A railfan was onboard the Jan Shatabdi to Madgaon and he asked me to come in front of his coach when the train made its scheduled halt at Thane. Since both the Jan and DiDi were supposed to arrive on Platforms 6 and 8 almost simultaneously, I stood in front his coach and waved, albeit on the DiDi's designated platform. Anyway, the Jan left after its scheduled halt but there was no sign of the apartment on wheels. Another 30 minutes passed and the Matsyagandha from Mangaluru finally rolled in. I grinned at this sight since this train could have put my plan in jeopardy if at all it had been allowed to proceed ahead of the 12134 but thankfully that was not be. At around 06:15, the first announcement was blurted out regarding DiDi's late departure from LTT. A few more similar announcements followed with the final one being that...
more... DiDi had departed from LTT at 06:25 and would be arriving shortly. The shortly spanned for over 20 minutes until DiDi finally arrived with a Kalyan WDG3A Shakti as the power- Duh! Not again!
My coach was C2 and the seat was #50, Lower Deck. one other passenger boarded and occupied his seat in the lower deck. And thus, with a grand total of 5 passengers in C2, 2 in lower and 3 on the upper deck, DiDiji chugged out of Thane for the first time as a regular service. Oh yes, the rake was decorated! A lot of people were trying to get their selfies with DiDi at Thane and the subsequent stations en route. Being a late departure, we trailed the Diva Madgaon Passenger and thus had to endure brief halts at wayside stations in the run up to Panvel, where the culprit was shown its rightful place. The passengers onboard that train stared in awe as the yellow-red apartment started rolling out. The TTE checked my ticket and went away only to be followed by another, haphazardly dressed, young, mannerless dick-head. He came and asked me my seat number in a very rude manner to which I replied in an equally rude tone as well. Who gives a F about such losers anyway?
As the sun rose higher up in the eastern sky, we sped towards Konkan, skipping the remainder of the Central Railway stations. At Roha, a fresh set of crew was awaiting us and so were a bunch of policemen who were ecstatic to see DiDi. Thus began the saga of clicking selfies and group pictures. Meanwhile, the pilot stood beside the loco and exercised his right to faith before taking charge of DiDi on her first regular run on the monsoon railway. The first station, Kolad, was skipped at about a 100Kmph. Meanwhile, I was being pestered by the folks from the WA groups to note the speeds that DiDi would manage on KR and I sent a few audio clips that asserted their beliefs that the train was indeed allowed to do three digit speeds. Oh, I forgot to mention, the AC in our coach was set to freeze any unsuspecting souls and I had a hard time staying inside. Most of the time was spent at the door with the cool breeze being a charming entity to accompany on a doorplating adventure. The oscillations were a bit on the higher side though as is evident from the video that accompanies this write up.
TO BE CONTD...