EMU Car Shed could be spotted. Further as we approach the station, we meet the late running 11109 ED (Erode) WDM- 3D hauled 12694 Tuticorin (TN)- Chennai Egmore (MS) PEARL CITY (MUTHU NAGAR) Superfast Express before getting overtaken by an EMU. Finally we brake to give the first scheduled halt of the journey.
PEARL CITY (MUTHU NAGAR) Superfast Express follows the Tuticorin- Vanchi Maniyachchi- Virudunagar- Madurai- Dindigul- Tiruchchirappalli- Vriddhachalam- Villupuram- Chengalpattu- Tambaram- Chennai Egmore route. Now the train no more gets a ED WDM- 3D for its entire journey. The Madurai- Chennai Egmore section is now handled by an ED/ RPM WAP- 4.
Tambaram railway station::
Tambaram Railway Station is one of the railway termini of the Chennai Beach--Tambaram section of the Chennai Suburban Railway Network. It is situated at a distance of 6 km from the centre of Tambaram, a suburb of Chennai located 27 km south of the city centre. It is one of the fastest growing railway hubs outside Chennai Central in the southern direction.
Tambaram Railway Station divides Tambaram into East Tambaram and West Tambaram. There are nine platforms in the station. Platforms 3 and 4 are not used as the metre gauge lines are yet to be taken up for conversion, whereas those between 5 and 9 are used by the suburban electric trains between Chennai Beach and Chengalpattu and Tirumalpur and also long distance express trains. Most of the suburban electric train services originating from Tambaram to Beach and Chengalpattu leave from the first two platforms. There is a foot overbridge connecting East and West Tambaram with access to all platforms. In 2008, Southern Railway started building an additional platform at the westernmost side of the railway station, making Platform No.1 a double-discharge platform, a design which helps commuters to alight on either side of the train, similar to the one at Park Railway Station, where the passengers could alight on the western side for quicker access to Chennai Central.
The lines at the station were one of the first in Chennai to be electrified. They were energised on 1.5 kV DC in 1931 with the electrification of the Chennai Beach--Tambaram section, and the third line in the section was electrified on 15 January 1965. The lines further south from the station, up to Chengalpattu, were electrified on 9 January 1965. On 15 January 1967, all the lines were converted to 25 kV AC.
The station had a huge metre-gauge freight marshalling yard for Chennai, which has been closed.It is also a former electric shed and home to the YAM-1 locomotives. Presently, the station has a broad-gauge EMU maintenance and car shed. The EMU car shed was established in 1931 and has adequate facilities to maintain 12-coach rakes.
++ Videos taken on-board the train:
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