Baroda Broadway III

Part 2 The Queen

For railfans, a good train journey without good food to go with is akin to having a benne masala dosa without chutney. And thankfully , some trains in IR still serve tea and coffee with milk , toast with butter and biriyani with masala.

Two trains that are on the bucket list for all RFs is the Mandovi and Deccan Queen.

And for this trip, I had chosen to take the Deccan Queen, the undisputed queen of IR, serving passengers between the Queen of Deccan and the City of Dreams for the past 88 years.

And the highlight of the Queen is the Dining Car, which is unique to IR, and still serves breakfast that the gentleman in London has..

And accompanying me were Raghu from Secunderabad, who had taken the Shatabdi the previous night from Secunderabad, and Deepak Shrinivas from Bangalore who had taken a bus from Bangalore, and for once, PRS had not done any mess up in our bookings and all of us were in D4, the coach chosen for it was the nearest to the gastronomic delights that awaited us.

By 6:45, Raghu and I came down from our dormitory and met Deepak. The Queen has been shifted to PF 5, and that meant a small walk to reach our coach. The small part in me that was hoping for an offlink was disappointed but not for long, as it was a birthday special Deccan Queen loco that was hauling us. After the mandatory pics of the loco and the selfie in front of the train board, we got into our coach, but not before paying obeisance to the Dining Car, whose cooking area was already emanating the pleasant smell of breakfast.

Of course, a very nice point to be noted, a KJM WDP 4D wished us a pleasant morning by revving up to its loudest before heading to the industrial town of Baramati with the morning shuttle. 

Our co passengers happened to be bank employees heading to Dadar for some meeting. And a chocolate liveried WCAM 3 was moving across to haul the Sahaydri Express. 

At 7:15, with a toot and a slight jerk, we were off. The points cleared, and boy did the WCAM just take off. The stations of Shivaji Nagar, the army cantonment Khadki, the industrial stations Pimpri, Chinchwad and Akurdi, home to giants like Bajaj, Alfa Laval, Crompton Greaves and my former employer Force Motors were just whizzed past 

Just after Dehu, the dining Car beckoned and off we went to satisfy our stomachs. A plate of Cutlet and baked beans was ordered and as we waited, Kamshet passed by. The song Mile Sur Mera Tumhara played in my mind and I managed to capture a couple of photos from that station

By Lonavala, our food arrived and boy, what a way to start the day.. the cutlets were very nicely done and the toast that went with it was well buttered. The same can be said for the baked beans. Such a breakfast can not be had in any other train and nor does it seem right on any other train. In fact, I felt even a e ticket would not be the appropriate, and thus took a PRS ticket for the same. 

As we were gorging on our breakfast, the hills were being crossed, and the impressive Expressway crossed us a couple of times. I must mention, that the weather was rather dry at this time and the layout of the Ghats lines helped me in understanding the presentation by Ashish sir in the convention. We decided to end breakfast with a plate of cheese toast after Deepak and Raghu sampled an omelette. The toast took it's own sweet time to arrive, but when it did, the wait was worth it. 

By Karjat, we went back to our seats, and then, it was back to continuous MPS run again. The priority given to DQ is something to be experienced. The skip at Kalyan was simply superb. 

Kalyan skip done, we were now whizzing past the various suburban stations, Thane, Mulund, Dombivili and many more. The ru through Parsik tunnel was again a very nice moment for me. 

With a slight delay, we pulled into Dadar, and here we met Akshay from Bijapur who had taken a bus from Bangalore and would be boarding the double decker to BRC, and also met RF Khurshed Lawyer. Raghu bid goodbye to us and he headed off to Siddhivinayak temple before boarding the Dadar Ajmer Express to BRC,while Deepak and I went over to DDR, Dadar Western to catch a local to Borivali, where our next trip to BRC would continue.

...to be continued