Short Trip Diary:
Travelled in 22694 from NZM to SBC on 11-Oct-2015 from NZM.
The train started dot on time from NZM. Dinner was server. As usual, starts with Tomato soup and a couple of bread sticks followed by Jeera Rice, Yellow Dal, Chicken curry and Ice Cream. My berth was upper one. Settled there comfortably and went for sleep around 10 PM. At around 1 PM, before Jhansi, there was a sudden jerk with continuous loud noises. The train which was easily cruising at 100+ came to a sudden halt....
more...
After a few minutes I could see a couple of people with torches inspecting something beneath our coach (B4). I was too tired to get down at the time of the night, but was looking at the window from my berth itself. After about 45 minutes, I could see a good ~10 ft pipe being pulled from beneath our coach. The train started after 10 minutes from there. Next day morning I learnt from pantry staff that there were some cows/animals which came on the track and because of there was some minor damage to the coach.
By then The train was already late. It reached Jhansi almost 90 minutes late and reached Bhopal around 6:45 AM. I knew we could make up this lost time in SC-SBC section. But there were other plans in store for us. The train after crossing Nagpur had run at a good speed for almost an hour and then suddenly there was another jerk and a sudden halt!! Now what. Again some people came near our coach and started inspecting. This time overhead. They were looking over the coach now!
The Pantry guys told us that engine has developed a fault and chances are there that a new engine will have to come from Nagpur. Meanwhile I got down and looked at the electrical line above our coach. The lifter/separator (wire that separated the two parallel electrical lines, not sure what it is called) had snapped.
I could see another passenger train approaching on the parallel line. It slowed down when it reached near our engine and couple of people alighted the engine. It was Yasvantpur-Jabalpur express. It continued on it journey. The guys might have come from the next station Sevagram and appeared to be technicians.
I walked towards the engine. I saw that the crew and technicians had arranged for a ladder and climbed up on the engine and were working on the Panto. No body knew whats wrong and how much time it will take. We all were under the impression that a different engine will have to come from Nagpur. Meanwhile TN Express bound to NDLS also crossed.
Suddenly the crew started to come down and said...looks like we are fine.
All passengers who had alighted rushed back to their bogies and train started again. Reached SC around 9:30 PM. It made up for some lost time and reached SBC around 8:30 AM. Rest of the journey went of peacefully without much events :)