RAILFANNING AT MY HOMETOWN!
It was saturday the 25th of July, when I set off for Kolkata. I reached Dhanbad Junction at 10:00 AM so to click some photographs of Dhanbad Junction. I was aiming for the 12988 Ajmer-Sealdah Superfast and planned to avoid the 13152 JammuTawai-Kolkata Express.
The PRS came to life and announced that both of the train were delayed by over an hour. Still wanting to avoid the 13152 I took a stroll along Platform number 1, and clicked a few snaps.
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it can be seen, it was a beautiful overcast morning, with occassional torrential downpour. The station drenched in the rains looked very fresh and was an eye-soother.
At 11:00AM sharp 53061 BWN-HTE passenger chugged in with a TATA WAM4, I couldnot take a picture as a freight train blocked the view as the passenger entered, simulataneously VSKP WDM3A 13282 chugged with the 12832 BBS-DHN Garib Rath. I was cursing the freight for a wasted oppurtunity,when all of sudden a twin-honk alerted me .I turned to see HWH WAP7 30311 pulling in 22387 HWH-DHN Black Diamond Express.
At 11:45AM the 68087 Bankura-Dhanbad came in,simultaneouslly 63522 GAYA-DHN-ASN memu chugged in.
At 12:00 sharp JAMMU-KOAA express came in. Majority of my fellow passengers got in, myself and the daily passengers waited on for the 12988 which the PRS announced would be arriving shortly. The daily passengers theorized that that 12988 would overtake 13152 sometime ahead, so it would be wise to wait for 12988. Why settle for Silver when you can get Gold,right!
An hour later we would be deeply regretting our decisions.
12988 came in with HWH WAP4 22286 at 12:15PM, I quickly scurried around looking for a seat. None, there was none, and none of the passengers around were inclined to share their precious seats. I stood at the door, amongst the commotion, hoping that I would get a seat at ASN. 1 hour of standing isn't such a bad deal ,right! Besides I was getting a beautiful view of the natural scenery and would be getting a good look at DHN trip Loco shed as the train would passby. I was happy.
The train waited and waited, would'nt start. Some of my fellow passengers started speculating that probably the incoming 12382 NDLS-HWH Poorva Express would be given track priority over the 12988 as Poorva was the senior train. An intimadating honk followed. I put my head out and saw MGS WAP4 22509 draw 12382 to a rest at platform no 2 beside my train. My heart sank! The daily passengers were right, Poorva would get track priority. I watched with a sad face, as almost all the daily passengers jumped ship to the Poorva. Only an old grumpy uncle remained. Like me he had purchased a ticket for SDAH. I stood there looking at probably two hour delay in my plans.
Half an hour went by, none of the two trains budged an inch. It was then a commotion was heard outside of the platform. I stepped out of the train,and went up to the Loco-Pilot to ask him about the cause of delay. What he said sank my heart!
What happened was that 13152 whilst passing through had tore open a piece of overhead wire with it's loco's Pantograph at Pradhankanta. Repairs were underway,it would take atleast two hours to get the wire functional again! I was devastated! In my imagination I could see the HWH WAP4 of the 13152 laughing out loud as it had prevented not one, but two of it's illustrious cousins to overtake it. The Jammutawai would reach KOAA on time, while the usually punctual 12988 and 12382 would reach their destinations atleast 3 hours late.
Meanwhile the 68088 Dhanbad-Bankura MEMU was ready to depart on it's homerun to Bankura, but was stuck at Platform 1A for the same reason. All these while Black and Garib Rath got shunted and 13352 ALLP-DHN express had arrived on Platform 7/8. Meanwhile the VSKP WDM3A was all over the place chugging around happily, honking heavily as if to remind us that it did'nt require the wires to move around.
It was 14:30PM.I was still conteplating the 13152's devillish act of jealously when suddenly there was a honk from one of the two WAP4s. I put my head out, and saw that it was ours.
Ours signal showed a faint yellow glow in place of the bloodish red, that was their until a few seconds ago. I turned to my right on hearing a noise and saw a mass immigration of passengers from the Poorva into our train. With a faint start, the train slowly started out of the platform. With multiple triumphant honks the WAP4 started accelerating out of DHN JN. We passed by Loco Shed but I wasn't interested anymore, I was simply too tired. The solitary WAP7 30311 was resting peacefully, two dirty MGS WAP4 lay as if dead, a very dirty rajdhani livered ancient MGS WAM4 was the only thing with it's panto on.
The end of the Dhanbad Loco Tank and the flash of green of the signal post were the sign that we were finally leaving DHANBAD behind.......and gradually speeding towards SDAH!
These are the clips that I clicked on that day:-
1,2 & 3 show WAP7 30311 getting ready to shunt the Black-Diamond Express
4 shows the BBS-DHN Garib rath in the background of the WAP7
4&7 are panoramas of DHN JN taken during a light shower.
5 shows 68088 ready for Bankura
6 Self Explanatory
8 & 9 show the unusually deserted trip Loco Shed from the platfrom
10&11 show the station during a light shower
12 shows HWH WAP4 22286 arriving with 12988 at platform 1
13,14,15 & 16 show the arrival of 12382 with MGS WAP4 22509
PS:- I reached SDAH at 19:00 hours that day. The train was stuck outside Dum-Dum Jn for a futher 1 hour.
The Poorva reached much before 12988
Call it Deja-vu but I spotted MGS WAP4 22509 next day at HWH station, shunting a LHB rake of the Poorva EXP.
Very soon, my return journey to DHN from HWH by 12340 HWH-DHN COALFIELD EXPRESS!

Never Before, Never Again; Garib Rath Express Crushes Same Train Twice At Full MPS - Indian Railways.....
A Story Beyond Belief....
Generally, People talk a lot of about the journeys that were exciting, thrilling, and well, the kind of stuff people usually associate with extreme rides. For me personally, reading about such journeys was one, and experiencing it was another. It all began, when my Friend Adithya planned to cover the MG section of NER, from Izzatnagar to Aishbagh with a couple of his friends, and I was also invited and accepted to...
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go with willingness. After many twists and thirlling turns to the plot, the penultimate day arrived. The scene was like this, he was on his way to Delhi by the Karnataka Sampark Kranti express and thanks to woeful section controlling, it was more than 90 Mins late, and expected to reach Nizamuddin no earlier than 10:45. And hence I was to book his Tatkal ticket to accompany me to Lucknow the next day. Adithya suggested I try his ticket in the Saharsa Garib Rath, since there were more no. of seats available for Tatkal booking. But as luck would have it, the seats vanished before I could even sneeze, and then I shifted focus to the hero of this story – “Kashi Vishvanath Express” Saharsa Garibrath was the Anti-Hero of course. Be it luck or less demand, even at 12 Mins past 10 AM, seats were available in the Second AC of KV; as Kashi Vishvanath is called. With affirmation I booked his ticket,and it was decided that he would be traveling with me. I had a confirmed ticket in First AC of the same train with my family. The next day we landed in the New Delhi Railway Station at around 11:10, close to 25 Mins before departure time, Adithya speculated that the Garib Rath might have left already. Our Friends Dennis and Aditya Kaushal were there to see us off. It was only then that I checked to find out that the GR had not even reached New Delhi yet. As we kept chit-chatting away with time, Adithya went to talk to the TTE to check if he can join me in HA1 by paying the difference in fare. All was said and done, It was 11:25 Hrs, and we heard announcements of the Garib Rath Express being expected shortly on Platform No.15. We thought our departure would be delayed as the Garib Rath was a high priority train and would mostly be sent out ahead of us.11:35 Hrs, we were still not given the starter. The Kanpur Shatabdi played spoilsport this time, it was received in Platform No. 5 and that meant our switches were blocked till it entered. 11:40 Hrs, our train departed with a jerk, and Adithya as usual started recording the departure. He called me to the door to bid goodbye to friends and as we cautiously negotiated the switches and proceeded towards Shivaji Bridge, we received the shock of our lives, as the Garib Rath was still on Platform No 15 and hadn’t departed as yet. This only meant one thing, an Overtake was inevitable.
As our train cruised past Anand Vihar, Chander Nagar and Sahibabad, I found out that the Garib Rath had departed from NDLS @ 11:55, 45 Mins behind schedule and 15 Mins behind us. Adithya swore that the overtake might happen at Ghazibad itself,since we had a scheduled halt and the Garib Rath had a Non-Stop run till Moradabad Jn. But shocked again, we departed Ghaziabad after our 2 Min commercial halt. Then came our regular RF spots, Mehrauli skipped, Dasna skipped, Pilkuwa – Commercial halt; halted in mainline PF, 2 Mins, departed, all stations with loops were either skipped or we halted in the mainline. The only next possible spot for the inevitable ovetake was Hapur Jn. Being a Jn. and a loop-line halt, both of us assumed that the overtake would happen there mostly. But the GR didn’t manage to shorten the gap between us. In fact it had increased, by the time we departed Hapur, the GR was still in Pilkuwa. After crossing the Dibrugarh Rajdhani in Hapur,we raced towards Garhmukteswar and one by one all our regular RF spots were skipped brutally at MPS - Babugarh, Kuchesar Road, Simbhooli etc. Garhmukteswar city was our next halt, also a loop-line halt. But here too the GR was not close enough for an overtake and hence the controller decided to let us ahead. The Delhi bound Uttarakhand Sampark Kranti crossed us here. We had only 2 halts to go before Moradabad Jn. – Gajraula Jn. and Amroha. The overtake must happen in one of them, if not in any wayside station, for the GR’s very pride was at stake. Imagine, trailing a M/E till almost 150 Km with no halts. Finally, the overtake happened at Amroha. LDH WDM3A stamped its authority at MPS with the 18 coach GR. But the best was yet to come, best for us, worst for the GR. Thanks to some awful section controlling, we managed to catch up with the GR still stranded at Moradabad Jn. Our friend Zahaib who came to meet us, gave us the news that the GR was held up in PF No.4, since some other train had just departed from PF No.1 ahead of us, the same PF No.1 which we had entered. We received a fantastic surprise when we actually were given the starter ahead of the GR; GR Shocked, Controller Rocked.
We charged ahead towards Rampur Jn. Now, this was a first time either of us saw such a thing happening, both shocked and excited, we kept speculating as to where the next Overtake would happen. Despite many loop-line stations en-route, Kashi Vishwanath Express skipped all of them with authority. The new crew were in no mood to slow down and cracked at MPS wherever possible. Despite our 25 Mins delay, the GR was nowhere in sight to overtake us again and increase that delay of ours. Bareilly halt was negotiated at around quarter past 5. After we departed Bareilly; we tracked the GR to find out that it had arrived BE a few minutes after our departure. So we were sure that OT would happen sometime soon. And so it did, in our first commercial halt after Bareilly – Pitambarpur. Close to 7 Mins into our halt, neither the GR appeared nor did we get the starter. Our patient wait reached the 10th minute when the mainline starter and advanced starter went to green in a matter of seconds. The adrenaline rush peaked and our excitement levels knew no bounds. The 2 of us took our positions. And scaring away the un-expecting UR passengers, the rebuilt LDH Diesel Monster hunk once again charged past us at MPS with the Saharsa bound Garib Rath Express, the anti-hero finally had the last laugh, but undoubtedly the hero of this adventure was Kashi Vishwanath Express, which got priority over a premier class train not once but twice in the same route that too. After about 6 Mins of the GR’s re-overtake, we were given the starter, and Adithya and I rejoiced this adventurous ride all the way to Lucknow. It will remain a journey etched in our memory. Hope all of you who read this description find it just as exciting as we did when we experienced it live.
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