Trip report: November,2016.
This was before, KK started getting indefinitely delayed due to Fog. I was travelling from Bangalore to mumbai on a sunday. I normally take the Chalukyas, which is the best train to travel between the cities, but I had to reach SBC by 17.30. Being a railfan travelling in bus was not particularly attractive, so I found the 11041-12628 chain very feasible to reach SBC by 14.00. I was eager to travel by the SWR king, since shifting to Bangalore and could not miss this opportunity. I booked a ticket from DD to SBC , which got confirmed and planned to travel to DD via 12157 from PUNE or 11041 in general. I have fond memories of KK being...
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pulled by the ET twins about 11 years back when I was in school. My school was next to the YNK-CSDR line and the arrival of KK marked the end of lunch break! Now the loco link has been changed to GTL twins, but the livery of orange ALCOs has been maintained from ET to MLY to GTL sheds.
I got into a crowded Dadar local and purchased a general ticket to DD. I got a place to sit in 11041, which was quite crowded. Due to mega block on sunday afternoon, on the down Fast line between TNA and KYN, the train got diverted around the parsik tunnel. The train however reached PUNE bang on time. The coach got empty and refilled in PUNE. An unlucky man got into the train thinking it was bound to mumbai (he probably wanted to catch the 12128 Pune mumbai intercity), he had no option but to go till daund and return back by the PVR CST passenger which would reach mumbai only by morning, a night wasted due to a silly mistake!
When I reached DD, I checked NTES to find KK was late by 2.5 hours! I then realised it was due to the 19321 derailment that trains were probably late. KK having to travel from MMR to SBC in a majority single line, I thought it was difficult for it to cover up the delay. I had to reach SBC by 17.30 and thought I had enough slack.
With enough time at hand, railfanning was the only option. I grabbed some Batata wadas and lassi in DD and waited when 12129 Azad hind bound to HWH arrived on PF#2. About DD station, it seems in the middle of nowhere with tracks all over. It had lot of RPF presence and the funny thing was I could only see PF 2,3,5,6 in DD and not the other ones. About DD, it is a great station for railfanning, but with lot of RPFs. There was a shining PUNE EMD parked next to PF#2. After azad hind left, Konark express arrived, then the PVR-CST passenger , NED-PUNE express, 11042 arrived and left the G bound passengers from SUR on PF#6. It was 22.30 and there was no sign of KK, which was scheduled to arrive at PF#2. DD has very good options for food, when Konark arrived, a vendor placed a huge vessel with steaming hot biryani!
When 12149 came on PF#2, I was surprised how far KK was actually from DD, since DD-MMR is also a single line. Then an RPF person explained to me KK cannot come on PF#2 irrespective of whatever is announced and it will come on PF#5 only and 12149 will wait for it, since other platforms are not long enough. Finally KK pulled in to DD with its customary GTL twins in a grand fashion at 23.00. A TTE came out and I asked him why was the train delayed, he merely said he didnt know. Then when I was boarding the coach, he rudely asked me where do you wish to go, which was surprising since I had a reserved ticket. I replied I am going to Bangalore and lo, he asked me "Aap hi ye seat number waale ho kya, mein kabse aap ke liye ruka hun!" I replied, even I am tired of waiting for you! Generally passengers wait and chase the TTE, but this was the other way round! After taking my seat, I was tired and slept off even before KK pulled out of DD.
I woke up in the morning and checked NTES to see where I was, I was shocked seeing the running status! KK was almost 4 hours late and it was somewhere near RC/MALM at 8.00. It was trolled heavily between DD and KWV since the single line is highly saturated at night. I was unhappy with the treatment given by section controllers of CR to KK even though it was only about 2.5 hours late at DD. I hoped I could reach SBC on time and KK would get priority once it crosses DMM and comes into SWR territory. Finally it reached DMM at 12.15, and I hoped SWR would welcome its king back by giving it max priority till YNK. I was in for a rude shock!
KK was looped for 5 crossings between HUP and YNK! 2 goods train, YPR-KCG, prashanti nilayam express all where given priority! And other superfasts like 22133 covers DMM-YNK in 2.5 hours, even 11014 covers in about 3.5 hours. KK was crawling the whole stretch and finally reached YNK at 17.20! I cursed my luck and got down in YNK itself and took a BMTC bus 401 series to YPR, because I was not sure whether KK will continue crawling in the YNK-CSDR-BNC-SBC stretch and also the PF availability at SBC would be a major issue in the evening.
SWR definitely suffers from the "Ghar ki murgi daal barabar" syndrome, it never gives focuses on Karnataka and also treated KK badly on that day! I realise trains running late are not given priority by controllers to delay on time trains, but some trains do rule certain sections and I thought KK would do that.
The railfanning and trip in KK was memorable, especially the ghats between HUP and YNK. Luckily my presentation got cancelled and so I got saved by reaching so late (only by 18.00)!
Sorry for few pictures, I was mainly sleeping and worried whether I would reach on time! I could also not take photos of the prized GTL twins because I was getting very late! Hope to catch it some time later. Disappointed slightly by the KK trip, I will always wait for a chance to travel by it again. It still is the pride of SWR!
Thanks for reading the write-up! I would be very happy for everyone's comments!
Pic 1: DD SB pic- BBS bound Konark in the background.
Pic 2: KK train board at YNK