#ObservationsAtPune *** 6 Years Ago Today at Pune! *** Meeting 3 IR fans from UK!!! ***
Today, Saturday, 23-Jan-2010, I got an opportunity to meet 3 British Alco Lovers, who are ardent fans of Indian Railways! At Pune Railway Station, I spent around 15 minutes with Jonathan Lee, Adrian Short and Mark Sutton, who were traveling by 6532 YPR-AII Garib Navaz Exp. It was very nice experience to meet IR fans who are not Indians! Due to their sheer love for IR, they are on 16 day tour to India! For more details, please refer point number 12 below.
Thanks...
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to Manish (IRFCA Bangalore), who informed me about these 3 UK alco lovers travel plan so that I could meet them at Pune!
Following are the observations at Pune Railway Station on Saturday, 23-01-2010, from 18:30 hrs to 19:30 hrs!
1) 2129 Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Exp departed from PF1 with turquoise PUNE WDG3A Shakti Loco.
2) 1547 Pune-Baramati Shuttle departed from PF5 with PUNE WDM3D # 11182 power.
3) Pit line near PF6 had blue GTL WDM2 # 17944.
4) 1022 Pune-Mumbai Indrayani Exp departed from PF2 with blue PUNE WDM3A # 17910 engine.
5) At 18:40 hrs, electric trip shed (ETS) had 3 BL WCAM1 and one KYN WCAM3 locomotives.
6) Yellow PUNE WDS6 # 36115 parked the rake of outgoing 9311 on PF4. Later, 9311 Pune-Indore Exp left with BL WCAM1 # 21836 at 19:20 hrs, i.e. late by 4 hours!
7) KYN WDM2 # 18379 was busy with shunting work.
8) 1009 Mumbai-Pune Sinhgad Exp came on PF5 with KYN WCAM3 # 21895.
9) Lonavala-Pune EMU (12 car AC/DC EMU) came on PF2 and went back to Lonavala at 19:05 hrs, i.e. late by 5 minutes.
10) 1019 Mumbai-Bhubaneshawar Konark Exp came on PF3 with orange KZJ WDM3A # 18894R and departed with same loco
11) 1050 Kolhapur-Ahmedabad Exp came on PF1 with blue PUNE WDM2 # 17936 and got ready with BL WCAM1 # 21816!
12) 6532 Yashvantpur-Ajmer Garib Navaz Exp came on PF2 with KJM WDG3A # 13054. I first met Jonathan Lee (nick name Shovell), who was standing at the door of AC2T coach. He works as Railway Controller with British Railways. Later, inside AC coach, I met Adrian Short, who works as TTI (Traveling Ticket Inspector) with British Railways. In the mean time, Mark Sutton, who is a computer programmer, was busy buying some food stuff on PF2. These IR fans are on a 16 day tour to India. They left SBC/YPR
yesterday and will reach ADI tomorrow. From Ahmedabad, they are going to Udaipur to enjoy some Meter Gauge (MG) action.
Further, they are also going to visit Narkatiaganj (NKE) to see MG action there! Jonathan wished that GNZ Exp be hauled with twin WDG3A locos (to be more precise GY twins), however, today, it was with KJM WDG3A single engine. He mentioned that they had specifically chosen to travel by 6532 GNZ Exp as this train is diesel engine hauled throughout the entire run. Among many other
things that we discussed in 15 minutes at Pune station, Lee mentioned that he liked the rock cuttings and old MG alignment in Ambale/Shindvane section as well as about his memories of good old KYN WCG2 locos (from his previous trip to India). It was very
nice experience to meet these British folks who are IR fans and are here on a tour enjoying Indian Railways!
6532 YPR-AII Garib Navaz Exp departed with same KJM power at around 19:30 hrs.
13) In the mean time, Daund-Pune Shuttle came with orange PUNE WDG3A Shakti loco.
14) 6381 Mumbai-Kanniyakumari Jayanti Janata Exp came on PF3 with KYN WCAM3 # 21942 and got ready with AEB (Auto Emergency Brake) fitted UBL WDG4 # 12035. This WDG4 was in SHF (Short Hood Forward) mode towards Daund direction.
15) Blue PUNE WDM2 # 17938R came from loco shed.