Trip Report-12692- SSPN-MAS Express-19.10.2013
A availability of 183 in this train seemed a better choice than a W/L 15 of Chennai Mail. Anyway being close trains didnt mind the timings that this train is also punctual and generally follows the Mail to chennai
Reached Railway station by around 10:30Pm just to hear the announcement that the Sanghamithra Express was entering into Pf-4 just 120 mins behind schedule- Pf-1 waited with 12658 Mail for departure but the Display board had no mention of 12692 Express arrival or departure but a whole lot of crowd...
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waited skipping mail so I guessed it could also be on Pf-1
Just as announcement for mail departure was made, the display board showed up with 12692 Arrival expected at 22:55hrs while Pf-2 awaited arrival of 11013 CBE Express expected at 23:20hrs trailing the SSPN Express-In the meantime shatabdi Express was announced at arriving at 22:40hrs and same entered soon
Barely minutes after Mail departure KJM WDM-2 showed up with the 12692 from SSPN- My Coach S-12 was the last coach at the fag end of the train indicating the walk I need to make at MAS the next morning. My bay was occupied with 2 senior citizens from SSPN while rest of the coach was SBC quota
after engine change and reversal, we were finally given the starter at 23:20hrs with 11013 not ye in sight- beths were laid and I thought of waiting for the TTE but later gave up and climbed my upper berth to sleep. WAP7 hauled BWT-SBC Express crossed us before Cantt. Had a slow down before BYPl almost coming to a stop but started accelerating just as the "Boeing" crossed us with terribly late running 11013
Had a good sleep but shock absorbers werent too great and train made some wierd sounds below the wheels- Katpadi arrival was at 3:05AM 2 hrs more for 130 kms a very good possibility
Had a sound sleep again and when I woke up watch showed time as 05:25AM as the train slowed down- 2-3 people got up to deboard while others woke up their kins saying Perambur has arrived- As train departed Perambur, I too gout down from my berth
We progressed very slowly and the floor was totally in mess- Lower berth people said it was a heavy rain the previous night and I immediately checked my bag- thankfully my bag faced the other way and hence water reached my water bottle but not my books- books were very safe
Halted at Vysarpadi outer where a Flat bed rake from the Beach track crossed the points and crossed us with a wDG loco- A few containers still stayed on top in certain beds for despatch to some other place
We proceeded again and we were stopped again at BBQ outer- after 10 long minutes, WAP4 showed up at 6AM hauling the 2 hrs late running 13351 Dhanbad-allapuzha Express- we again started but barely moved few inches before stopping
The stop was long- Tooo long- the EMU's towards MMCC had a gala time overtaking us even as passengers lamented that we could have taken them at PER rather than travelling by this Express- but long said even EMU's started lining up from bBQ till Vyasarpadi
At 6:10AM lost my patience and went to the door to find a WAP4 behind us barely few metres awaywith the Cheran Express from Coimbatore. slowly WAP1 of Royapuram shed curved past BBQ with the Mysore bound 12007 Shatabdi and we too got the starter
We proceeded slowly past the points to slow down again after BBQ but proceeded in a crawl when WAP7 went past us with the 12675 Kovai Express while WAP5 went with the Rajdhani on the other side enjoying a parallel run- We slowly proceeded to stop on Pf-6 of MAS at 6:25AM where PF-8 was hauled with the Sapthagiri Express waiting for departure with a WAP1 of Royapuram at its rear
Thanks for reading