The Chronicles of Chaos Part 6 - Sleek Swanky and The End

 ... continued.

15th February, 2019 is a red letter day for railfans. The Annual IRFCA Convention at Hubballi was inaugurated that day and there was a very inspired address by Mr. Dilip Kumar, Dy.CDE, Integral Coach Factory who had worked on the prestigious Train 18 project that produced a marvellous semi-high speed trainset in a record 18 months which filled the hearts of the railfans present with pride and joy. In Delhi, on the same day, our honourable Prime Minister was flagging off the Trainset which had been named Vande Bharat Express, connecting the capital city with his constituency and one of the holiest cities in Bharat, Varanasi.

The Vande Bharat Express is no less an engineering marvel, with state of the art facilities and made at a low cost or as a former automobile industry captain calls it "Frugal Engineering". Consisting of 14 chair car coaches, including 2 driving cabs and 2 executive class coaches, this train does a distance of 759 km in 8 hours in each direction, averaging 95 kmph. A few months later, a twin was introduced which went northwards towards the Himalayas to Katra, base of the revered Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.

10 months later, we had booked our tickets on this beauty. Our initial choice of C1 coach was not granted and instead, we got seats in C10, a far walk away from the driving coach. We reached NDLS by 05:30 and were greeted by the sight of the northward bound Vande Bharat on platform 14. Our rake shunted in to platform 16 and we moved to the head of the train to take the mandatory pictures, selfies, groupfies and to admire the beautiful engineering of the train. The Loco Pilot was making the pre-journey checks, with the onboard technical team assisting him, while the stewards were busy loading the breakfast and snacks for the passengers.

Our seats happened to be the pseudo EC seats, as Abhilash puts it - the last row. Good because we could travel in relative comfort, but bad because the motors that power the sliding door to enter the seating area was quite loud with the whizzing sound.

The clock struck six and both the new boys started moving out of Delhi in opposite directions, and if things were to go right, they would be back in Delhi 16 hours later. Of course, since we were travelling in the Varanasi bound train, things were bound to go wrong. Platform 1 had the original Speed King of IR, ready to go southwards towards Habibganj while on platform 15, Prateek, the celebrity loco, pulled in with the Kathgodam Shatabdi. 

Railneer and Hindustan Times distributed, we started moving out at a brisk pace, skipping the suburbs of Dilli and as we entered Uttar Pradesh and into the dreaded NCR territory, fog made the progress very slow. Speed was limited to a mere 75kmph and instead of the 130 this fellow was capable of doing. A tight schedule meant the delay was slowly building up.

By this time, a hot breakfast of Cutlets, Paratha, Curds, Sandwich and a chocolate muffin was served. Food was pretty tasty and hot. Full marks for the food, although our crew chief was a tad more stricter with respect to the ratings. Ulysee was out, waiting to clock 130 for the second time on our trip, but it was still elusive. But what did come was news that internet services was suspended in several parts of UP, Varanasi included. This led to a quick call to AV from Akshay, who had changed his mind to return home by Varanasi Mysuru Express, to book a Tatkal ticket to Solapur from where he would head home to Bijapur by bus or train. Thankfully, AV was able to win the battle with IRCTC and booked the 3A ticket!

As a good sign, the weather cleared up a little after 9 and we began accelerating. 75, 85, 100, 110, 120, 130. Yes! Second time on this trip, and we had touched 130. SBC WAP 5 was in shut down mode now, taking a quick power nap, but was soon awake to enjoy the 130 action with the in-progress EDFC giving company. Progress which was smooth thus far, soon came to a grinding halt. We suspected a CRI (cattle runover) which was soon confirmed and checks were being conducted.

Akshay and me went upto the driving cab or cockpit(?) to stretch our legs. Upon seeing the control panel, we began having a nice discussion on how the controls looked similar to WDP 4 and WAP 7. A gentleman from the technical team was impressed by our seemingly good knowledge of the controls, which certainly not the case. We know only the surface, while these gentlemen have a much better understanding of the trains. Still, it did feel nice to get such compliments. Thank you IRFCA!

As we were returning back, our crew chief decided to inspect the damage and on his arrival at the leading C1 coach, things began to clear up and after about an hours detention, we were up and running, with the front cattle guard removed. So that's a two hour delay even before the first halt, Kanpur. 

At Kanpur yard, we had a darshan of the oldest WAM 4 in India, CNB WAM 4 20406 still doing inferior duties. A wonderful sight and possibly the last time we were to see a WAM 4, a workhorse of the Railway network, in action. Farewell soldiers!

The LP was announcing the arrival of the train and on which side the doors would open, much like an aircraft. Kanpur was a long halt due to lunch loading. 

The veg meal consisted of rotis, delicious paneer curry, dry aloo subji, curds, dal and pickle, and butter scotch ice cream for dessert. Again, food was top notch, though the chief disagreed. The train started acclerating again, at a good pace, 130 130 130 constantly clicked on the speedometer to reach Prayagraj, the holy city at the confluence of the three revered rivers. From here, we would move to the single line section via Manduadih to enter Varanasi, with MPS reduced to 110. The mighty Ganga Maa crossed yet again , and we sped away towards Manduadih even as the three SBC based human locos took a power nap till we were near Manduadih. The DLW on the left was a nice sight with a YDM 5 loco seen plinthed. On the right side, we happened to see two of our home boys, 12007 and 12009, awaiting to be converted into WAG 11. As though a reminder of their fate, we even saw WAG 11 29002 parked right in front of them. 

As we got excited on seeing the WAG 11, our copassengers also became curious to see what we were upto, with some even asking which train was that!

We finally pulled into Varanasi a good 2 hours late and made our way to freshen up and head for Ganga Arati. We were told that there had been a Lathi charge some time back, but the situation was under control. A peaceful Arati, followed by a tour along the river, where we saw the ultimate truth of life - Death, at Manikarnika ghats. We offered our prayers to Lord Vishwanath at the temple, thanking him for silently watching over us before heading to Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple. He had been constantly giving us  mmthe much needed Mochan from a lot of Sankat over the past week.

Bidding goodbye to Akshay, who was to board the BSB - MYS Express the next day, Abhilash and I headed over to Varanasi station, where we were able to get WiFi and internet connectivity. Our last leg by train, the DDU - LKO Ekatmata Express, and the only train of our entire trip hauled by an E loco ( Akshay did not have this honour. His Mysore Express  was hauled by a KJM WDP 4D). Gonda P4 22334, was our loco. Our coach S5 was relatively clean and we immediately settled down in our berths for a good night's sleep in biting cold.

Early next morning, we were running 3 hours late due to fog and at Utraitia, we were halted for a long time. An Alco chugging was heard and it was the Dibrugarh Rajdhani, rushing towards Delhi, with UDL WDG 3A in the lead! Two Rajdhanis with Alcos during the trip. Amazing!

A few more long halts later, we were taken into Lucknow on platform 4 with the AC Express coming from Delhi arriving on platform 1 with what looked like a RPM WAP 7. 

We photographed the beautiful Charbagh station to our hearts content and headed to the retiring room at Lucknow NER. Yes, Lucknow was to be our last port of call as we had booked our return from here after deciding not to return back to Kolkata due to the prevailing situation there. Not wanting any more drama, I freshened up and made a dash for the airport by Metro while Abhilash had plans to meet a childhood buddy before going to the airport by late afternoon. 

At the airport, I met Aman , a fellow Railfan from Lucknow, before boarding the Vistara flight to Hyderabad which was also delayed due to late arrival from Delhi and subsequent traffic at Delhi airport. 

Abhilash meanwhile had his flight diverted to Chennai before reaching Bangalore a good 5 hours late. 

Akshay was having a rather horrible journey due to poor maintenance issues, clogged up toilets being of them, but he too made it home on Monday safely, concluding a very worthwhile trip.

The end.