Part V : Afternoon Observations at Hubli Junction!
I completed my work at Hubli (UBL) and after having lunch, I returned to UBL station at around 11:15 hrs. I purchased
IInd class unreserved General Ticket for Hubli-Belgaum journey (to be done by 1620 Hubli-Miraj Passenger). The ticket cost of UBL-BGM 142 Kms journey was Rs. 24 only! Railways beat road journey costs by a large margin!
I...
more... reached PF4 of UBL station, where the empty rake of my train 1620 UBL-MRJ Passenger was already parked/stabled.
The rake of 1620 Miraj passenger was headed by blue/white GTL WDM3D # 11117! So, I was lucky that my passenger
was going to get WDM3D loco from Guntakal! The scheduled departure time of 1620 passenger from Hubli was 12:45 hrs.
So, I had almost 1 hr 30 min time at UBL station.
Soon, on adjuscent through line between PF4 (with my train on PF4), a goods train headed by twin WDG4 locos moved towards Dharwad direction. Lead loco (towards DWR) was UBL WDG4 # 12122 and trailing loco was UBL WDG4 # 12125.
Next to this goods/through line, there is carriage and coach repair workshop at Hubli, established in 1898 (or 1858 - can not remember exact year now, however, it was sure 18xx year)! Inside this workshop, blue KJM WDM2 # 17117 was taking rest (dead loco shut down)!
Just 100 feet behind last GEN coach of my 1620 passenger, another rake headed by twin GY WDMx locos was stabled! The
leading loco (towards DWR end) was GY WDM3A # 14038 and trailing loco was GY WDM3A # 14013!
Soon, a goods train headed by twin KJM WDG3A locos came into UBL station, halted for 10 minutes and then proceeded towards Dharwad/Belgaum side! The leading loco was blue KJM WDG3A # 14615 and trailing loco was orange KJM WDG3A # 13331 Shakti!
A light running KJM WDM3A # 18904 loco was seen roaming into Hubli station. This was probaly being put into use for
shunting work for the time being!
Another goods train, again headed by twin WDG4 came into UBL, halted for 5-10 minutes and proceeded towards DWR/BGM/MRJ side! This goods train had UBL WDG4 # 12130 and UBL WDG4 # 12070 locos and it had around 60 BCN/BNA/BCNAHS type goods wagons.
For all the goods train, I observed that, once the train gets starter, loco pilots push the train backwards by 20-25 meters
or so, and once they get 'ok' kind of message from guard, the goods train start moving forward! [Note: This feature or
procedure was discussed on IRFCA sometime back and can be seen in archive messages]!
Now 1 more goods train with twin WDG4 locos and same action! This was like repetition of previous goods train. The goods
train was lead by UBL WDG4 # 12131 + UBL WDG4 # 12133! Most of these goods train brought either iron ore, or some
mineral ore or washed coal or unwashed coal!
At around 12:40 hrs, 2848 Vasco-Howrah Amravati Express arrived on PF3 with twin Gooty WDMx locos! The train
arrived 30 minutes before time! The leading loco was GY WDM3A # 14022 and trailing loco (towards Londa side) was GY WDM3A # 14043!
In the mean time, another goods train headed by twin WDG4 arrived on waited on side line (next to my passenger train).
This goods was led by UBL WDG4 # 12082 + UBL WDG4 # 12085 and was held up at UBL in order to allow my train to proceed first towards Dharwad!
Finally, at 12:47 hrs, just with 2 min delay, my train 1620 UBL-MRJ Passenger started journey towards Miraj!
More interesting part 6 (final part!) with details of Hubli-Belgaum Journey is coming soon!