kr-mumbai trip report

I had been on a memorable visit to Mumbai (through KR & briganza ghats) .
As I wanted to cover KR in day time , I split my trip in two parts.
Mangalore-Madgaon while going......
Mumbai-Madgaon on the return.......

Here is my report :

I started of with a comfortable journey by an overnight luxury bus to Mangalore from SBC.
There are no trains between MAQ & SBC due to on going gauge conversion.
By the time we reached the half way mark , we became a part of a convoy of several (beautiful) buses.As 9pm-11pm is a peak hour slot with about a 100 services departing SBC in this interval.Over a period of time this leads to convoy formations on NH 48 !

DAY ONE:

Arrived at Hampankatta at 5:30am.
2 mins walk to the beautiful mangalore railway station.
After some freshning up I boarded the KR passenger to madgaon .
This one is hauled by a ERODE 2c & has abt 8 coaches , all in KR livery. All are second class Chair Car, except the guard vans(SLR coach).
Train left at sharp 6:50 am & smoked away to kankanadi .At surathkal , my friend from KREC joined me. KR starts from here & I got the first glimpse of the disciplined KR staff in full uniform. Quite surprising & impressive that even gatemen & gangmen wear a uniform . The uniform is more Indian Air Force type !! From MAQ upto kundapur the train travels mostly through the trenches ! , hence I could not see much of scenery. The train bursted through the various tunnels & bridges at high speed (110). The same on the scenic Sharavati river bridge too. Some how I managed to take a few snaps.
I should say the KR pass is a real "Super Fast" ! It covers a distance of 320km in 6 hours & 30mins !! Roughly 45 kmph avg speed !! That too with many stops & crossings !! Considering that it is a 'passenger' train (which halts at all stns enroute) , the speed is quite remarkable.
We had a crossing with Gandhidam-Nagercoil exp at Bhatkal & TVC bound rajdhani at Balli .
We were 10 mins early at Balli , but had to halt for 30mins for Rajdhani crossing.
It was a thrill to see & click the WDP2 hauled high speed rajdhani .
We reached Madgaon bang on time 1:30pm.

NOTE: KR is not 'Indian Railways' , but is similar to Public Sector Unit. Though it is a single line track , it is the only track in India rated for 160kmph.

At madgaon ,
we thought of trying the Dormitory but the keeper himself warned us that "there is lot of mosquitoes at night & several previous customers have complained abt this & have spent the nights on platforms ! "So he sent us to "Hill View Hotel" . It is just 100m from the station.
Nice 2 bed room with attached bath for just Rs.250/-. (musquito coil is provided free of cost at nights !!) Good enough for a short stay. Also a mini balcony from where you get a scenic view of the station & also you can hear the public addressing system. What more could I ask for ? !!

Evening , went to Colva beach & wallked south to Benaulim beach .
But had to walk back to colva , for transportation back to Madgaon :-(
It seems bus service ends at 7pm , but we reached colva only at 7:30pm .
So , being new to this place , we had to fall prey to a greedy autorickshaw !
For Rs.70 , he dropped us at MAO just 7km away !!
After a nice meal at BENJOE'S canteen in the stn , we went back to hotel & had a good sleep.

DAY TWO : (Goa Exp......)

We took the small Kulem passenger to Vasco from MAO , scheduled at 7:30 am.
The train left MAO at 8am only but the gooty shed baldie (WDM2c) traversed & smoked the 30km to Vasco in just 20mins !! This had Adv Emerg Brakes.The route is really scenic . As the train goes along the side of a hill & to the left is the scenic velsao beach.

I put my suitcase in to the cloak room & took a 5mins bus ride to Mormugao port.
This is really a scenic place with the road curving on a hill side & deep down on the other side is the arabian sea & the port. Plenty of ships & boat action can be seen from special "view points" along the road .
My idea was to take a return ferry ride to Dona Paula 5kms across the bay.
It seems and to our disappointment the ferry services have been completely banned since last year :-( So after some roaming around (nothing much to see !!) , I saw off my friend to MAO by bus . He was to take the MAQ pass at 1:50pm.

I spent the rest of the time dreaming abt Briganza ghats at the Vasco stn. The gooty baldie did some shunting duty & brought the prestigious GOA exp 2779 to plfrm 1.
The train left VSG on time at 2pm. My coach was half empty. It seems most of the people taking this train are not direct NDLS passengers. Many were bound to Itarsi & Jhansi for further connections to Bengal, Bihar & UP states . Also several board at miraj,belgaum ,pune & Manmad stns.

Briganza ghats............

2779 reached kulem stn on time . There the two freshly painted gooty baldie bankers were ready. But still both have the same power , so no problemo !
Within 5mins train left Kulem & it was start of the duet song being played by the horns of the lead loco & banker loco. The train slowly curved its way through thick forests , up the western ghats .Lot of sharp curves & a climb from sea level to 800m MSL to Castle Rock !!. The train halted at Scenic doodhsagar falls (Only a trickel in the falls , probably due summer ) & caranzol stations for 2 mins. I guess for some kind of brake testing & axle inspection. There was a triple WDG2 (light) crossing at Caranzol. At CLR the bankers were removed & immediately the VSG bound amravati exp arrived on time. Then at Londa jn. , few coaches were shunted around as neatly explained by Apurva , from the Hubli pass. Here 2779 reverses & a KJM 2c was put incharge !! After this ,2779 zoomed through thick forests but was stopped for crossings at various stations for Bangalore bound RaniChennama Exp & two other unknown exp. Quite surprising that 2779 being SF was not given preference , but it still made it to Pune at 4am next morning. (Huge Slack time ?) Meanwhile the Pantry car kept my stomach happy :) but burnt a hole in my pocket ;-)

DAY THREE : (by DQ exp.....)

Arrived at 4am at Pune.
After some freshing up , I slept for about an hour at the waiting hall !
From here on there is complete electric traction.
At 6:05am I saw the WCAM3 hauled Sinhagad exp , power its way out to Mumbai .
A little later it was a real joy to see the majestic & beautiful deccan queen exp for the first time in MY life ! It was shunted into platform one. Immediately I took a stroll along the rake to enjoy its beauty . I feel it has got the Best livery on IR. Dark blue below , a red line & an ivory white above the windows.
Truly magnificent ! Also it has got 5 AC chair cars !! One of them has a board saying " For Season Ticket Holders Only ". I never knew , there was season tickets for AC chair car too !
The seats & internal looks are also truly magnificient, very clean & well maintained.
100 times better than the MAS-MYS shatabdi exp !!
My coach SC7 was also well maintained. Soft seats , Clean toilets & smooth window shutters .
Our loco was a proud(!) WCAM3 with its front panto up. It also had a board saying in hindi
" Deccan Ki Rani ". The train has got a pantry car cum Dinning Car. The DC has abt 8 tables , with each table having 4 plastic chairs.

The train left at sharp 7:15am . It powered away to Lonavala at a decent speed.
Some season ticket holders were occupying the Door space , so I could not take any snaps .
The lourney down the Bhor ghats was exciting. Lots of tunnels & at many place syou can see the Pune-Mumbai expressway. While nearing Karjat , we crossed with Pune bound Indrayani express , on a long curve. The scenery along with trains on the curve is realy beautiful. At some places before Kalyan the train touched 100kmph mark.
The train reached Dadar stn 5mins early at 10:15am . 180kms in 3 hrs , not bad !
BUT as it is being given full priority & all signals "CLEAR" , I feel the train can be speeded up even more.
Karjat - Kalyan - Dadar was quite slow . Being such a Top Priority train , there must be some technology were , technical halts (brake testing ,etc) can be skipped. Also , for Dn train bankers can be provided from CSTM & removed later at Pune ? Atleast 20 mins can be saved by all this !
Keeping in mind , for Pune - Mumbai commuters , every second is precious !!

<<<<<

DAY 4 to DAY 8

Railfanning at Mumbai & a visit to ISA house.
Report later !

>>>>>

DAY EIGHT : ( 103 Mandavi Exp.......)

Travelled from Wadala to CSTM by fast local.
Took the MAO bound 0103 Mandavi Exp at 7:05 am from plfrm 15.
I got a half empty sleeper coach . And my 'cabin' for all myself !
Good for "no Janjat" photography !
This 21 coach train was hauled by a KJM 2c (not a baldie).
It was a delight to see our train overtake a lot of locals of the CR & WR .
The 2c did a good smoky job upto Panvel.
From here , to my delight I got a co-passenger who was a KR junior Sec Engr ( Signal & telecom ).
He was Kannada speaking too ! So, We quickly got to know each other .
BUT he was there only for abt 30mins with me , before he went of to an AC coach (?).

Meanwhile ,
He told me that ,
KR were giving full 110kmph for all trains , so our train could easily make up the 35 mins delay.
CR was giving only 80kmph upto Roha !
Also told me that multi aspect signaling of theirs actually increases speed of trains.
The driver comes to know in advance , the next signal 3km away , hence he can easily judge & adjust his speeds suitably.
KR have "blasted away" through the western ghats , by tunnels & viaducts.
So , the gradient is almost level , & hence no need of bankers anywhere & a single 2c can easily manage a 21 coach train.
In future KR will look to double a few intermediate sections if there is high traffic.

As he had said , the Mandavi Bursted through various tunnels & scenic viaducts at abt 100kmph.
The journey was truly exciting & enjoyable .
But at Ratnagiri , my ecstasy was disturbed ;-)
A very cute & Fat , abt a year old Marathi Kid , from neighbouring berth, innocently pissed on to my luggage.
So , I had some cleaning to do !!
Later evening ,after a slow crawl through the scenic Zuari bridge , the 103 arrived at MAO at 6:05pm (10mins early).
Thank god , there was no Rajdhani on that day !! But still we had a few crosinngs with netravati exp ,etc.

After night meals at BENJOE'S canteen at MAO ,
I took the biweekly VSG-YPR exp at 9pm .This one is a guntakal 2c hauled 14 coach train.
The journey through Briganza ghats in the Dark night was a thrill.
As I was on the SLB , I could actually sense the steep gradient !
It was a pleasure to see the "tube - light" lit train curve through the ghats.
A few gangmen(?) had distributed themselves along the train & were waving powerful torches at each other & scanning the track sides.
After CLR I went to sleep & got up next morning somewhere near Birur Jn.

DAY NINE :

The train was made to arrive at "sharp" 11am at YPR (SBC) .This after being 30 mins early to Tumkur !! 65km in 1hr 45mins. We were purposely made to wait for some crossing with passenger trains , so that we should arrive at YPR "punctually" at 11am !!

Also , thank god that there was no pantry on this train :-) I saved a few currency notes ;-)

---------------------------------

This was the succesful completion of one of the most rail fanning filled rail journeys that I have undertaken till date !

If any one wants High speed diesel action , I think KR is the mecca for railfans .

Thanks for the patient reading !

I guess , Mumbai is THE railway city of India!

When I had visited mumbai last April , I really enjoyed those rock-n-roll local trains!! As there are no local trains in SBC , mumbai was really thrilling.

Here is my Mumbai railfanning report.

Day one ,
Morning I had arrive by DQ exp. Took some rest.
In the evening , I walked from panch gardens to dadar.
Took a WR local to Church gate.
Walked around Nariman point , then went to Gateway of India.
The sea side scenery at these places is quite magnificent.
Later I took a CR local from CSTM to Wadala.

Day two ,
I took a CR local to Kurla. Enjoyed a few hours with popular mumbaikar Mr.I.S.A. He has really some great working train models !
Then went to Vashi. I guess its the most beautiful stn in India.
Had lunch there. From there went to Panvel . The run over the thane creek bridge was fantastic. The sight of the vast Arabian sea was truly exhilarating ! I returned to Wadala by same train.

Day three ,
Morning , went from Wadala to CSTM. Then caught a Karjat fast local to Neral. From Neral , took the morning NG train to Matheran.
Stayed for 2hrs at 'muddy' Matheran. Then returned by another cute NG train back to Neral. Both Up & Dn I had one full coach to myself !
This hill journey is a must for all railfans. Truly Super !
Also , I think Neral is a good spot to watch WCAM trains whizz by at high speed.

From Neral , I returned back to Dadar. All the while got to see lots of
trains plus the DQ too!

Day Four & Five,
Visited my uncle's place at Andheri by car.
But , to my joy , the next day I returned by a CR local to Wadala. Great feeling to go over that Khar shed flyover & also the one near Wadala ! In the evening , I went to Dadar to watch the two great Rajdhanis zoom by. The WCAM2P looks quite a monster! This was one of my pet wishes which was fulfilled that day!

Day Six ,
This was my last day in Mumbai. The WR stretch was still left out. I thought of going up to Surat , but things weren't so good in Gujarat.
So, my relatives adviced me not to venture towards that direction.
That afternoon I went to Churchgate from Dadar. I got my tickets after waiting in the queue for 15mins!!!!
From Cgate I took a fast local to Virar. Nice scenery after Borivili.
At Virar saw the Rajdhani zoom past ! I returned to Dadar by same train. As I walked back all the way home, I was involuntarily oscillating up&dn . Probably , local train travelling had become addictive;-)

Day Seven:
I had a good send off back to Bangalore:-)
I took a CR local from Wadala to CSTM , to catch the Mandovi Exp.

This culminated my action packed rail fanning at Mumbai.
One thing for sure these mumbai & chennai locals are really addictive!!

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