#ChennaiMeetNYD2015 (In the pic left to right: P. Jain, myself, SiGO, AP, and PKV Sir, clicked by Kohilan)
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Here is a beautiful Thursday story for you all. Not an ordinary Thursday it was, it was the auspicious Vaikunta Ekadeshi day, it was Krithigai (special day for the god of TN, Kartikeya), it was the first day of 2015 A.D., and it was the day that we had a guest in the polite, kind, and versatile PKV Sir. Of course, he has never ever been a guest to all...
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of us and one amongst us is an altogether different issue as he is one of the most knowledgeable and traveled people here on IRI. This is his second straight New Year visit to Chennai. Thank you, Sir, for gracing the occasion. I invite you, Sir, to please share your experience as well.
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The man was scheduled to arrive by 12028 SBC-MAS Shatabdi and depart by 22682/MAS-MYS weekly SF. As is our wont and as it has been some time since we, here in Chennai, met, we were all fired up to get this going in spite of a few no shows owing to the vacation time. Of course, they were all justified. Many had traveled to their hometowns. Chennai has this unfortunate past of not having many serious IRI people (read bloggers), but gone are those days and now it is on a par with any other town and boasts of a young, rare breed that comprises of rail fans that go about their passion without much hype and are silent go-getters.
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First to arrive in the city, though, was our enterprising ex-Admin, Kohilan of TUP, who had taken 12696 TVC-MAS SF, who, before I could realize what had happened, was short-terminated by our ever-smiling tech-master Arun Pandian at BBQ itself and had escaped for some early morning RF (now you would ask me how come 1000 hours is early; of course, it is on January 1 ;-D). As I arrived on the PFs of MAS, there was a lot to cover with locos and trains lined up, but RPF strength was at its best, positively curtailing my coverage to some quick, out-of-focus, light-marred shots.
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The famed Shatabdi had arrived and got shunted on PF2 and it was shocking that not a semblance of information was coming or heard of the train from the station personnel; in fact, the information as to the arrival of the train was provided by PKV Sir himself and I literally had to dash to PF2 from 10. Of note, there is this confusion regarding platform berthing of trains at MAS for some time now.
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Soon, IRI mates in our TVC Mail (SiGO), SG Prasad, Kohilan, and Arun Pandian had started trickling and rail topics had already started after the customary greetings in right earnest on PF4, where Yelagiri was shunted with an RPM P7 until a call from an IR friend of ours broke the conversation. At this juncture, I need to make a mention of Regional Rail Museum at Villiwakkam. We had initially planned to visit the place as it has not featured in our programs for a long time now. There were mixed opinions as to the possibility of it being open or closed on account of NYD, but a personal phone call by myself put to rest all speculations and the rude fact was that it was a holiday for them. Then, we decided to proceed towards the famed RPM to explore the history of the station. I do not have to mention again that it is the oldest surviving station in the entire country.
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We decided to explore the route via Vyasarpadi, Washermanpet, RPM, and then finally Beach. We made ourselves comfortable in a Pattabiram-bound EMU and alighted at Vyasarpadi and then hopped onto a waiting EMU towards RPM. The route from Washermanpet is a treasure trove and full of history with multi-gauge lines, a defunct MG line still in place, the intriguing signaling system, and a huge diamond crossing of the ever-busy lines. Life in this part of city is so bustling and infectious that it makes even the laziest a busy bee.
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After disembarking from the EMU at RPM, we walked, rather sneaked (shhh!), straight into RPM ELS, where a few P4s and P7s were undergoing AOHs and it was such a pleasant sight to see those beasts lying on those tables and undergoing whole-body oil massages. I expect Arun Pandian to reel out the technical briefing of happenings at the ELS as he is so adept at those things. As we were busy clicking came in an RPF constable, to whom we had to literally enact a drama of losing our way to the RPM station. The punch line of the day came from PKV Sir himself to the RPF on seeing the ELS board, “ELS-na enna?” (meaning “what do you mean by ELS?”) as if he didn’t know anything and we tried hard to control our instinct of laughing out loud. Then, we went into the area which is a wealth of information. Yes, the old MSMR (Madras & Southern Mahratta Railway) buildings and covered some precious MSMR furniture and infrastructure (will be posted under RPM). Suffice it to say that we couldn’t help but getting immersed in recollecting the history. We strolled back to the PF to take an MSB-bound EMU and then on to MS, where our RF journey ended for lunch and some relaxation.
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Post 6 PM, we had to look for Kohilan’s return train and had to get back to MAS in time; fortunately there were a few berths available in 12671/Blue Mountain post chart preparation. There, we were joined by Parsuwanath Jain and again ensued a good talk on rail subjects. Finally, it was time to call it a day and see Kohilan off and then PKV Sir at the AC waiting hall.
What a pleasure it was to host PKV Sir and meet like-minded people. Thank you folks for patient reading. Thank you, once again, Moderator for this wonderful platform.
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NB: More pics to come...

Day 1:
1. A total of ONLY two RailNeer water bottles per passenger for the entire journey provided on day 1 itself.
2. High Tea follows (No High-tea for SL class of travel) immediately.
3. Dinner served before Jhansi with ice cream.
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Day 2:
1. Newspaper, coffee/tea, breakfast provided before Balharshah.
2. Lunch immediately before or after Warangal with ice cream.
3. High-Tea after Vijayawada.
4. Dinner before Chennai with ice cream.

Pictures: Nameboard, loco & rake, Kapaleeshwara Temple, Chennai, and Lotus Temple, New Delhi.
#KnowYourTrain: The Grand Trunk Express (aka GT, The Legend). #TrainNo: 12615/16
#Purpose: Connecting North and South India, first one to do so, specifically New Delhi and Chennai.
#Etymology: Runs on the North-South Grand Trunk corridor, which is doubled and fully electrified,...
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again the first one to do so, hence named GT.
#NativeZone: SR (MAS)
#InauguralRun: January 1, 1929
#DaysofRun: Daily
#RakeMaker: ICF
#RakeSharing: Dedicated Rake.
#Coaches: 24-coacher
#Loco: ED WAP4
#States: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi.
#Zones: Travels between SR and NR via SCR, CR, WCR, and NCR.
#MajorRivers/Lakes:
TN: Buckingham Canal outside of Chennai Central, Kortralaiyar, and Ennore Creek/Pulicat Lake.
AP/Telangana: Pennar at Nellore, Palar near Bitragunta, Krishna at Vijayawada, Wyra before Khammam, Waddepally Lake at Warangal/Hanamkonda, Manair, and Godavari at Mancherial.
MH: Wardha at Balharshah and Jaipur Arm of the giant Lower Wunna Dam
MP: Narmada outside Hoshangabad, Betwa near Vidisha, Bina near Bina, Sindh, the tributary of Chambal, and Asan before Morena.
UP: Pahuj post Jhansi. Runs parallel to Yamuna from Agra to New Delhi, but never crosses it.
RJ: Chambal before Dholpur.
#MajorLanguages: Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, and Urdu.
#Distance: 2181 km, #IntermediateStations: 308, #Halts: 37
#Speed: Though GT’s most-pampered cousin, The Mighty TN, is often as the speed king, GT is no inferior considering the number of halts it has. While TN has just 10 halts (excluding Source and Destination), GT has 37. TN covers the distance of 2181 km in 33 hours @ an average speed of 66 kmph, GT does it in 35 hours @ an impressive speed of 62 kmph.
#BriefHistory: Grand Trunk (GT) is one of the oldest and most famous trains in India. When introduced in 1929, the train ran between Peshawar (today in Pakistan) and Mangalore, almost the length of the country and beyond. In fact, the GT was probably one of the longest running trains in the country at that time. The Peshawar to Mangalore run took about 104 hrs in all, later Mangalore was changed to Mettupalayam and then finally found its home at #Madras (the Portuguese/old name of Chennai). It was the fastest on the route during its heydays, but a lot younger and richer cousins have pushed the veteran to the background, but it has still not lost its SF tag and rightly so at an envious 62 kmph.
#Conclusion: Takes much load off TN Express. When it is comes to neatness, don’t blame the train, blame its managers, as well as pantry. Overall, worth traveling at least once on the Legend because it’s a special feeling to ride a Legend.