My first attempt for writing a travelogue. Kindly read it patiently and comment. Thanks in advance.
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The day of journey comes after booking two tatkal tickets in two successive days which could have been a matter of single tatkal ticket if the triweekly express which is being operated from gateway of rameswaram to the gateway of seven hills was not cancelled for that day.
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Arrived the station just 30 minutes before departure of uzhavan express, which was at platform 1 linked with an arakkonam based WAP - 4 locomotive. I walked to the other end of the platform, and boarded my coach, so it was a non track sided lower berth, berth facing the opposite direction of the train. Train was super clean.. so put my berth and started sleeping immediately after the train left its source on time, usually used to peep through window atleast till its next halt, but though it was not a tiring day, still slept.
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At around 4 am, woke up to find that our train was making its scheduled halt at Tambaram. I have travelled many times in uzhavan express and this was the highest time I have ever slept in uzhavan express Noticed the rake of Tambaram Jasidih superfast parked at PF 8, our train departed TBM, since it arrived at PF 5, it accelerated quickly at the mainline and enjoyed the high speed action at early morning within chennai suburbs.. arrived at platform 5 at chennai egmore, dot on time. I rushed out of the station, took a suburban train ticket to park, came to Platform 11, took a local to chennai park and arrived chennai central within 5 am.
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My next train was at half past 6, but platform was yet to be announced. I rushed to platform 2 to see a vande Bharat train for the very first time directly through my eyes. In the adjacent platform, one of the fastest premium train connecting chennai to capital of India (Bharath) was linked with Lallaguda based white stallion. Then, i refreshed myself for the day and patiently sat in platform - 6. The rake of our train, which was the first direct train from chennai to the gateway of seven hills, and it was my first time in that train..
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So time was ticking to 5.50 am when as the rake of our train was slowly arriving at platform 7. Went in front of our train to see an arakkonam based WAP - 4 was coupled with our train to haul it till the stop where it is supposed to undergo reversal. I managed to book tatkal ticket within 5 minutes to get a window seat for myself. Came to my coach to find that the window seat was not facing the adjacent track. Okay, felt lucky for getting a window seat atleast. So our train departed Bang on time, our train, having lots of stoppages in between, after crossing perambur, train started picking up speed. As it was only some 15 - 20 minutes after the sun rise, enjoyed the golden morning scenes of the chennai suburbs, and the cool wind that flowed through the window when train touches the maximum speed.
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One thing I wondered about this train, though it has lots of stoppages, still the acceleration of the train, maintaining maximum speed and keeping the time..
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So Ambattur and thiruvallur came in no time. Before tiruvalangadu, our train slowed down and shifted to the slow line, there after picked up some speed till mosur, and crawled thereafter to arrive at platform - 1 of arakkonam junction, delayed by 5 minutes.
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After a halt of 2 minutes, we depart arakkonam, and from platform 8, the MEMU express from Tirupati to Pondicherry made its departure simultaneously with our train, which was a sight to behold in a chill morning. Slowly we deviate towards tirupati line, skipped arakkonam north and tiruttani came in no time.. for the first time I was able to see some deboarding.
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I was eagerly waiting for chart to get prepared for my next train, which is a regular special running for few years. Since I booked at last minute at RAC around 50 or so, was afraid about it getting confirmed. But anyway, i kept that thought and cellphone aside and started enjoying the beautiful landscapes once our train departed tiruttani, witnessed the huge curve of ponpadi.
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Train skipped nagari in a very good speed and as notification came in my phone that my ticket has confirmed, and i have been gifted with a side lower, our train came to a halt at ekambarakuppam, a station where the two tracks will be at different heights. In no time, we arrived puttur, here i was able to see some deboarding, but again some crowd boarded the train. Our train was very much crowded that I was unable to walk to even the washroom.. as we depart puttur with a delay of 10 minutes, at Taduku, since freight was halted at the mainline, we got looped, but our train was still moving.
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Yes, we were skipping through loop, which is a common sight at SCR as our train also will enter the SCR shortly. We arrived renigunta at 20 past 9. The loco which was supposed to be attached the rear end was kept ready. Halted for some 10 minutes, where some deboarding was there and many went to buy some food/breakfast and had it in train. At around 30 past 9, we depart renigunta, and we pick up speed, skipped tiruchanur in a good speed, noticed that the development works of tiruchanur station was going on.
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Once our train got slowed down at tirupati outer, everyone started taking their luggages from the bag, once the train arrived the platform 4 of Tirupati at 10 am flat, a huge crowd was bustling in that platform. This is the crowd of people who deboarded from sapthagiri express and who are to board the chennai express, which is running with the same rake of sapthagiri express and is to depart at 10 past 10 as per the schedule. Some how through the crowd, managed to come to the platform - 1.
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Had this triweekly express been operated, I could have travelled in a single train instead of two, and could have been less tiring.
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To be continued in part - 2 : /blog/post/5913406