no: 12952
Train name: Mumbai Rajdhani aka (King of Rajdhani’s)
IRI Trip diary link:
/diary/trip/75638-------------
If a person was told that he will be a given something which will outmatch the rest, then naturally his expectations and the intensity increases exponentially regarding that. It was the same with a 24 year old Male who was looking at the tracks in a fervid manner. It was none other than me :P… The level of curiosity regarding the king of Indian railways was sky high in me. At 15:45 hours, my ears picked up a mild sound wave from the articulated rail. Yes!!! The Majesty was arriving with a Duronto livery GZB WAP 7 30245. I reserved a sidelower berth for me in AC 2 Tier, it was right next to the door. A3 was my coach. An intuitive discernment warned me that I will be kept on irked by the frequent movement of passengers and catering/OBHS workers. All those were vanished as soon as I entered the coach and occupied my berth with the feel that I will be travelling to the financial capital of the nation in a train which many Railfans are voracious that they don’t have a train like this in their arena. That feel made me to brush aside all those teeny-weeny setbacks. The coach’s number was 030750. When the time was 16:25 , a voice announcement was made in Hindi and English which greeted the passengers and it also said snacks will be provided in short moment. Initially I thought that someone was playing his FM radio loudly, then I wondered why will a RJ wish a passenger bound to BCT, later I realized it was a voice announcement. It made me to feel silly since this is the first time I’m listening a voice note like this in a train. The King departed 3 minutes late from NDLS and started to gain speed after Tilak Bridge and it was immediately slowed down near Faridabad, coincidentally it was the place where the welcome snacks and tea was given. The tea was same as SBC Rajdhani which consists of a creamer, sugar, tea bag and flask having hot water. WAP7 was displaying its raw aggression, it touched 110Kmph near Ballabgarh and 133Kmph at Asaoti. After few minutes it came to a screeching halt, again it started it overtook a freight train which was obstructing its path. The next prey was mahakoshal express which was sidelined for the king. Next was the show of the undisputed king, It was showing its fury till Mathura outer. While entering into the junction where maximum number of tracks diverges from it (7 routes from MTJ, I think it should be the most in IR), even the king needed to be slowed down. It skipped MTJ at 30Kmph where Railfan Arvind Kumar snapped few pics of the WAP7 and the coach on which I travelled. After an hour since it skipped Mathura junction, soups and breadsticks were provided followed by dinner. The dinner menu was same as SBC Rajdhani. I was very much stultified with the same menu. I decided to centralize my attention to speed so that I can forget the food. The King was still persevered the high speed mode and it ruthlessly skipped the towns of Rajasthan and finally reached Kota with a delay of 20 minutes. At Kota many passengers boarded, At Kota I decided to call it a day and woke at BRC due to the huge furore made by my co passengers in the vicinal bay as they were about to disembark at BRC. I learnt that it had arrived 5 minutes ahead of the scheduled time. After a brief halt, it started from BRC and I decided to sleep for some more time. I woke at some 6:30 AM where the train was cooling its heels. Later the P7 started to cruise along the Mumbai suburbs at steady pace. The MPS was 120Kmph I guess (now upgraded to 130Kmph). It reached Borivali bang on time, it was very sad to see that only few passengers alight there during my trip. WR should monitor the number of passengers, who alight at BVI from this train, if it’s less than the stated norms then they can remove this halt. Else other station representatives may create ruckus stating that it skips their villages. At BVI, it overtook DEE-BDTS Garibrath which was powered with Ludhiana Alco. Later the King was slowdown and it had a parallel action with GR which almost overtook the king, I guess the king magnanimously allowed it so that the GR entertain its passengers who were onboard: P:P (just solacing myself and BCT Rajdhani fans). Later it overtook before it could divert to BDTS which made me to have a sigh of relief. Finally we reached BCT at 8:50AM, though a bit late, I loved the journey to the core. I will say that a journey in 12951 or 12952 is a must for every railfan.
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RATINGS:
Speed: I have two options for speed
A) 5/5
B) Option A [This train gets the top priority in its run]
Cleanliness: 5/5 [The cleanliness was awesome, OBHS team did a wonderful job]
Maintenance: 5/5 [I think the coach was 2003 made, original imported LHB coaches I feel. It has Controlled discharge system instead of biolet, the door of the restroom was a sliding one]
Food: 3/5 [The dinner was not hot, Quantity was less]
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PART 4 :
/blog/post/1611430