A-1 station. Although I confess that for railfanning purposes Nampally is far better than either Kachiguda or Secunderabad. Nampally is almost always empty both of passengers as well of RPF personnels who can be seen in abundancy in Secunderabad, and especially more so in Kachiguda! Maybe so because both them are Divisional HQs while Nampally falls under SC division. I wonder what was the need of carving out two divisional HQs within the space of 7 kms ? Maybe the erstwhile Nizam Railways had a role to play here, or maybe something else! It is confusing to say the least and I would be very thankful if someone clears out this doubt. I also think, I maybe wrong here, that KCG & SC have got to be the closest lying Divisional Headquarters in IR!
Sample this, they are situated at a distance of 7kms, and they both are functional HQs of the Secunderabad and the Hyderabad divisions respectively. Meanwhile both of them serve Hyderabad mainly! Meanwhile Secunderabad and Hyderabad are obviously classified as twin cities however in my numerous travels I never could find a demarcation denoting the end of Hyderabad and the beginning of Secunderabad and vice-versa! The Hussain Sagar clearly doesn't count because it acts a demarcation only for the region around the Ring Road. The HYB-SC line which goes parrallel to the Hussain Sagar seems to lie in the entity of Hyderabad only and suddenly arrives into Secunderabad without any notice Confusing isn't it? Wait there is more, apparently Secunderabad and Hyderabad share the same poilce and traffic police while having different Lok Sabha constituencies! The demographics and geographics are very confusing, I mean there are other twin cities like Warangal and Kazipet but they are beautifully segregated!
Speaking of disapointing, nothing beats my disapointment when I first saw the Musi River, if you were to call it a river! When I first came to Hyderabad, an Autowallah (Read 'The AP Express on roads' :P) gave a long and tantazicing boast about the greatness of the Musi River, and how it played a chequered role in Hyderabad's golden history! When I first saw the Musi though, my boosted interests suffered a shock though and I felt genuinely cheated! The Musi of today is nothing more than a large drain as of now, the water stinks as one, and the water colour is perenially black. I wonder how the flower sellers manage to set up their shops there, either they have somehow managed to shut off their senses of smell or the eternal stink of the Musi might have played a huge role in impairing their olfactory abilities!
Blabbering oftopic now and I am extremely apologetic for it...
Anyway there is a saying that 'A picture is worth a thousand words!'. Not sure whether it would be apt in this case because the Charm and grandeur of KCG needs to be experienced in person rather than by looking at a clicked photograph. Especially on a cloudy morning/evening, and with a cool breeze blowing in, the atmosphere in KCG turns truly majestic! There are few such railway station on the IR network that can leave you in awe like Kachiguda! I confess that I haven't been to either Mumbai or Delhi hencewhile I donot have any idea how majestic VT/CST might look in real presence! After all it didn't become the second most clicked monument in India without a damn good reason! On the Howrah-Delhi line I have been as far as CNB and CNB is more dirty than beautiful. I don't count HWH because it is like a secong home for me. I have been to Chennai Central and Egmore and while they are beautiful they pale infront of Kachiguda! This is strictly my opinion and my intentions are not hurt anybody's feelings! Out of all the railway stations that I have been to, and it represents a miniscule fraction of the countless stations in the vast railway network of this Great country, I would list out Mysore and Ujjain as being the only stations that can compare to KCG in their presence! Maybe I am a bit biased about UJN but guess what unbiased opinion are a rarity :P.
You know, my intention was to type in a few words while the pictures were being uploaded, but seems like I have typed in a plentiful and still the uploading ain't completed! Furthermore considering the fact that this pictures inspite of being taken from a cellphone are relatively big and are burning a big hole in my data balance (Sobbing) , but I hope they are worth it!!!
#admin can update the pictures as station pictures if they feel appropriate! I was in a hurry hence could not enter the station premises. Looking forward to make up for it the next time!
PICTURE 1 & 2 :- Taken from the other side of the Koti-Kachiguda station road. Picture 2 especially covers up the entire KCG struture!
PICTURE 3:- Taken just inside the station premises! An Yellow Andhra Pradesh Express makes it's presence felt :P
PICTURES 4,5,6 & 7 :- An metre guage AC coach of the Rajasthan's pride 'Heritage on Wheels'. Two metre guage coaches of the 'Heritage on Wheels' have been put up on display beside the KCG railway museum. Zoom into picture 7 for details!
PICTURES 8 & 10 :- The Kavhiguda railway museum entrance can be seen from either directions!
PICTURES 9 & 11 :- The main Gothic dome of the station captured from the left and the right directions!
PICTURES 12,13 & 14 :- Shows the booking offices, the entrances and escalators and finally the 'Cafe Coffee Day' outlet built inside the station premises!
Please do comment and let me know if you liked it.
Thanks!
