Well, Its always a dream for rail-fans to see two trains racing each other. I had a similar dream of seeing two trains at a special place during one night. It turned into reality when i was traveling to Khandawa on the Karnataka Express along with Bangalore rail-fans to cover the Akola Ujjain Meter gauge section. We were approaching Manmad, running late by 1 hour. I remembered about my dream and soon took out Samit's atlas to get an idea about the track layout just before Manmad and looked at the small section of parallel lines just before Manmad. I understood the complete layout of Manmad only then, went to the door with my camera hoping for the best. The SCR line was visible and we slowed down as we approached Ankai to take the loop line. The culprit being the freight on the main line. As the end of the freight was approaching, i closed my eyes on fear of seeing a red on the SCR line ( we were on the CR line ). I slowly opened my eyes to find it green. Got very excited and at the same time started wondering which train could it be.The Alco twins for my train wasted no time after clearing the loop and accelerated madly. We were almost approaching Ankai killa, still no signs of the other train.Out of nowhere, a honk and twins WDM3A curved towards my train........................................................................................................
Well its better to see it as an video than in words...
What more can i say. Dreams do come true.
Wait a minute this is not the end of Ankai Killa, A new dream was born during that race. The Killa Instinct....
Now coming to the details.
Nanded Amristar Sachkhand SF Express led by Twin MLY WDM3A twins #16476 & #16201 chases my Karnataka Express also led by MLY WDM3A twins #16549 & #16579.
Layout from Ankai to Manmad
My train Karnataka Express entered Ankai on the CR line while Sachkand entered Ankai on the SCR line. The trains move away from each other after Ankai killa. The advantages of this layout is that a train coming from Nanded side and going to Daund side need not undergo rake reversal. (12729, 57515 etc use this way). Trains coming from Mumbai towards Daund also avoids reversal (12131). Few trains from Pune also use this unique layout to reduce the loco change time at Manmad (Diesel to Electric change,12221 etc). Trains change directions on at Akali. Manmad Ankai is a block section on SCR line while there are 2 blocks on the CR line with Ankai killa in between. Will upload a trip report about my Ankai Killa trip ( The Killa Instinct ) soon.
