First of all Eid mubarak everyone on IRI.
2 trip reports of same train, different destinations different times but same loco class......
These trip reports are my 2 encounters with Mangala Lakshadweep Express, short but adrenaline filled journeys, speed thrills and notches that tear tracks apart. The first meet was old when i wasn't much of a railfan, returning home after a long tiring SCRA exams.The only tech i had was an analog watch and a symbian phone that my grandmother gave for the trip. The reports could be awfully long, details could...
more...

be cloudy,tech terms could be less although i understood which loco was what at that time and please bear with my english and grammatical mistakes throughout these reports :)
SCRA was a long tiring exam(3 papers 2 hours each) and my return was with a night train which would reach my home after midnight (1am) a 05:30hrs+ trip and i was awfully yawning. I reached station at 19:00hrs and found a huge crowd of passengers waiting for a train at Bhopal PF1 with a ticket in WL, I saw my foggy chances of getting a confirmed seat in train and proceeded towards chart and found my ticket to be in WL2. Sad and tired i went and sat on a bench and saw a yellow light approaching on my PF1 it was around 19:30 and i thought my train was arriving ahead of its schedule and announcement of Punjab mail started, it was heavily delayed Punjab mail with a midmounted red engine with Ghaziabad written in lead of the rake and 8 AC coaches with it. All the crowd started accomodating coaches of the train and soon platform was empty, the even heavy train departed after a 10 minutes halt now i was calculating how much delay it would make up till Burhanpur. After Punjab mail 2 trains departed and on opposite side Goa GT and Gondwana departed, it was already 20:25 and my train was nowhere to be seen. At 20:30 a red engine with top headlight engine made entry with the rake of my train, bhusawal and 22626 was written on it (i still remember the number because out of amazement i re checked it after reaching home). I checked with TTE and he had no seats to clear my WL, i then went first towards GS coaches near loco and found them to be reasonably empty, shocked and out of amazement i sat in one of the track facing window seats. A coach 3rd from loco was a treat to travel. Our locomotive honked and started changing points to mainline, meanwhile i saw the bilaspur bhopal express with yellow loco resting on another pf which arrived before our train.
Acceleration started and our train was flying at full speed in no time(MPS) and Habibganj was dusted with powerful honking action, the ripping and honking action continued till Barkhera station, where ghats started and our train was doing close to 70 km/h till Budni station, the train again started full speed action till Itarsi Outer, where we were halted for 5-10mins and we reached Itarsi. some 45 mins behind schedule, i was doubtful about train reaching on time and after some 15 minutes train departed, making it 55 minutes behind schedule. In no time i was napping and after 15 mins of sleep on a GS chair :p i found train to be blasting at top notch, strong winds blowing and the LPs mercillessly honking the engine. Travelling in relatively empty GS has its own perks, everyone dozed off on luggage shelves and seats and i went towards door, as i opened it, strong air drag tried to push me and outside the door was pitch black darkness, the only light source there was our coach i stood for 10-15 mins the train blasted till Khandwa, with the only slowdown at harda because of PSR at sharp curve.and we arrived some 20 minutes behind schedule. 183 kms in 5 minutes less than 2 hours, a whopping of 95+kmph. We had a 3 mins halt at Khandwa from where train halted only at Burhanpur PF1 10 minutes behind schedule. I ran towards loco read the number and stored it in my contacts as Mangala express loco :) . The next day when i had chat with some of my friends, who boarded Punjab Mail at Hbj reached only 10 minutes ahead of my train.
Next part will be another trip, thst one is recent and i have some pics of it ...
To be Continued