Return Trip Report 30th june 2012-1st chain report!!
15 days back as I tried booking from MV to SBC by 16231 came a shocking revealation-W/L 178 for a saturday evening-Not wanting to take risk asked my father-he asked me to try various quotas but all in vain-train had GNWL from MV all way till ED
As I tried various options from Erode stumbled upon the 16538 weekly which had 120 tickets-checked the option from MV with jan shatabdi of 600 tickets and combo buffer of 2 hours-Asked my parents who agreed for same-so booking done!!
Part 1: Was very excited for it was my 1st ever travel by a jan shatabdi but seat numbers dismayed me-104,105 and 106-but my aunt who regularly travels...
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by this convinced me-last row is only 5 seats and 106 is a window-thrilled me to no extent
Reached station at 14:15 and the train was on PF-3-D-10 was the last coach before C1-TNP WDM2 was the hauler for us
Late running 16853 from chennai Egmore entered MV at 14:20 hrs with another TNP WDM2 onto platform 1 and left at 14:30-the board had word Cholan written in small letters only in Tamil
We got the starter at 14:45 and the WDM2 started toying with the rake and reached MPS in no time-chased down the tracks and we were stopped before Aduthurai-probably 16853 had to wait for crossing with 16234 TPJ-MV and we had to wait to clear-despite all this things took just 27 mins to reach Kumbakonam and a huge crowd boarded the train
started from kumbakonam and reached good speeds but Cholan ahead kept deterring us-reached Thanjavur at 15:50 hrs where Tirnelveli-Mayiladuthurai Pass was on Pf-4 and rockfort rake on PF-5-after a small halt at budalur we reached TPJ at 17:00hrs onto Pf-1
TNP WDM2 was detached but not re-attached-another loco was attached at the rear and hence halt time was just 10 mins-crawled all the way till Tiruchi fort and picked up speed and in the next stop crossed a DMU-Good speeds were curtailed again by a goods on straight line forcing him to enter the loop and slowly entered karur at 18:20 hrs where a GOc WDM2 hauled Erode-Trichy Pass left
We didnt get the starter and the boards on Pf-1 started displaying 16339-so that was the crossing-Erode wDM3A hauled 16339 from CSTM entered (Pantry car was of Tirukkural's) and we left Karur at 18:40
Problems persisting still and crawling behind a passenger to cross a goods again in loop-reached pugalur at 19:10 hrs with the milestone displaying 50 kms to go i was confident we would reach only at 20:00
The loco pilot seemed to be fumed and the train started rocking to slow down again at 19:35-not for another crossing but to enter Erode-slowly entered PF-2 of Erode with Yercaud on Platform 3 and CAPe jayanthi on Pf-1-halted slowly at 19:40 hrs!
To be contd....