JOURNEY REPORT
Reached YPR at 9.50 am on 28th May with my wife and daughter well before the scheduled departure of my train at 11.15 am. Perhaps we erred to the extent of being overcautious in view of the infamous Blore Monday morning office traffic. There were a few hiccups though. Despite leaving home at 8.30 am, my son-in-law's car developed a flat just after we emerged from the garage. A 45 minute delay ensued before we could hire a call taxi and finally left home at 9.15 am only to reach YPR in 45 mns flat thanks to the route suggested by Tejas.
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the send-off party was my son-in-law, son and admins Tejas and Shahshank Bhat. As we crossed Baiyyappanahalli, I showed my daughter and wife the spots we had occupied on Saturday evening during the ADMIN KUMBH MELA there. EVERGREEN GREAT MEMORIES OF A WONDERFUL GET-TOGETHER. Little things that bring MUCH CHEER TO THE HEART amidst the ENNUI AND INSIPIDITY of routine life. As my train thundered through WHITEFIELD, yet another admin ASHOK was present there to WAVE GOODBYE to me.
The train reached Renigunta, its first technical halt bang on time at 16.30 and passed Gudur at 17.55. But after Ongole it started slowing down and was restricted to an MPS of 60 kmph and started losing time. Lunch, evening tea and dinner were served in that order and the fare was WHOLESOME and GOOD, although the PANEER SABJI was getting repetitive. I occupied my daughter's upper berth 62 while my wife and daughter were in the side berths at 71 and 72. It was early to bed after the physical and mental turmoil of a whirlwind week-long visit to Blore.
Morning I woke up at 6.45 am and was hoping that we would be breezing past Palasa as the train was scheduled to depart from Viziangaram at 4.40 am. But to my amazement I found that we were just ambling past Simhachalam North. Reached VZM at 7.35 am, a full 3 hours late and spoke to the outgoing LP. I asked him the reason for the delay and he said it was because of the SPEED CAUTION whereby he was not permitted to exceed 50/60 kmph at night. Apparently this had something to do with the arrest of a political leader in AP, though I found it difficult to co-relate the delay to that development.
Mercifully we were allowed to overtake the 12704 Falaknama at Icchapuram at 9.50 am but the train lost more time instead of making up for the delay. The journey, but for the late running, was otherwise uneventful and fairly comfortable. In view of the delay, evening tea and snacks were served after we passed Kharagpur at about 6 pm. A few Tata-bound passengers who wanted to detrain at Kharagpur were sorely disappointed as the train did not stop and passed through a middle line. Between Santragachi and Howrah there was a bit of a see-saw race betwen the Duronto and the empty rake of the 12863 HWH-YPR Express (scheduled to depart from HWH at 20.35). After a series of ups and downs the DURONTO had its right of way into PF 17 at 1950 , a full 230 mns late. Incidentally, trainenquiry.com reveals that it reached HWH at 1920, when it was actually passing SANKRAIL. It was a journey which was really NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT and yet by sheer FORCE OF HABIT I am posting my impressions of the same for your perusal.