Chambal Express/12176

After the initial bout of railfanning, the 5 of us boarded the train. To our pleasant surprise. one of the trip members, who was to follow us later by the Kalka Mail at 1940 was already there at HWH to send us off. And that was Souvik, whose fondness for the SLB, made him opt for a different train where he secured a berth of his choice. BG had booked the onward tickets for we 5 and to my disappointment, increased my age to 65, a full 3 years more than what was warranted by the truth. But these were mere aberrations. We tried our level best to rope in Souvilk with us on a fresh WL ticket by Chambal, but our efforts were in vain.
The train departed on time and it was a great journey where 5 admins were...
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travelling together on what is PROBABLY THE FIRST SUCH INSTANCE IN IRI. Discussions on rail matters were uppermost in the schedule of activities. But Arkya, whose VIDEOS SPEAK LOUDER THAN MY MERE WORDS, was mostly silent, filming the crossings and overtakes including that of the famous Sealdah New Delhi Duronto at about 9.30 pm at MUGMA. Although all 5 had met before, not once, but several times, it was as wonderful ever, since this was the first time we were undertaking a long train journey. At Dhanbad at about 22.15 hrs, BG and I were surveying the platform on which our train had halted. (contd...)
PS. The seventh member from Kolkata, Dipyaman Basu, had reached BSB the previous day by Vibhuthi Express. Soumitra Chawathe from Pune had also reached early morning on 3rd March with Tejas arriving later that day in the afternoon by a flight from Hyderabad via Delhi.