Madras Coimbatore Trip Report

by KK Subramanian

2002-05-17


I left from Mumbai on 14th May by 1063 exp. Since I could not get confirmed reservation from DR - I bought a DR - Pune and PUNE - MAS ticket in 2nd AC. After boarding the train in DR, I straight away put my luggage in the PUNE MAS berth allotted to me. We left DR dot on time and train reached KYN a fw minutes late, on the way we passed quite a few long distance train coming to Mumbai. At Ambernath we crossed a late running Indrayani (it was 21:40 when we crossed Ambernath). After crossing Ambernath, train ran at steady 105 to reach karjat at 22:10 hours and reached LNL at 23:00 hours. We left LNL and I went of to sleep after an hour i woke up to find the train at Kamshet and none of the train staff had any clue about this. We were stranded in Kamshet till 1:10 a.m. and then train reached pune at 2:05 hours a solid 2 hours late on 3hr 45 minute journey.

We left LNL and I went of to sleep after an hour i woke up to find the train at Kamshet and none of the train staff had any clue about this. We were stranded in Kamshet till 1:10 a.m. and then train reached pune at 2:05 hours a solid 2 hours late on 3hr 45 minute journey.At pune engine was changed to a GTL WDM2 17661 and we were off by 2:20 Train maintained its time between PUNE and SUR and we reached SUR at 6:10 hours. On platform one we had SUR PUNE superfast ready and on platform 2 was the Pune raichur passenger which was hauled by a Pune Shed WDM2 with Dead 17660 GTL loco attached to the train. Chennai express came on platform 3 whereas it normally is on platform 1. After leaving SUR at 6:20, train coasted its way to reach Gulbarga again maintaining its delayed schedule.

In between SUR and Gulbarga we crossed a WDM2(17812) Jumbo hauled MS - DR special at Tilati, Tilati like poplaj has a scissor crossing. My take on these scissor crossings is that the station being on a down gradient as you approach it from Mumbai instead of creating an embankment with all loop lines , railways seem to have adopted the scissor crossing. If you travel between Daund and Gulbarga, you travelling in a stretch that is essentially undulating landscape so while the line might have been cut in a slope the gradient sideways would be high to set two parallel embankments at same level. Just imagine a mini version of a road cut in the mountain. A train approaching tilati from SUR is going down the slope and the train approaching Tilati from Gulbarga is climbing the gradient, so the whole station is on a down gradient, rather than create a high island sort of structure necessary for a proper crossing, it would make sense for them to just let the mainline maintain the gradient and the loop line could be just cut from the landscape.

Our train made up 30 minutes between Gulbarga and Wadi as expected. After wadi it was rather uneventful running as train lost more time as it reached GTL. being late by 2hrs at GTL. This was maintained all the way till MAS.

on 17th I boarded the 2673 cheran express at MAS. For a change this train had a WAP4 power from ED. Normally this gets a WAM4 power from AJJ. So much for a 21 car superfast. Though cheran has an average speed for 58 kmph. It has to squeeze its way between kerala express which reaches Coimbatore at 5:50 and before 2680 intercity leaves CBE at 6:15. Since CBE - Irugur section is a single line section. There was some good running till Avadi after which train slowed down and reached AJJ at 23:10 hours, where we overtook the MAS TVC special which left MAS at 21:15 hours.

I Slept off and woke up at SA which was reached at 3:40 hours (we were late by 55 minutes), ED was crossed at 4:40 and then WAP4 showed its true colours, we reached tiruppur in 35 minutes for a 49 km stretch, and tiruppur to Irugur was done in 21 minutes (33 kms). Irugur to Coimbatore north in 15 minutes and we reached CBE on time at 6:10.


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