Took this train on 21/12/2012 from chennai to Tiruppur ,A friday night and as usual mostly IT crowd travels from chennai to CBE on friday and was just searching for any friend to meet coincidently.
.After booking the ticket as on 23/Aug/12, the waitlist moved painstakingly slow from WL 65 to RAC 20..even after 117 days...
Terribly dissapointed that I got an RAC, even though I know it ll be confirmed by TTE but TTE ll usually come around 12 to confirm.
But...
more... the journey was quiet eventfull , as I am taking a 10 day holiday and in no rush to sleep anyway , was just sitting in the side lower seat and fortunately my other RAc counterpart didnt turn up , as well quiet a few people around me also didnt turnup.
Then suddenly or surprisingly a squad came checking all people who booked tickets as a group,even they were checking two people booked in a same ticket.From my adjacent seats a group travelling as a 4 , a guy went outside to skip the check , but the squad was shrewd and asked for his ID as well threatened to cancel all 4 berths instead of only 1 if in case only that person is travelling on anothers eticket. And the group immediately accepted.
Another case were couple of guys used a single ticket with original PAN with the photo completely worn out and irrecognisable.The squad along with RPF threatened to book a case and they also relented to pay fine.
So they booked ard 5 cases and it was a good timepass and a cautious reminder for people travelling as a group.
Then as expected the TTE came ard 11 45 and I suggested he can allott the berth to me officially as the other person didnt turnup and he did the same just checking my name..( No Id or ticket verification as against the squad..) Cheran was cruising I should say but with the steady flow of RPFs walking every 15 mins..
As expected the train reached tiruppur with the delay of 10-15 mins at 5 10 Pm , and ready to catch up the slack to reach CBE on Time..