Travelogue : 21 June 2013
Many passengers from the mountain train were waiting for this one and only connecting train towards Chennai. An Erode WDM-3D brought in the local passenger service from Coimbatore. The loco reversed and pushed this train into a resting track. It then set about joining the two halves of the Nilagiri express which were resting on separate tracks due to the lack of one long track there.
The first half of the train was brought onto the platform and the line was switched behind it, it then reversed onto...
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the second half of the coaches to which it was attached.
The complete train set came onto the platform at 717pm. My RAC status during booking had changed to a confirmed side upper seat in Sleeper. I was to take this train upto Salem. Found my seat and sat there. The coach was clean and the smell of cleaning agents implied that disinfection of some sort had been done. I planned to pick up dinner at Coimbatore junction where the train was scheduled to halt for 25 minutes to change to electric engine as well as add on more coaches. The train left MTP on time towards CBE. It made a brief halt at Coimbatore North outer as well as in the station for signal clearance. The max speed on this stretch was around 80 kmph.
Had lovely parotha and some ordinary biriyani from the veg refreshment room on the platform parcelled and ate it in the train as it left Coimbatore. The locomotive that took us from here was an ED WAP-4. I constantly kept track of my position through GPS and co-related it with trainenquiry.com as well. The train moved at tremendous speed and justified its superfast status keeping to its schedule with about a 10 minute delay here and there.
I must make a mention of the well mannered TTE here, He was very polite and was helping waitlisted/RAC passengers to find a seat. Even for the drunkard who was verbally abusing him in the presence of his brother and wife. People like him are to be respected as he was sticking strictly to the guidelines of his job and being very vigilant. One needs compassion as well as rational thinking to carry out such a job where human interaction plays a pivotal role.
Got down at Salem Junction at around 1150pm.
Thanks for reading. Hope your wonderful travels take you to wonderful places....
Travel well, Travel Responsibly !
Cheers,
Amit C Javgal (2013).
note: photos and videos will be posted soon after sorting.