First Shatabdi Experience

31^st May 2014…

14: 40

                     We all moved to Begumpet station to board the Shatabdi Express as planned after a heavy Andra meal. On reaching the station, i was impressed by the curves of the station. What a sight it would be to see a train blasting through this station at maximum permissible speed. The rails curve into the station from right side while coming from Secunderabad side and it curves out towards right while looking towards Wadi side. I was hoping for an Alco for this run to get the classic combination of ICF shatabdi rake and an Alco. 2 famous people known for their writing skills and photography arrived in the meantime, Anil Kumar and Prithvi Raj. Time was nearing 15:00 and it was confirmed that our train will arrive by 15:10 on the display boards. My hopes of Alco were killed as Prithvi informed that the link given was an EMD, Pune WDP4D 40157.

                                                       Pune WDP4D arriving Begaumpet with the Shatabdi Express..

 At exactly 15:10, Pune WDP4D curved slowly into Begumpet with the shatabdi Express. My excitement rocketed sky high knowing that I will soon be stepping into history. I don’t know  what others think but for me the ICF Shatabdi livery is one of the best liveries in Indian Railways. 

                                                                                        Shatabdi Express...

It was time to bid good bye to Hyderabad kings Benhur, Anil and Pritvi raj. Raghu from Hyderbad had boarded the train at Secunderabad itself. The other part of the gang (Aswin Kumar, Gowri Shankar sir, Dr. Himagirish Rao, Harisharan, Karthik Vinayak, Raghu Jayaram, Rohit Subramanium, Satyanarayan, Vivek and yours truly ) boarded the train. All our seats were scattered and we decided to request others to get together. I was just wowed by the looks as soon as I entered, the coach was very neat and it gave a royal feel when I sat down on my seat. The leg space was very good, push backs were working properly. AC cooling was good. Looks like I was damn lucky to get this coach.

                                                                                 Inside view of my coach...

Previously reports about this train suggested bad coaches and ordinary food. Part about the train has changed and now I was waiting for the food hoping that it will also be on the positive side. It was around 30 minutes into the journey and the irctc guy started distributing the snacks. The snack consisted of a Samosa, Sonapapdi, roasted nuts, hot water, milk powder, coffee powder and sugar. The samosa did taste like samosa but it had turned bit chill. Sonapapdi was good, Roasted nuts were too salty and Coffee that I made with the ingredients given turned out to be the worst coffee that I have tasted till now. Vikarabad was reached around 16:10 and the railfan in me decided to go to the door.

                                                                                        Curving after Vikarabad...

Raghu Jayaram had suggested me this section for video capturing as there are many curves and beautiful view of the landscape. I was joined by Rohit and Doctor at the door. We were having a wonderful time until a caution signal was spotted. We were soon stopped at home signal of some station. After getting down, it was clearly visible that both the main line and loop line were occupied by freight trains. Knowing that we will be getting line clear only after one of them move out, we started taking pictures with the train. The assumption turned out to be false, it was almost 30 minutes into the stop and no signs of movement. Just then a WAG7 appeared on the line towards Secunderabad. It stopped and reversed back. Now we started thinking that something has gone wrong. The home signal turned caution and we proceeded into Rukmapur. We were stopped here as well. Being railfans we started assuming many things, In the meantime Vivek and Rohit walked towards the station manager room to find out what exactly had happened. Hyderabad Tandur passenger which was ahead of us had a cattle runover the locomotive hauling that train was unable to continue the journey due to some technical issue. The locos (WAG7 that reversed ) form one of the freight’s which was blocking our part was sent for rescuing it. We were also informed that it may take another half an hour before we proceed. This gave us ample time to explore the train. Me, Rohit and Karthik decided to have a look at the loco and we marched forward while others decided to stay near the coach itself. On reaching near the loco we saw Loco pilots were enjoying their break and few people surrounding them were asking questions. After taking few pictures of the locos, we moved back to our coach. The station looks very beautiful with trees on the platforms and beautiful greenery around it.

                                                         Waiting at this beautiful station for line clearance... 

                                                                                           At Rukmapur...

                                                      Yours truly posing with the Shatabdi Express at Rukmapur.....

We departed around 18:00 from the station, our loco started showing its true color as we accelerated madly after clearing the loop line. We slowed down again as we neared Tandur and the culprit for making us late was standing in the loop line getting ready for  its return trip to Hyderabad. The locos that rescued the train were WAG7 that we saw along with its shed mate. 

                                  Tandur Hyderabad Passenger getting ready for its return run with KZJ WAG7 twins...

The train was having a weird composition with second class and sleeper coaches mixed. We started again after a 2 minute schedule halt. There were few more surprises in that rake composition. A completed packed first class coach and a locked AC 3tier coach. The First class coach was being used as a general coach. How lucky are those people traveling in first class coach with paying only the general ticket rates. The loco that failed to move with this train was LGD WAP4. We soon started accelerating out of Tandur, our loco was doing its best. A high speed crossing with a loaded freight train, a passenger, lots of freight overtakes and icing on the cake was the setting sun forming beautiful tones in the sky all along in the background.  

     

It was getting dark as we neared Wadi Junction. We had vada pav and mirchi bhaji there knowing that our dinner will be delayed. The dinner for the train is loaded at Solapur which we were supposed to reach at 19:40 but now expected to reach by 22:00. I decided to take a break from door and decided to sit inside until Daund. We soon reached Gulburga and I started feeling sleepy from there. We started going through each other’s pictures that was captured till now and lots of jokes kept me awake till Solapur. We were looped at Akalkot around 21:00 to let 2 trains cross, this gave me some time to experiment with

                                                                     Our train waiting at Akalkot for crossing...

exposure shots. We reached Solapur around 22:00. Dinner was loaded and it was served as soon as we departed, first up was Bread sticks along with butter and tomato soup. I was so hungry that I did not wait for the soup and had the bread sticks with only butter. Soup was hot and tasted good in the cool atmosphere. The main course consisted of Dal, Paneer gravy, Rice, 2 Chapattis, curd and Gulabjamun. Dal was good with Rice, Paneer was not so good main reason being I don’t like paneer that much. Gulabjamun was nice, it was very soft and melted as soon as it entered my mouth. Overall it was a good dinner so even this part gets thumbs up from my side. My brain said enough is enough and it switched off. I was so tired that i was having an undisturbed sleep, woke up to find the train was entering Hadapsar and the time was around 01:00. After the slow crawl of 10kmph, we entered Pune Junction delayed by 2 hours. I was very emotionally on getting down from the train at this place which had shown me how to lead a life alone and the value of family. I lived in Pune for almost 17 months away from my family for the first time in my life. I was working here.Video compilations from this run can be seen below. Hope you all enjoyed this report. Will soon upload the reports about the events leading to the shatabdi run and the special events after arriving at the Pune.