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Ok so here goes my experience in the New DEMU.
Boarded the DEMU at MAJN today. It waited for the 16516 to depart towards Yeshwantpur. At 11:40 or so, we were cleared to proceed. My initial plan was to go all the way upto Byndoor or Bhatkal and return in the evening's 16524 or 56641.
Firstly, the acceleration out of MAJN was...
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quite noteworthy. The speed being restricted to 60-65KMPH up to Thokur, the DEMU was right at home. At Thokur, the entire rake fits into the platform which is a good thing. After Thokur, I was expecting the acceleration to be good and it was good in the initial stages. But once the speed crossed 50-60Kmph, the DEMU struggled to accelerate and gain speed. This continued all the way upto Nandikur. The braking on the other hand was like city buses, absolutely scorching. People could be thrown off the train if they are not cautious enough while standing at the doors. Now the rake condition. As soon as the train started from MAJN, I was moving from the first coach to the engine coach and I just pushed the separtion door and barged into the small passenger area in the motor coach and wham! I bumped into a rod which has been dangerously suspended from the roof. The design is highly impractical and minor injuries are inaugurated if one is not careful enough, read extremely careful. Next, the windows were jammed and it took all my upper body strength to pry open just the emergency window! Poorly put together. The toilets were decent enough for a short distance train.
Coming to the bottle holders that have been placed underneath the seats of all the places! Most of these steel-coil bottle holders were broken and were dangling onto the seat-frames for dear life. The steel coils have been recklessly welded onto the main vertical steel frame and thus it takes just a light kick from a person to disintegrate them.
There were just 5-6 people boarding from each of the following stations: Mangalore Jn., Surathkal, Mulki and Nandikur. One boarded at Thokur. The occupancy was acceptable for a new train. I am sure many people might have boarded later on at Udupi and Kundapura.
The DEMU was a slow-poke and it was too boring for me to continue the journey. I hopped off at Nandikur and walked about 5 Kilometers to reach Padubidri town and returned back to Mangalore in an Express bus. Today, unlike the other days, there was no crossing for the DEMU at Nandikur. The 16311 Express was running late and thus crossed at the next station, Padubidri.
So overall, it was a disappointing ride on the new DEMU. Speed never crossed 80-85Kmph. Pictures and videos will be posted soon.