Sundays , is always a terror , for the Chennai Bangalore section . For the travellers , it's getting a ticket between the 2 cities post the 2nd half of day. For section controllers , to handle the trains in this section . Many weeklies decide to make their presence felt in afternoon on Chennai Jolarpettai section, and it's back to back handling, along with the freight to be handled .

Jan 28th was one such long weekend . Jan month is a terror for the North trains , when the fog...
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makes not only people but trains too to sleep under the blanket . They get up lazily , have a late slow move and end up delayed by hours . And when they land up in these busy schedules , one cannot make out but wonder whether it's train traffic or road traffic

The WAP4 gives a loud honk on a pleasant winter afternoon . It was way pleasant considering Chennai standards , that the sun was not burning on us when we boarded the rake on PF-7 , which has been standing there for about 3 odd hours. The incoming WAP-4 was staying blocked waiting for the rake to move . And it was time to provide the release

WAP7 pulled into PF-6 just as we were exiting , with the 10+ hours late running 12616 Grand Trunk express . WAP7 of KJM waited on PF-8 with the 12607 Lalbagh express , the evening crowd slowly trickling in . The 2S of this train is as good as a peak hour BMTC bus and CC was way ahead in waitlist when I checked it a month back . I guess it's ages since I actually took a 2S for this section . It requires a huge dare at times now I feel , though in my college days used to be excited for it .

WAP-7 awaited on PF-9 , with the Trivandrum bound 12695 . There were huge crowds waiting for this train in groups for see off. The weekly 12698 missed my attention as I joked to my Dad , " if someone sees only 4 digits of train number , a person bound to Bangalore could get into Trivandrum train departing in just 10 mins gap ".


We just crawled ,trotted , slowly crossing points to move out . No hurry we will go slowly seemed to be the WAP4 motive. TNP WDM-7 shunted the 12603 Hyderabad express rake . A EMU entered into MMCC and another exited

Checked the status of trains online . 12296 from Danapur was running late and had switched points from BBQ line to move into Vyasarpadi . We crossed past slowly from BBQ and showed no signs of hurrying . Vyasarpadi Jeeva was crossed, 12296 was nowhere near the points when we passed through . A slow glide past Perambur, huge crowd was waiting on PF-1. The 12295 bound to Danapur was the culprit for this crowd, and online showed he had crossed Bangarpet towards Kuppam. That's almost another 4 hours of waiting for them, if not lesser. He would be Vande Bharat 's prey too enroute


Perambur, Perambur loco works, Perambur carriage works, Villivakkam all went at slow speeds , and while we approached Korattur it was almost 20 minutes since we left Central. WAP4 started showing its colours and within minutes Ambattur , Annanur, Avadi were despatched like lightnings . Chennai bound 22638 West coast whizzed past us near Korattur . Another LHB rake crossed us near Annanur , and checked online to find it was the 20954 weekly from Ahmedabad. This was followed by the 12163 Super from LTT just before Tiruvallur

Our coach was completely full and almost everyone had thaken their berths, except for few , like me & dad. The LB, MB combo , we had entire berth for ourselves to sit comfortably. Mom was sound asleep in SLB, the SUB and UB allotted to a couple who chose to lie down as soon as they boarded . The bay behind was occupied by a ladies group with 3-4 kids , the kids settling down for window seats on SLB, SUB, all of them neatly positioning watching window. Thankfully they spent time playing physically and jumping rather than meddling the devices . Me & my dad of course had lots to talk, for it's a train journey during the day , and one of regular routes .

The recent rains of December had ensured that water bodies were full ,though the rivers weren't as full. The fields were ready for ploughing, some being ploughed , while some were still green. All the fields has the contrasting white dotted all over, with the Egrets occupying every place on the fields. Drongos filed across, and Open bill storks showed their presence occasionally, their sizes overshadowing the egrets. Stilts walked across the shallow waters of the lakes, while cormorants peeped out of their swim , while a few dried their feathers on tree barks or land . Kingfishers gave aerial views while the Swift's were as usual Swift in their action veering around in various angles across the sky . The views continued till the dusk across almost till Vaniyambadi , but the Kusasthalaiyaaru, and Pennai were relatively not so active

We had a major slowdown at Thiruvallur around 1545 hours, slowly trotting past the platform , clearing the points , but we were still on the main line , not switching to the slow line. The slow run continued till Egattur, where again we picked up speed to touch close to 3 digit figures, having a parallel run with the NMG rake hauled by WAG12B on the slow line, who could have been the reason why we had to be slow , as we crossed Kadambattur

The run continued till Tiruvalangadu, where we slowed down to switch points towards the slow line , to cross past Mosur and Puliyamangalam , to pull into a crowded platform of AJJ, awaiting the continuous trains coming one behind other for weekend. Announcement boarded it was the Hubbali weekly entering , and there were quite some takers for this train too .

A few ladies from neighbouring bay selected AJJ as place to deboard to fetch water , and WAP4 was quick enough to start as already he was delayed by 10 mins owing to the slow runs initially. The pull out bought out tense moments for the group, but luckily the ladies had boarded with chill water bottles in time . EMU from CGL entered into PF-1A as there was another EMU with CGL board stationed on the last corner PF

WAG12B hauled freight gave a parallel company till the exit and we left it to take the JTJ line. 70 kms in about 60 mins and we had noone ahead , while we were leading 4 trains trailing us in short gaps and we had no time to wait

How is this going to be tackled !! The last time I travelled by this train was when it was 17313 way back in 2015 , when departure time was 1350, and we had a long wait at JTJ. Then too Sanghamitra trailed us, as per his RT schedule. Today too he is behind, but delayed by hours . He was followed by Pataliputra , same as then.

To be continued