Welcome to Railway Junction

It was on 18-Nov-2004. At around 11.30 AM, I left my home towards Belapur CBD (BEPR) railway station on the Mumbai CST-Panvel harbour section suburban line of Central Railway with an aim of boarding the 12.01 local for Panvel.

I reached the station and validated coupons for travelling in the local and proceeded to Platform number 1. The platform was quite crowded and so was the train. The train was populated with people travelling to Panvel to board the Netravati express. The local arrived on its scheduled time. It's a Mumbai Local. You have to board it as soon as it comes to a Halt. The local usually halts for duration between 25-45 seconds.

The train reached Panvel at around 12.35. I quickly proceed to the Main Line Station. The two stations are separated by a Fence. Since my tickets were waitlisted, I had to check my status on the Reservation Charts. It showed by Status to be ‘Confirmed' with a berth #35 in Coach Number AS1.

Soon after this an announcement was made that my train (6345 DN Lokmanya Tilak Terminus – Trivandrum Central Netravati Express) was running on time and will arrive on Platform No.3 at 12.50 hours. To my surprise, the arrival of the Dadar bound KR4 Ratnagiri - Dadar Passenger was also announced. This train was arriving on Time (12.40 Hrs)! Since the section ahead is a single line, our train usually has to wait until KR4 arrives at the station.

Finally I could spot a Kalyan WDM2#18480, puffing vigorously as it was clearing a level cross gate situated just outside the Station. The train soon arrived and came to a halt on Platform #1. I now had to rush to Platform No.1 to avoid the risk of missing my train!

At 1250, the arrival of my Train wad announced. Soon the train arrived behind an Erode WDM2c. My coach was the third from the loco in a rake that consisted of: Engine,SLR,GS,AS1-2,SPL 3ac,A-1, S11-10,Pantry,S9-1,GS,SLR. Making a total of 21 coaches.

The train has a total of 4 AC coaches. As the loco came to a halt, I noticed that the loco was connected to the refuelling assembly and the loco got its stomach filled with some special Diesel. The departure was delayed by 5mins due to delay in refuelling of the loco. Soon the loco pilot, a CR staff, sounded the horn. The loco starting smoking as the rake started moving. We departed at 13.00 against the scheduled time of 12.55. The loco soon negotiated points and joined the main line to Roha from where Konkan Railway territory begins.

I decided to stay inside my coach since the Ticket Inspector (TTE) is expected soon. The TTE is Konkan Railway Staff who joins the train from its origin and continues down south upto Madgaon from where another TTE, again a Konkan Railway staff takes over. The Konkan Railway (KR) TTEs have a Light Blue-Navy Blue combination in their Uniform instead of the usual Black Coats seen on IR. He checked my ticket and endorsed my Berth number on it. To my company in the train were a family consisting of a Business man, his wife and his two children (A boy and a Girl, who were fighting during the entire length of the journey!!!). They were travelling to Kerala for a holiday (as tourists) and they had too many luggages that they found the place inadequate. Anyway I could find some place for my luggage (two bags!). Once my ticket was checked I decided to get to the door and have a look at the route through which I was travelling for the very first time.

We maintained a good speed upto APTA, where we were made to wait for the Delhi bound 2617 Ernakulam junction-Hazrat Nizamuddin Mangala Lakshadweep express which crossed us at good speed. The power was an Ernakulam WDM2a#17106. As soon as the crossing was over, we were permitted to proceed and we finally started moving at 13.30 hours. We picked up good speed and station seemed to be flying past! It didn't continue for long. At around 14.20, we were made to wait at Nagothane. The station was in a dilapidated condition and had only one usable platform. Here we crossed our pairing train, the Mumbai bound 6346 UP Netravati Exp, which arrived behind an Erode WDM2c#14124 in original livery. We left the station at around 14.45 hrs after a wait for 25 long minutes! We soon entered the main line and the loco pilot was quick to pick up speed. Erode Diesels are regarded to be one of the best locos. KR entirely depends on Erode for its numerous Express and Passenger Trains.

We arrived ROHA at 15.10 against a scheduled time of 14.42. The halt lasted for 15 minutes. The coach next to mine (towards the loco) was a General Sitting compartment. This coach was heavily crowded and somebody had locked the doors from inside and this resulted in a verbal ‘warfare' with some people pelting stones inside the compartment. The problem was settled when railway employees interfered and the door was opened. All this happened while new loco pilots who were KR employees took over the charge from their CR counterparts. At this station I spotted a Kalyan WDM2#18926 which was coupled to the rake of Roha-Diva passenger which departs in the evening. The loco was live! We departed at 1525 hours against the scheduled time of 1445, delayed by 40 minutes. The KR Loco pilot too was nothing less than his CR Counterpart. He was picking up speed quite fast and we pick up good speed but could not keep up the speed because some sort of work was in progress along the track and at many sections, the speed limit imposed was 30 KMPH.

At around 15.55, we halted at Veer for a crossing. After about 5 minutes I could see an Erode loco at a distance. Soon the train entered the platform line. (We were waiting on the main line). The train was the Diva bound KR6 Sawantwadi-Diva passenger. The train was hauled by an Erode WDM2#16462. This loco was too far from its home and was working a passenger train in Maharashtra . As soon as the train came to a halt we were permitted to proceed. (at 1605). The loco quickly picked up speed. One thing that I noticed was that the loco was not a heavy smoker but a very light smoker. Very little fumes were emitted from its exhaust even when I could hear the loco charging up. It really sounded awesome!!!.

At around 16.55, we arrived at Khed, and we were made to halt there to allow the Mumbai bound 0104 Madgaon-Mumbai Mandovi express to vacate the main line. We halted on the main line. This station has two platforms and the platform lines are different from the main line. The loco of Mandovi Express was a Krishnarajapuram based WDM3a#18704 which was in the original DMW Patiala livery. Again, this loco was far away from its home. This loco is shared with 6529/30 Mumbai CST-Bangalore Udyan Express. We left the station at around 1700 hours. Our next scheduled halt would be at Chiplun which is the second station from Khed.

At about 1720 hours, we arrived at Chiplun against the scheduled time of 1705. Chiplun is a major station where many expresses stop. This station is located just parallel to the National Highway #17. At this station the water tanks (both for the toilets and the air-conditioning equipment) are filled. At many instances, one can notice that the train departs much before the pipes used to fill these tanks are removed. Due to such instances, the staff at Chiplun had tied the mouths of the pipes to the Iron framework on which the supply pipes are supported. While we waited at the station, the Okha (in Gujarat ) bound 6338 UP Ernakulam-Okha exp went past the station without stopping. The Loco was an Erode based WDM2#18460. Since this train also has a Southern Railway maintained rake like our train, most coach attendants knew each other and were waiving to each other. We departed from the station after a prolonged halt of about 10 minutes at 1730 hours, delayed by about 15 minutes.

At about 1815 we halted at a small station called Aravli Road in order to allow the “king of Konkan Railway”, the Dadar bound 2052 Madgaon-Dadar Jan Shatabdhi Express to cross us. The train was too fast to notice any details of the loco. The loco for Jan Shatabdhi is shared with our Train. The loco comes to Mumbai with the Netravati Express on, say, Day 1 and Departs with Jan Shatabdhi on Day 2. It returns to Mumbai on the same day and returns to its home with the Trivandrum bound Netravati Express on Day 3. The halt was very brief since the Jan Shatabdhi arrived as soon as we halted and the train simply flew past. We departed at around 1820 hours itself!

Ratnagiri (RN) was reached at about 1900 hours against the Scheduled Arrival Time of 18.45. Ratnagiri is regarded as one of the major stations on Konkan Railway since it happens to be one of KR's Divisional Offices. The train departed soon, with a halt of just 3 minutes at 1903 hours. Since, it was the beginning of winter, it had become very dark by 1900 hours and no more rail fanning was possible. We halted at Kudal at about 2100 hrs. After Kudal the train has an impressive run upto Thivim which was reached at 2200 hrs against the scheduled time of 2130 hours. The next halt was Karmali, which was reached at 2200 hrs. The next Major station on this route is Madgaon (in Goa ). This station was reached at 2250 hours against the actual arrival time of 2230 hours. This train halts at Madgaon for about 10 minutes. Here the duties of the TTE and the Loco Pilots changes. On that day the Halt was prolonged to about 15 minutes due to some technical reasons. We finally departed at 2305 hours delayed by about 25 minutes.

As soon as the train picked up speed, I decided to retire for the day. I somehow climbed onto my Upper Berth. I had a sprain in my Right leg due to which I couldn't sleep properly. Somehow, I managed to sleep upto about 0430 hours after which I could bear the pain any more and decided to get up. The AirCon was dead when I got up and some foul smell was emitting from the blowers. I got down from the upper berth and finished all my Morning chores and decided to be at the door.

We soon arrived at Kankanadi at about 05.05 against the Scheduled time of 04.30. This is the first Station on the Southern Railway territory. We exited from Konkan Railway just a few kilometers north of this station. At this station, the duties of the TTE and the Loco Pilot changes again. From here Southern Railway Employees take over the duty. We departed from the Station at 0515 after a halt of 10 minutes when almost half of my compartment got empty. A few kilometers ahead of the station, the by-pass lines to Mangalore separate from the Main line and the doubled lines from Mangalore join our line forming a sort of a Railway Triangle.

Usually, trains lose time once they enter Kerala owing to the saturated railway lines, huge number of halts, single line, etc. But on that day, I was surprised to see that our train was rather making up the lost time and not losing time. Thanks to the double line which was operation right from Ullal (Along the border of Kerala and Karnataka) to Calicut (or Kozhikode ). There were some pockets where the double line was not operational owing to bridge construction. We reached Kasaragode, which is the first Halt in Kerala state, at 0607 hours and departed after a brief halt of about 3 minutes. But we were now delayed by 45 minutes. This delay was reduced to 30 minutes by the time we reached Kozhikode . As we were speeding across many stations, we crossed the Delhi bound 2431 Rajdhani Express at 0620 hours between Kasaragode and Kanhangad. At such an early hour the run was quite uneventful until we reached Kozhikode . Before Kozhikode , we crossed an unknown passenger at Nileshwar (0643 hrs), and the Canannore (Kannur) – Mangalore passenger just outside Pappinisseri Station (0740 hours). After Kozhikode , a single line section awaits us. We departed from Kozhikode at around 0950 hours, delayed by about 30 minutes. We were made to crawl at many places since some sort of track maintenance works were going on. We halted at Tanur, to make way for Kannur bound 6305 Ernakulam – Kannur Intercity. This train is a pure day train and has facilities only for Sitting. The train was hauled by WDM2a #16874 from Ernakulam Loco Shed. We soon left Tanur only to crawl at speed as low as 20 KMPH at many sections. My beliefs about train journey in Kerala were now being held true! We halted at Tirur (1115 hrs), Kuttipuram (1131 hrs), Pattambi (Unscheduled halt, 1131 hrs) before we reached Shoranur Junction.

The section from Mangalore to Shoranur is under Southern Railway's (SR) Palghat division. We reached Shoranur at 1220 hours, delayed by about 15 minutes. Here the loco pilots change again. The Palghat division loco pilots who took charge from Kankanadi now handover charge to loco pilots of Trivandrum division who would work the train all the way to its destination. We departed at about 1230 hours. At this station, I spotted WAP4 #22270 from Erode lying dead in a loop line. The railway lines outside Shoranur Junction also forms a sort of a Triangle. Here the line from Mangalore, say Line A, joins either to the line towards Palghat, say Line B, or to the lines towards Trichur, say Line C. A railway line goes directly from Trichur to Palghat, say Line D, without touching the station to complete the base of the triangle.

We soon joined Line C and cross one of the biggest rivers in the Kerala, the Bharatapuzha. After the bridge, we join Line D outside a station called Vallathol Nagar. This station is not called as a Junction because the points are controlled by a cabin at Shoranur Junction. From Vallathol Nagar, we are in a Double Line section and this section continues upto Ernakulam. We quickly picked up speed as the loco pilots celebrated the double line. Stations were simply flying past. We soon crossed a Station called Punkunnam, which indicates that Trichur (My destination) was the very next station. I quickly went inside the coach and pulled out my bags and bid adieu to the family which gave me company from Mumbai and rushed towards the Door. The train pulled into Trichur station's Platform #1 at 1255 hours delayed by about 15 minutes.

As I have reported earlier, my coach was the third from the loco and the exit of the station lies near the 12 th coach!!! Walking the length of 9 coaches with a sprained leg and two heavy bags, one each hanging around my each shoulder was not easy for me. It was 1255, and I had a ‘light' breakfast at 0800 hrs. I was very hungry and my actual destination was still 20 minutes far. Got out of the station and boarded an Autorikshaw to my destination which was about 10-12 Kms away.

That marked an end to a magnificent journey on the Konkan Railway which was my very first journey through that route. Thanks to everybody for ready this long-ish travelogue. Please send in you comments and remarks…