express & Howrah WAP-4 22506 for Gour express respectively. I also saw a UDL based Alco shunter doing its duty for shunting the ICF scratch rake from Sick line to Main pit & it will be used for 03430 Secunderabad spl.

Also captured new AC 2 tier coaches parked outside of Sick line no-2

Then while walking for a few metres I saw BNDM WAP-7 37250 which was shiny from front but dusty on both sides , It was attached with a LHB AC 2 tier who was previously augmented in 22948 Bhagalpur Surat SF & it's owned by MLDT CDO , you can see the train board.A Howrah WAP-5 30192 was also stabled beside Pf-1 , Captured it too!.

ECR Patratu WAG-9HC bought a goods rake at Rake unloading point dominated by trucks & is waiting for reversal (My first spotting of today!😀)

Then I walked over the platform & made some random clicks . Hope you all will like it🥰😊

Hello 👋 everyone
ALL the trips that are planned for this week are postponed due to my health issues

1 week only rest no trips atleast till Friday..........

Navyug...
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Express End 2 End journey trip & Thiruvananthapuram Swaranjayanti Exp End 2 End journey trip is postponed for further & cancelled 😢😞

The traffic was scanty being a holiday and a relaxed cab travel, coming close to the railway station end marking end of the Holidays. Envying the BRTS taking the flyover , waiting for the day to take a journey by same , went past the route only to be stuck a kilometer before the station , courteousy the independence day celebration

After a lunch at Basaveshwara Khanavali, reached the station at 125PM , with a parallel run with a LHB rake of SWR, the 16533 Jodhpur Bangalore via Guntakal express . Settling...
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the cab driver , walked into the SWR HQ station , the rake of 12080 stationed on PF-2 covered by the Dharwad Bangalore Vande Bharat making a PF-1 entry , as I cursed the newbie for getting priority over the JS onto PF-1

Walked to PF-2 and settled down in the C2 coach, the last but one coach of the rake . Availablity revealed the train was 60% occupied , being a beginning of long weekend holiday . When people were planning to leave City, we are headed in opposite into the City

The VB quickly left and time ticked , as we waited for our schedule time. 16533 rake was sleeping on PF-3, having a scheduled departure behind us and having almost 40 mins to kill arriving ahead of schedule . It would be past midnight but not early morning when he would reach Bangalore. These long distance schedules are in need for a rewamp

The 11006 from Pondicherry to Dadar pulled into PF-1 at 1405 hrs and we too got the departure signal . Slowly pulled out , as the Chalukya rake ended , the terminal PF's showed of PF-6 and 7 showed up and PF-1 slowly extended into PF-8 , making it the longest platform . The rake of SC-UBL-DR was stationed on PF-8, not sure which rake it was working then

The initial runs were quite slow, a light drizzle in afternoon sun , and view of full trains as we approached the curves . The MPS didn't cross past 90 as the stations were dispatched soon .

A quick stop go at Haveri , a before time of 4 mins at Ranebennnur and I got into the PF for a quick stretch of legs with Dad. Both C1 and C2 seemed to be from consist of 12028 with Tamilnadu tourism ads behind all the seats . Bamban Bridge Rameshwaram was the highlight , as P got replaced by B . The line seemed to had a incline towards the PF, with the door failling to stay open A shrill whistle from the guard and we were back into the AC confines

A quick run again and across the Tungabhadra bridge for a halt at Harihara , followed by another quick halt at Davangere, 143 kms covered in 2 hrs 10 mins run , a slight before time . The AC in meanwhile showed it's full form and with unfilled occupancy , sent us into freezing mode

A quick departure from Davangere and we were back into full form now, speeds touching past 100. A flurry of Blue AC coaches indicated the Palace queen Humsafar bound to Udaipur crossing us equal speed . The line from Chitradurga joined us soon and we approached Chikkajajur and pulled out . The DCBA halt as started for us, an interesting one for this train

A quick cross with the Siddhaganga express bound to Dharwad . Soon we crossed the High sulphur diesel station (HSD- Hosadurga road ) . The sun and clouds played hide and seek , as we approached towards the hillly borderline , the clouds seemed to have opened up on the hills with the cloudline marked by a thick blanket extending over it .


The flyover over the line and a line from Shimoga joined us soon from right , indicating arrival into Birur junction at 545PM, delayed by few minutes . A quick run took us into Kadur where the Vasco bound 17309 was having scheduled halt. The Talaguppa bound superfast crossed us soon following the 17309


Time ticked soon and as we slowed down for next stop , approaching Arasikere . The scheduled crew change halt and a craving to have a light snack , approached the doorn, just to spot a vendor selling thatte idly . Collected 1 plate of thatte idly vade, increasing it to 2 & 3, just as dad approached from the other door to catch the 3rd plate filed with chutney . Idly was warn, chutney tasty and vade though cold was still crisp and not rubberish

A quick run past Tiptur, darkness sets in and flurry of lights and darkness indicates approaching stations and crossing . A few slow runs and pickups we arrive into PF-2 of Tumkur at 1940 hrs , as PF-1 is occupied by the 11021 Tirunelveli bound Chalukya cooling it's slack for an hour and waiting for us to take lead. God knows when they going to speed up this train involving multiple zone despatch and acceptances .

A blasting run and expected a slowdown at Chikkabanavara , but it was a glide through the station to reach the Yeshvantapur byepass at 2030 hours . Waiting for clearance, as a diesel hauled 16545 bound to Sindhanur accelerated past us , right to give us clearance to arrive into YPR PF-3 at 2035 hours , an exact 6 hrs 30 mins run for the 464 kms

PF-2 had the overcrowded rake of 11312 bound to Kalburagi , PF-1 with the 12257 bound to Kochuveli . The station was pretty bustling at the moment with continuous announcement. A ICF rake was pulled out from the pit between PF-3 & 4 towards SBC end . 16576 from MAJN pulled in giving a parallel run to the moving rake onto PF-4

12257 left quickly and followed by 11312 and we still waited . Thought we should leave sooner as 20653 will be leaving , but we were put on hold . PF-6 display showed 06545 BJP express and announcement went for 20653 arriving on PF-2 shortly , as clock ticked to 2105 hours

By luck would have had it, 20653 had a late departure and arrived into PF-2 at 2117 hours and we got the starter as soon as the loco crossed us , a 37 mins halt at YPR after a blasting line

A quick line on the opposite line of the twin single line , and annon stop run , puled into PF-10 of SBC, as announcement went for 16592 arriving onto PF-10 and 16511 to Kannur waiting for scheduled departure on PF-9

Thanks for reading

DADN-KYQ Express, NR/LKO ka Aatank.

So, for some urgent work, I had to return home to Varanasi from Lucknow. The original plan was to return via Ekatmata Express, but due to some unforeseen circumstances with my Thar, I had to return back from midway to the station.

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another hour, another plan. The 19305, DADN-KYQ Express suited me the best, so I booked the tickets in current availability. Hopped on an Uber and that was the fastest commute in my entire journey, reached Charbagh from Ekana in just over 20 minutes.

The train was on time till Kanpur, and as soon as it entered NR, it instantly got late. Still, I hoped the delay would not exceed 45 minutes. But the great NR/LKO. They were playing with a GM saloon and two ALCos on the PF-2 where the train was supposed to be received.

Shaheed Express was taken on the vacant PF-3 first, and when the ALCos finally got done with the parking simulator, Bagh Express was received on PF-2. And while it was a pleasant surprise to see coach display indicators on LKO, they were working with a mind of their own. Data of my still nowhere to be seen train was displayed while Bagh was on PF-2. And that of Shaheed started being displayed after it's departure.

Finally, after a delay of 1.5 hours, the train arrived on PF-3 and departed after accumulating a few more minutes of delay. But here comes something I hadn't expected from NR/LKO even in my dreams. The train reached SLN in around 1hr 20min, averaging more than 100kmph. And covered SLN-JOP in around 50 minutes, again an average of 100kmph. Now I was sure, we'd reach Varanasi before 11:30.

And then started typical NR behavior. The train was halted at every station to let the freights gain some progress, even though we were still late, officially. And finally the train was halted at Babatpur because operational block was taken. A totally avoidable situation, had they run the train on the schedule it was running.

The train halted there for almost an hour. Another block was scheduled if the previous one didn't work (they were welding the tracks), and exactly the same thing happened. But somehow we were allowed to proceed, supposedly because the train was full of people appearing for some exam, and they got agitated. The train was halted yet again at Shivpur and Varanasi outers.

At this point I was so annoyed, I deboarded and started walking towards the station. I boarded back when the train started crawling towards the station. Finally it reached BSB around 2 hours late. ½ hour of gained delay, even with a track-burning run, and a heavy slack in last 50km.

You can trust a wolf to guard the sheep, but can't trust NR to reach somewhere on time. Attached here are some pictures I took while waiting for my train. Well, except for the train I was traveling in.

P.S. Farakka is still displayed as MLDT-NDLS at BSB. And while the train boards are still printed and handwritten, CDO/KIR has taken extra steps to paint ER again wherever it had been peeled off. They're surely reading some blogs here.

Kumud.