Finally it happened. I was longing for a trip to Kerala since 2 years and it materialised this May.
.
DOJ: 18th May 2015
.
this was a trip planned at the last moment. tickets...
more...

as usual were unavailable owing to the summer rush. My mother and sister had confirmed tickets in 12201 GR and that was the last hope. I had tried CK but ended up losing money. I had decided to travel at ay cost, hence booked a PQWL 81 ticket in 3A from DI PRS and a RLWL 18 for the return journey in 12202 in CC. CC in 12202 was horrific but, only that ticket seemed to be looking positive.
.
So, the D- DAY dawned. I travel very light, hence it did not take me more than 15 minutes to pack my things. We were to board from TNA. Hence we departed from my home at around 4 pm. We brought tickets and soon boarded a slow EMU for TNA. While we waited at TNA, Lashkar Exp arrived with its customary WAP 4. The rake was pathetic and smelled strongly of urine. Oops ! I forgot to mention that despite all my encouragement , my ticket decided to remain in WL and managed to get only upto WL19.
.
At sharp 17.18, the train arrived TNA with a ERS WDG3a working the LHF mode. In the melee to board the train, i forgot to note down the road no. It seems WDG3a has special affinity towards me. They haul almost every train i board. I was quite contended this time though. I normally get disappointed when SF trains get WDG3a since the MPS action is less. But since there was a PSR of 90 kmph on the entire KR line, MPS action was gone for sure. The MPS in KL is also less than 110.
.
We placed our luggage and departed TNA at 17.20 sharp. We crawled all the way till DTVL. We picked up some speed after DTVL and reached PNVL 3 minutes before time. The train got full at PNVL. We departed at 18.20 after a nice 18 minute halt. We were cruising comfortably till Nagothne, where we were looped for close to 1.5 hours. Apparently, the MAO-CSTM Mandovi had a loco failure. We waited till Mandovi as well as the SWV DIVA passenger was crossed. we left NGTN at approx 20.45 and continued blasting at 95 kmph. I went to sleep on a SLB adjusting with my mom. We reached Ratnagiri a good 2 hours late and maintained delay till MAJN. We were looped at many stations enroute and when I woke up we were skipping HONNAVAR at 90 kmph. The halt at Bijoor was a very short one....hardly a minute, and we reached BTJL where we overtook KAWR YPR led by KJM WDG3a. We waited for VRL TVC Exp at a station that i could not recollect. We reached UD a good 2 hours late at 8.40 and departed UD within a minute. The run was uneventful till MAJN. We had company of NDA special there which was hauled by LDH WDG3a.
.
We left MAJN at sharp 10.15 and PGT division LP`s hit the top notch. We were close to 35 kmph at the outer itself and skipped Netravati river at decent speeds. The LP`s then let the beast loose and we soon hit the MPS of 100 kmph and maintained 100 kmph till we reached CAN at 11.30. We made up 1 hour, but the LP`s were in no mood and were determined to end their duty at SRR on time and hence again we started blasting right from CAN outer. We reached CLT in 12.30. We were now 40 minuted behind schedule. We continued MPS run till TIR. A funny scene happened here, a family wanting to get down at TIR was standing at the door and were not getting down. I decided to keep my bags near the door to get down at PTB in case the train stopped there. So i asked the lady as to whether she was getting down at SRR. to my shock she replied that she was getting down at TIR. I replied saying "then why arent you getting down?" She said that we were at Tanur, I told her to clearly look at the station board and she froze with fear when she saw that we were at TIR. I quickly helped her get down and the train departed as her last bag was
handed over to her.
.
We maintained the MPS run till PTB. unfortunately for me the train did not stop at PTB. We waited at SRR outer for 15 minutes where NCJ MAQ Parasuram Exp crossed us with huge offlink of BGKT WDG4.
.
Soon we crawled to SRR just 20 minutes late at 14.00. I hopped out of the train, took a bus and went home.
.
VERDICT:
The train was reasonable clean, chilling was good and co passengers were nice. SRR based LP deserved full credit for the almost timely arrival at SRR.
.
Do feel free to put in your suggestions and opinions. Pics and videos will be uploaded shortly