I am in a bit of dilemma. There have been several requests for a trip report of my journey yesterday from Howrah to Asansol. But what can I write about a trip which finished no sooner than it started. and lasted for less than 3 hours. Nonetheless, in order to pander to popular sentiment I shall risk an attempt to post my limited experiences of the journey.
As against the STD of 8.20 am, I reached HWH Station at 7.20 am and engaged myself in solo railfanning for nearly an hour. Did the rounds from PF 1 to PF 23 or rather in the reverse order starting from 23. Shall post separately details of the trains berthed in each PF. But the...
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physical exercise of traversing the entire breadth of the HWH station concourse was indeed a welcome substitute for the MORNING WALK which I had to sacrifice yesterday.
Even at that early hour the station was like a beehive and the number of passengers in EXIT MODE was much greater than those in the ENTRY MODE. Resultantly, there was a huge demand-supply mismatch in the availability of taxis evidenced by the serpentine queues in front of the pre-paid taxi booths, the meter taxi lines and for the disorganised grey market premium taxis (same types of cabs which take you FOR A RIDE, both LITERALLY AND METAPHORICALLY at INFLATED RATES NEGOTIATED BY TOUTS).
Stalls inside the station premises as well as hawkers were doing brisk business catering to myriad wants of several hundred consumers of whom I was one buying newspapers, RAIL NEER and coffee in that order. The humidity was ENERGY-SAPPING even if the temperature was not and at the end of my nearly hour-long RF inspection, my shirt was drenched to the core. I felt I had been at the receiving end of a thundershower whose effects had been mercifully confined to my UPPER TORSO. At 8.17 am, I finally boarded the POORVA and occupied my seat no. 33 in 3AC Coach B2. As we emerged from the shelter of PF 9 at 8.20 am, there was a parallel run for a few seconds with the 12262 HWH-CSTM Duronto which also departed at 8.20 from PF 21. However, hopes of an elongated race till the SER/ER separator at the Tikipara car shed were belied as the POORVA stopped abruptly no sooner than it started. ALARM CHAIN PULLING, I guess. The Duronto thus stole a march and was soon out of sight.
The train then made its second start and attained dizzying speeds in a jiffy reaching Burdwan at 9.30 am. I went to S13 and found more than 20 commuters from that coach disembarking at Burdwan to attend their offices. Illegal yes but then who is to stop them. Thank God they did not board the AC coaches.
After a 2 minute stopover at Burdwan, the POORVA resumed its relentless run reaching Durgapur on time at 10.20 despite speed restrictions on a 15 kms stretch between Panagarh and Durgapur, where it crawled. It reached my destination, Asansol at 10.58 am, 2 mns ahead of schedule, registering an impressive run of 200 kms in just 158 mns. Incidentally, this train reached its final destination, New Delhi, today morning at 7.18 am, again 2 minutes BEFORE TIME.
As I emerged out of the station, the digital thermometer indicated a reading of only 43 degrees Celsius in the shade. But soon I was comfortably ensconced in the comfort of an AC sedan which seemed to make light of the rigours of the climate, as I covered the 20 kms distance to my factory, located close to the famous MAITHAN DAM and the hallowed shrine of MA KALYANESHWARI, on the border with Jharkhand in just even time of 20 minutes.