Shiv Ganga Express: mera bhola hai bhandari, karta Shiv Ganga ki sawari... Kashi Vishwanath Re, ohh bholenath Re... - Divyanshu Gupta

Hello Friends,
Hope you enjoyed my MG Vaigai pics. I still remember waiting at Dindigul station for this train - gives me goose bumps every time I think about it! This was in summer of 1985 and I had no idea what the train's livery was. I had only seen black-and-white pictures of the coaches in some ICF promo pamphlet. I was waiting on PF1, which was on a loop line. And then a YDM4A loco with green-and-yellow livery showed up with a rake of the same color. My jaw literally dropped - I was transfixed by this beautiful train. It took the loop and came and...
more...

stood next to me. I was so stunned, almost forgot to board the train :-)
I can recall the train simply blasting through Manapparai. When it halted at Tiruchi, I rushed to the front and took a couple of snaps. And then we ran non-stop till Vriddhachalam where we halted for a couple of minutes. Before that, somewhere near Ariyalur, we crossed the Pallavan Exp. - similar green-yellow rake with matched livery loco. - that crossing was memorable.
Then came Villupuram. I knew the train would halt only for 5 minutes. But I desperately wanted to take a picture of the coaches. So, I jumped down towards the non-platform side, squeezed myself through a hole in the fence, crossed the track and jumped onto the other platform. Then I took two shots which I have uploaded. I somehow managed to do this within 5 minutes!
And then a terrific run - NON-STOP till Egmore. What a train! Slowly went through Chengalpattu station - a skip I will cherish forever. It was extremely hot that day but it didn't stop me from enjoying the entire journey. Sadly, that was my last encounter with the train in green-yellow livery.
A few years, I encountered the MG train again somewhere near Tambaram. This time I was on the road and the train just happened to go below a bridge. I noted that the train had changed to cream-brown.
How I wish I could turn the clock back 30 years!!