Satpura Salaam - The Journey Begins.

It had been a hectic week for me and after logging out from work, it was a quick hop to my room in Gachibowli to pick my travel bag (Yes I do have a travel bag consisting of a notebook, toiletries, power banks, chargers, and my Mahaperiyava book), it was off to Hitech City Metro Station to catch the metro to Secunderabad. 

After a 30 minute ride, I was at Secunderabad, to begin my first long railfanning trip with Secunderabad member, namely, Dr Vrij Rai, PVS Praveen and our own Mr Timetable VSP Garu. They were having dinner when I called them and said they would be reaching the station soon. I hung around like a good Railfan, watching the action at Secunderabad. 

The Hummers from KJM hummed about, hauling trains along the Nanded line, trains departing to the many destinations, to the East, to the Coast,some trains running late due to the works along the Mumbai line, Secunderabad was bustling. A few highly patronized trains also departed at this hour, the Krishna Express which was Adilabad bound, the Gowthami Express to Kakinada, Narasapur Express were a few spottings. 

My train was backed into the platform by a slightly smoking Kazipet Alco and the new LHB rake onto the platform. The hustle and bustle to enter the unreserved coaches began, for the passengers hoped to secure a place to sit for the 10 hour journey to the center of India. I walked to my coach, S8 which was at the rear, said a Hi to my fellow travellers who were in B1 and made my way to my Side Lower Forward Facing Trackside berth which was in RAC. 

LHB mania at Secunderabad

The loco was 30572, home boy from Lallaguda with HOG ports. 2215, the scheduled departure time for my train and.... Well, we did not set off. We were not given the starter yet. The minutes ticked past, the train to Machilipatnam overtook us. The Delhi bound Dakshin was on platform 4. Would we go ahead of Dakshin? To add to this drama, a late running Vizag bound LTT Vizag Express came and stood on platform 1. 

As the clock struck 23:10, a delayed departure of 55 minutes, we were off, saying goodbye to Dakshin and started moving towards Kazipet. The suburbs skipped past and by the time we left Cherlapally, I was into the realms of Morpheus. 

I woke up the next morning , to be greeted by a foggy weather and a ICF rake on the adjacent platform of Naagari. It was the long runner, Deekshabhoomi Express headed towards the industrial town of Jharkhand, from Kolhapur. We waited, and waited, until Deekshabhoomi got the proceed. A few minutes later, headlamp lit up the foggy weather, and with it was the Danapur bound Sanghamitra Express, coming all the way from my home city, carrying within her the hundreds of people who have called Bangalore their home in search of theor daily roti and were heading back home to meet their families after a long long time, having saved up for this long journey

Naagari on a foggy morning

the headlamps of Sanghamitra cutting through the fog. 

The accleration out of Naagari was incredible and we were soon hitting MPS. A surprise spotting for me was a WCAM with the Wardha Balharshah Passenger that carries the coaches of the Sewagram Slip. A first spotting of a WCAM loco beyond Manmad/Daund for me. 

Wardha Balharshah Passenger

The stations rolled by, vendors came by, selling chai coffee to freshen up the day and on the right, I could see floodlights and a stadium. This was the Jamtha Stadium , home to the Vidarbha Cricket Association, which meant Nagpur was not very far. AJNI cleared with a quick halt and a lot of passengers alighting, we made our way to Nagpur, with a 20 minute delay. Post the mandatory selfie, we had a quick breakfast, boarded a high deck Auto to Itwari, where my schedule got changed and the 106 km journey was about to begin. 

jamtha stadium

selfie at Nagpur

To be continued