My Tribute to Bangalore Rajdhani on completing 23years of Commercial Service.
A Tribute Compilation coinciding with the Bangalore Rajdhani's Birthday, the train completed 23years of commercial service on 01/11/2015.
Special thanks to my friends Dheeraj Rao and Santhosh Kumar N for having lent me their pics to put together this compilation, and also to die-hard Bangalore Rajdhani Fan Prithvi Raj for having given me the thumbnail.
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Journey was undertaken by me in July 2013, when a portion of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh Rail Network, especially the GT line was badly affected by the rains. We departed from Bangalore led by KZJ WDM3A 18897, and reached Secunderabad 30mins late the next day. The rains were lashing out in Hyderabad city as well, which one can see while we cross a really wet Lingampalli Station and as the Narayanadri express gets shunted near Hussainsagar Jn. Prithvi and another friend Sai Venkat had come to meet me in SC and also confirmed that we would not be route diverted as was the case for a week or so preceding my Journey. LGD WAP7 30289 took over from Secunderabad. The rains continued their fury, and it can be clearly seen as we entered Kazipet for a scheduled halt delayed by 40mins. LGD WAP4 leading the Satavahana express to Secunderabad crossed us here.
After Secunderabad some key crossings included the Trivandrum bound Kerala express led by an ED WAP4 and the then Secunderabad Rajdhani in its charming ICF rake led by another LGD WAP7. In the meanwhile our MPS run continued through Ramagundam and we were looped at Sirpur Kagazhnagar. After Sewagram Jn., we caught up with a horribly late running Sanghamitra express at Tuljapur, while we looped, it was being held up in the mainline. It was allowed to go ahead of us and was later overtaken by us at Kohli. We reached Nagpur with a delay of 2hrs.
Post Nagpur, we entered a green carpet surrounding in Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border. As twilight set in, we skipped stations like Pandhurna and Chichonda at restricted pace. The delay of 2hrs was maintained till Jhansi, after which all hell broke loose. The rains had delayed many trains which had cleared the Bangalore Rajdhani's path to a considerable extent. Jhansi-Agra Cantt. stretch was covered in 2hrs 5mins at an astounding average of 107kmph. We managed to cover up a large portion of the delay.
The next morning actions include the MPS skips of Palwal and Asaoti, and landing up at NZM with a delay of just 50mins in comparison to the 2hr delay at NGP the previous day. On the morning of day three, we crossed the NZM-KOTA spl led by an ET WAG5 and the Mumbai CST bound Punjab Mail led by a GZB WAP7. I had missed the crossing of the Bhopal Shatabdi at TKD outer, as my father and I had to prepare for getting down at NZM, our luggage was a little heavy. The KSK was ready to depart as soon as we entered NZM pf4. It was a memorable Journey to say the least. From being scared of heavy delays at one point, to reaching NZM just 50mins late, it was a journey which was etched in my mind. Please do enjoy the compilation. YT Link- click here