Imagine Travelling In Your Favourite Train,With Favourite Loco And That Too Shrill Honking Loco,it's Nothing Less Than A Heaven For Railfans

Same Happened To Me When I Travelled In My Favourite Venky Mama AKA Venkatadri express On 9th Aug 2024 From KCG To YA.Sadly I Couldn't Take Any Pics Due To Travelling With Family
I Was Very Excited For My Trip Since It...
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Was Recently LHBfied And I'm Excited For 130kph Run In My Favourite Train

//LOCO AND MAINTENANCE//
37588 Bza Shrill Honker Honoured Us From End To End
My Coach Was S1,23 Made Coach Mfd By ICF
Obviously It's A New Coach,So No Complaint About Cleanliness And To My Surprise I Saw A schedule For Pest Controlling And Chlorination Of Coach By KCG CDO.Our Train Was Chlorinated And Pest Controlling Done On 3rd August 2024.

//PUNCTUALITY AND RUN//
Our Train Got Good Priority Throughout The Route.Despite Being Single Line,Our Train Was Lopped Only Once At Alampur Road For Seven Hills Exp.I Can Say Gooty-Renigunta Section Is One Of The Smoothest Sections Of IR,Coach Was Barely Shaking Even At 130kph,It Felt Like Train Was Gliding On Tracks.Overall Punctuality Was Excellent,We Reached Destination On Time

Inspired by the travel blogs of various wonderful people here, I want to share a particularly fond trip of mine, that involves various trains, a tourist trip to the Malabars and the best food experience ever.

It was the year 2014, and after my 8th grade final exams were over, my father had planned a trip with his office friend with our families for Kerala, Kanyakumari and Goa. The next day after my vacations had begun, we started out trip from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in the morning. We could have boarded from...
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Panvel, but my father felt that it would be better for our peace of mind if we started from LTT.

There, we boarded our first train, the very popular Netravati Express, for an end-to-end journey till Trivandrum. Locomotive for this run was an Erode Alco Diesel, WDM-3D #11171. I remembered this number because of something that happened ahead, which I will share.

Luckily, both of our families had cabin seats in a 2A coach, which meant no disturbance. Once the train entered Konkan, we got stuck to the windows. This was our first time travelling towards Konkan, so us 4 kids got glued to our windows and took in all the greenery and beauty one could grasp. Tunnel after bridge after tunnel, the scenery was beautiful indeed. And with our coach close to the locomotive, the chugging made it all the more amazing of an experience. Good thing we were in an AC coach otherwise we would have all turned black from the soot and smoke.

Goa came in the night; Mangalore came early morning and Kerala started right after. Benefit of a slow train: we had a full day to experience the coast and backwaters of Kerala from the train. We went through Calicut, Ernakulam (Kochi), Allapuzha and Quilon and saw the backwaters and coasts passing right through us. We were also shocked by the number of coconut trees that adorned the railway tracks.

We finally reached Trivandrum by the evening, and stayed at a hotel for the night. Next day, we visited the Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the Varkala beach with its black sand (used to be empty that time, now it is a tourist spot). After roaming and shopping for two days, we left for Kanyakumari.

The trip to Kanyakumari was by CSMT - Kanyakumari Express. Older railfans will recognize this train as the famed Jayanti Janta Express. Newer railfans know this train as the Pune – Kanyakumari Express. It was a short trip, full of greenery, but the locomotive ahead got a shock out of me. It was the same Alco from my Netravati Express trip, down to the same road number, #11171.

We experienced the Sunset/Sunrise point (where the three seas meet), the Thiruvalluvar statue (where we were nearly thrown out into the sea by the strong winds coming from all three directions) and the Vivekananda Memorial.

We left for Ernakulam next day by the very famous Vivek Express. It was shunted by an Erode Alco #11171. I felt like this locomotive was the guardian angel for our family for this trip. Other than that, it was an uneventful trip, where we got down at Ernakulam Town (Ernakulam North for the railfans) at night. We stayed at a hotel nearby for the night and went for the Guruvayur Temple at Guruvayur next day by a passenger train. I was shocked to see that even a passenger train was near empty and clean. Visit to the Guruvayur temple was very serene and it fulfilled one of my promises that I had given to one of my best friends.

We also visited the Athirapally waterfalls, though due to the weather being swelteringly hot, the waterfalls were not at their full flow. Still, it was an amazing trek and a wonderful experience which had us spending the whole day. We returned to Kochi that night and stayed there till next day for shopping.

Our next trip was to Goa (specifically Madgaon), and our train for this trip was the Kochuveli Bikaner Express. This train is now Kochuveli Sriganganagar Express. It was an overnight trip, nothing special. But the locomotive attracted me. It was an EMD Diesel, and it was the first time I experienced the jet like sounds of the locomotive. I became an instant fan.

We reached Madgaon by the morning and took rest at the hotel till evening. For three days, we enjoyed the numerous beaches along Madgaon and Panaji. My father describes our Goa trip as our “three-day rest after a week of hectic tourism”.

Finally, it was time for our return to Mumbai. The train my father chose for our return was the Mandovi Express, this time led by an EMD. Once the train started, we kids got glued to the windows. Once the food arrived though, everyone in our entourage wanted more. The food was so tasty and so good that even my mother, who prefers home made food to train food, said that she would prefer the food of this train. We snacked ourselves with our favourite foods the whole day, to the point that we wanted more even though our tummies were full.

After a whole day of snacking, watching the Konkan beauty through the windows and resting afterwards, we finally reached Panvel at night, late by 1 hour. Boarded a local train on the next platform and went home to a nice, sound sleep.

This concluded my 10 day trip to the South and has always left me wanting for more trips towards the Konkan and the Malabars.

Was onboard "India's fastest Vande Bharat Express" train:

20171/Up. Rani Kamalapati (Bhopal) - H. Nizamuddin (Delhi) Vande Bharat Exp (वंदे भारत एक्सप्रेस) to attend National Creator's Award function hosted at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi
Attached are the pics of food offered by onboard catering service
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1: Our group comprising Ansh, Neeraj, Krishna & Me
Pic 2: Breakfast served I'm busy with office work
Pic 3: Breakfast tray
Pic 4: Breakfast unboxed
Pic 5: Lunch served
Pic 6: Lunch unboxed
Pic 7: Ice-cream served after the lunch

Date: 7th March 2024

#vandebharatexpress #ranikamlapatirailwaystation #habibganj #bhopal #newdelhi #delhi #vandebharat #westcentralrailway #northernrailway #indianrailways #trains #traveldiaries #railroadphotography #nationalevent #pmmodi #modi #bharatmandapam #desirail #railroadphotography #railfans #agra #fastest #speed #newindia #atmanirbharbharat #morning #hobby

I traveled in this train recently from BV to LJN since the GKP-LJN ICE was canceled. I had tickets in SL class booked. I didn't get my choice of seats ie. any lower berth. When charting was done, I was amazed that the seats were not upgraded. I immediately checked the current availability list made after charting and boy, all classes had TOO MANY seats empty. For eg. AC 3 Tier had ~250 seats empty when current booking closed for my station [from BV-Lucknow]. Heck, First AC had 17 seats empty. If IR really thinks that anyone will book in First AC at the last moment in this train, they really have their minds in the cloud. And correct I was, when current booking closed [and I was checking feverishly multiple times], there were cumulative ~400 seats vacant across all AC coaches. The irony furthur came to me when the...
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SL class became crowded due to 12531 being canceled and GN class overflowing as usual. I personally checked couple of 3A coaches and they had singular digit passengers in them.

Why didn't IR upgrade tickets if so many seats lied vacant? And this isn't a one off affair, this train always has this tendency whenever it goes towards LJN . If you have too many people in GN coaches and too little people in AC coaches, you increase the nos of GN coach and reduce AC coach. But sadly, IR thinks that LHB is magic and all trains, be it super crawlers like this one, will attract AC passengers just like this. This is one example where Indian Railways needs to work on. Find the specific needs of a route and then assign specific coach composition to a train. What's the point of officers in IR if normal railfans [or heck, normal people traveling in that train] can point out a superior coach composition that works out better for the end user [public in this case]?

My rant is now complete. There wasn't much to see in the train. Some xings, standard delay at BBK outers and stuff. I got down at BBK due to some work, otherwise this train easily takes 1.5 hrs more to reach LJN from BBK.

Some history about this train. I have been traveling in it for nearly two decades now. I remember when NER used to issue standard SL tickets from counter and one could board the SL coaches. This train had 2 SL coaches and a single 3A coach. Seats could easily be found in SL then, even window ones if you were lucky. Majority of the folks preferred GN then. Times sure have changed from that era.

My Few Questions Related To Northern Railway Zone Part 2 To Delhi Punjab And Haryana Railfans From New Delhi Chandigarh Ambala Firozpur Amritsar Etc This Time There 7 Questions Along With Sub Questions


1) In Which Year New Delhi KurukShetra Railway Line Was Built And In Which Year Doubling Electrification Work Was Done
1A)...
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Why Theres Doubling Work Only From Panipat To Khukrana Why No Doubling Work Till Pandu Pindara Jn Pls Explain
1B) In Which Year Rohtak Panipat Railway Line Was Built
2) In Which Year Gohana Sonipat Railway Line Was Built And How Many Years It Took For Completion
2A) In Which Year Pandu Pindara Jn Gohana Jn Railway Line Was Built And How Many Years It Took For Completion
2B) When Was Narwana Jn Kurukshetra Railway Line Was Built And How Many Years It Took For Completion
3) When Was Ambala Division Formed In Northern Railway
3A) Why Meerut Panipat Railway Line Is Being Built
3B) Why Yamunanagar-Jagadhri Chandigarh Rail Line Is Being Built Pls Explain
4) In Which Year Ambala Railway Station Got Electrified
4A) In Which Year Ambal Cantt Shaharanpur Railway Line Was Electrified
4B) In Which Year Ambala Cantt Chandigarh Railway Line Was Built And How Many Years It Took For Completion And How Many Years It Took For Doubling And Electrification
5) In Which Year Chandigarh Morinda Railway Line Was Built
5A) When Was Sirhind New Morinda Jn Railway Line Was Built
5B) Which Were Diesel Trains On Delhi Ambala Cantt Railway Line
6) When Was Chandigarh Kalka Rail Line Built And How Many Years It Took For Completion
6A) Which Was The First Train From Kalka To New Delhi
6B) Fastest Train For Ambala Cantt From New Delhi
6C) First Train From Chandigarh To South India
7) Which Was The Longest Diesel Train On Chandigarh New Delhi Railway Route
7A) Which Trains Had Loco Reversal And Loco Change At Ambala Cantt Jn
7B) First Train Which Got E Loco On New Delhi Ambala Cantt Route