Race against Time to meet visitors…

                 Half asleep, I search for my phone. I click on the home button to get a rude shock, its 8:30 and am still in bed. My plans have gone haywire, am starting to wonder whether I will make it in time to meet the visitors. Cursing the IPL, i start moving. Time is 9:30 and I am finally ready but still behind the schedule that I had planned the previous day by a long way. With only hopes on my side, I plan to catch a bus to Malleswaram from my place. 

09:40 – Reached Malleswaram, walked for 5 minutes for the connecting bus to the destination which I had planned.

10:10 – Still no signs of the buses which I was supposed to take. With no hopes of making it in time I change my plans and board a bus to a place which is around 5km from the original place. My mind is just saying don’t worry, you will make it time. A quick check on my phones confirms me that I am bound to miss one of the visitors for sure.

10:30 – At this place, you will get to see metal men and women dressed up beautifully in different colors, the one which impressed me a lot was the lady in yellow and green.

10:40 – I am still 20 minutes away and it looks like I am bound to miss everyone whom I was supposed to meet.

11:00 – I reached the place to find one of the visitors is waiting for me. I never expected this and well guess what the second visitor is yet to arrive. Well everything going my way upto to now.

I guess it’s about time that I mention who the visitors are and where exactly I am at the moment. The visitors are Etarsi Alco twins and second one, you will find out soon. I am at a place called Chikbanavar which is 5km from Arkavati River where I had initially planned to catch these 2 visitors. By now, the place mentioned at 10:30 would have been guessed by few, if not its Yesvantpur Junction. Metal men’s are diesel locomotives and women’s are the cute electric locomotives. The beauty in yellow and green is AJJ WAM4. A quick check on my phone, I checked the train status on the train enquiry site. My original place was to catch Bangalore - Tumkur Passenger upto Soldevanahalli and then walk from there to Arkavathi River. Then return back to my place by BMTC.

Coming back to Chikbanavar, Etarsi twins were in the loop line waiting for line clearance with Vasco Yesvantpur express. This train had arrived here by 10:25 itself, confirmed by the train enquiry. I started walking away from the station to capture these visitors so as to avoid attentions from the staffs. I crossed the station home signal and waited there for the signal to change from red to green for the second visitor coming from Yesvantpur. Ten minutes passed and still no signs of any train moment. Finally the signal goes from red to green but on the line towards Yesvantpur. ET twins honk loud and start to move, In the meantime, the home signal turns to amber from red and I hear the ear shattering horn of an EMD. The second visitor, BGKT WDG4 with Yesvantpur Jaipur Specials enters the scene and I started recording the video. I guess you all can see what happened next in the video. 

As soon as I turned back after recording the video, I find another train approaching Chikbanavar from Tumkur side. The train was coming with an EMD locomotive and I identified it as Shimoga Bangalore Intercity. He came to a halt at the station as the line ahead was occupied by Vasco Express. I started moving towards the station to have a closer look at the loco. It was KJM WDG4, a plasser was started up on the loop line in the meantime and soon it was given proceed towards Yesvantpur which meant that the intercity had to wait longer before it could move out. I decided to move out after taking few pictures. I then took a bus to yesvantpur just to catch the lady in yellow and green before returning home. It was good day for me only thing that did not go my way was both the trains crossed slowly. A high speed crossing between the 2 would have been an added bonus. Well that ends this short and sweet railfanning trip. Hope you enjoyed reading this….

                                              KJM WDG4 with Shimoga Bangalore Intercity Express

                                                    Arrakonam WAM4's taking rest at Yesvantpur