The Before Time journey !!!
17th August 2016: Having got to go to office next day,my father had told at time of planning to book by the earliest ariving train to Bangalore even if it means boarding at the relatively remote Pothanur compared to Coimbatore Junction.Being a wednesday, 12683 Bi-weekly was present witth the availability and got confirmed tickets in S8, 1 ,2 & 4
I had my own thoughts on day of leaving and hence checked arrival of RSA pair Okha Ernakulam.. 25 mins BT was the status.. After seeing off my...
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cousins at 14:50 in 12676 Kovai behind RPM WAP7, made a quick visit to Marudhamalai and Perur temples before finishing dinner and heading off to Pothanur entering at 8:05PM
Enquired with the counter who said 12683 is arriving on PF-3 with S-8 as 11th coach from engine. Walked into the station and slowly across to PF-3 and settled just to find the Erode WAP4 slowly making entry with the 12625 New delhi bound Kerala Express through PF-2.. 5 mins later, Erode WAP4 entered on opposite side with 22637 West Coast to Mangalore onto PF-3.. Both trains made silent entry though 22637 had a stop there was no announcement from WAP4 though the PAS made coach position status minutes before..
Minutes after West Coast left, a WAG7 of Erode made entry into PF-2 and stopped. Announcement started about 12683 coach position and parent's were getting bit apprehensive about boarding train at sort halt while dad assured- vestibule is always present... The ooposite mainline turned green and as i wondered who it was, the empty rake of a MEMU blasted past sparks flying towards its shed.. at 8:40Pm, announcement went for arrival of 12683..
The announcement was slightly late as just as the announcement completed, wAP4 peeked at the corner.. As the previous 2 wAP4, this was also a silent entry and 12683 made way into Pf-3 BT by 13 mins..Giving ample time to board the train.. Boarded and settled at S8.. Looks like S8 and S9 were completely for PTJ quota coz the train was completely empty till then...
Arriving ahead of schedule, it was a long halt... We didnt start at departure time and reason came into light when a WAG5 twins came on mainline at 21:07 with a BCNA rake.. After it crossed the entry points, we were given the starter and our glide started
As usual, our run was halted at the Irugur outer giving way to some train from inside CBE most likely the Chennai bound "Blue" (Nilagiri)... Then we had a quick dash through Irugur as SR's Aggressive SF crossed 12680 from Chennai blasted past through on opposite at 2125 hrs...470 kms in 7 hrs quite a Superfast indeed considering the number of halts enroute. Chasing it in a 10 min gap was the 22620 from tirupati making the way to cBE behind the agressor
After a superb run maintianing distance with the Blue, we arrived Tiruppur at 21:45 hrs where we met the next "Super"...12695 that left MAS at 1525 was arriving behind a WAP4 while my dad looked at me...1430 train we met hardly 15 mins before and now 1525 train has already entered reducing gap to 30 mins....For which I replied yeah earlier it had to trail Lalbagh till JTJ and 3 years back they changed the timings and so its a free bird as all trains trail it... As we left tiruppur, i got onto the berth as slight drizzling started outside... Our coach seemed to have a flat wheel and the thadak thadak sound gave way to dhud dhud dhud sound as if the entire coach is jumping all over.. Coach was a 2013 make
Anyway I was fast asleep and when I woke up, we were crossing Tiruppattur around 1:10AM and slowly past the byepass towards the bangalore line and I again fell asleep... Woke up at 3:20AM and we were approcahing a slowdown into station and dad was awake.. Bangarpet I aske dmy dad sleepily for which he replied.. No KJM...6 hrs 20 mins for the 420 km run seemed cool enough... slowly we went past BYPL and a 5 min halt at BNC later, it was a Pf-1 arrival of SBC at 3:58AM ahead by 22 mins as announcement went for the 16021 to Mysore leaving at 4 from PF-5
Thanks for reading