Part III : Observations at Miraj Junction (MRJ) and the illusive Miraj-UBL Express!
After having dinner in a restaurant near Miraj ST Stand (State Transport Bus Stand, around 500 meters from MRJ railway station), I returned back to station at around 21:15 hrs.
Miraj (MRJ) station has 6 platforms and big yard at the Pune end of the station. The tracks are curved while coming into
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station (from Pune side). So, a train coming from Pune side is fully visible (as a curved train) from long distance, as the train approaches MRJ from PUNE side.
On PF6 of MRJ, I saw rake of Miraj-Pune Passenger (again with complex board names) and dead blue PUNE WDM3A # 18773R waiting little ahead of this rake. While entering station, I saw PF1 with lots of crowd waiting for some train.
Green PUNE WDM2 # 17983 removed the rake of passenger train marked as "Miraj <--> Hubli <--> Dharwad" from PF2 and took it towards outer yard on Pune end of MRJ station. Soon, at around 21:23 hrs, late running 1018 Yashvantpur-Dadar Chalukya Exp arrived on PF1 with orange Shakti WDG3A loco. Due to darkness and rake of MRJ-UBL-DWR passenger, I could not see loco shed or loco road number. Soon, 1018 YPR-DR Chalukya Exp left towards Pune and on PF4, 1012 Kolhapur-Mumbai Mahalakshmi Exp arrived behind brown PUNE WDM2 # 17628!
Boards on 1012 KOP-CSTM Mahalaxmi Exp confirmed rake sharing arrangement (RSA) between Mahalakshmi Exp and Siddheshwar Exp! Board were "Solapur <--> Mumbai <--> Kolhapur" as well as "Siddheshwar Express / Mahalakshmi Express"! Mahalakshmi Exp was 18 coach long. Soon, announcement was made that 2780 Goa Exp is expected on PF3!
2780 Nizamuddin-Vasco Goa Exp arrived on PF3 at MRJ behind orange PUNE WDG3A # 14886. As Goa Exp and cleared the single line, 1012 Mahalakshmi Exp proceeded towards Pune.
In the mean time, 1629 Sangli-Miraj Passenger arrived on PF2 behind skyblue/yellow GTL WDM3A # 18972R! This passenger train is run for operational reasons, as there is no rake stabling facilities at Sangli (SLI). This 1629 SLI-MRJ passenger had hardly 20-30 travellers in the entire train!
Now, I enquired about 1047 Miraj-Hubli Exp to 2-3 vendors and a tea stall owner. Most of them did not know that the
train I was speaking is 1047 MRJ-UBL Express! They confirmed that night 00:20 departing Hubli Passenger will leave from PF4. I was not sure about 1047 Express now! I had confirmed ticket of 1047 is sleeper coach "S1"!
I waited at PF4 and soon, a rake marked with complex rake sharing arrangement (RSA) as
"Miraj <--> Hubli <--> Bellary <--> Hubli
Hubli <--> Dharwad <--> Hubli <--> Miraj
Miraj <--> Londa <--> CastleRock <--> Miraj" was parked/stabled on PF4. All the coaches were locked! There is 1 SL coach, however, it did not have any indication that it is S1 coach, nor there was any reservation chart pasted on the same!
Soon, 1 staff member opened most of the locks of the coaches, and before I could catch him (to confirm that this is 1047 MRJ-UBL Exp), he vanished! A group of 3-4 family members entered into SL coach. I entered the SL coach and asked them if this is 1047 MRJ-UBL Exp! Again, they were 'blank'! After some discussions, 1 person in the group confirmed that this is S1 coach of Hubli train which departs midnight at 00:20 hrs! Ahh! So, finally, I seemed to have got right coach in right train!
I kept my luggage on my seat at around 11:15 hrs after the above discussion and went at other door of the coach where another family was getting into the coach. I rechecked with them and they also confirmed this to be S1 coach for Hubli! Nowhere on the boards of the entire train, I could see numbers 1047/1048! Few beggars and some travelers with unreserved tickets were now roaming S1 coach, some of them even occupying the seats! Again, I started thinking that this must not be 1047 Hubli Express!
Soon, at around 11:30 hrs, 1 staff member came and started the lights/fans in the SL coach (from central switch)! And
he also called 1 RPF guy, who came and abused/scolded those beggers and forced them out of SL coach (by little beating them using his stick)! And soon, 1 TTE (travelling ticket examiner) arrived! He checked my and other's tickets, put some wavy/curly pen marks on the ticket (scribbled the ticket) and made tick marks in his reservation chart. Later, he was busy issuing few empty seats to those having unreserved tickets and ready to pay fare difference.
So, this is the plight of 1047/1048 MRJ-UBL-MRJ Express! This train has only 1 sleeper coach and the same rake later runs as 312 Hubli-Bellary passenger from Hubli in the morning (departure 08:00 hrs)! And nowhere on the rake, there is mention of 1048/1047 or Express words!
Even the announcement system at MRJ never announced this 1047 Express train! All the time they kept announcing
trains like Mahalakshmi, Goa Exp, Sahyadri Exp, etc, however, not a single word/line about 1047 UBL Exp!
In the mean time, blue PUNE WDM3A # 18773R got attached to my train, the 'illusive' 1047 Miraj-Hubli Exp! Also, 1024 Kolhapur-Mumbai Sahyadri Exp arrived on PF1 with skyblue/yellow GTL WDM2A # 16390.
My train departed at around 00:23 hrs (late by 2-3 minutes) and I went into deep sleep!
Part 4 to follow soon with next day observations at Hubli!