Bandra Garib-Rath - नाम से गरीब, लेकिन मेरे दिल के करीब - Abdul Rehman

TRAVELOGUE PART 1 :-
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BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR BZA :-
INTRODUCTION :-
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more...

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BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR BZA
My 33 minute late running 12774 SC-SHM ACSF enters Southern India's busiest railway station, on the 6th september 2016! This was before the phenomenal 'RRI' work that would shortly start at BZA, the one that I would encounter on my return journey!
Pictures clicked by myself.
Camera used :- Samsung Galaxy Core Prime!
BACKGROUND :-
An emergency surmon by the bank authorities, and I find myself home-bound on one of my now favourite trains, the weekly cruiser '12774' SC-SHM ACSF. God I am so into 'CBC Couplings jerk ups' and the more spacious, cleaner LHB berths, that I have permanently ditched my ex-love 'The Falaknuma Express' . Unfortunately when I was into Falaknuma, I had many un-comfortable and un-wanted unions with the 'East Coast Express' :P
OMG, now I am venturing to a very uncomfortable territory, let's wrap it up....
JOURNEY :-
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Now I reside at Dilsukhnagar. The closest railway terminus is Kachiguda, which is my favourite. Unfortunately it doesn't have train bound for Calcutta. So I have to settle for either 'SC' or 'HYB'. Now 12774 departs at 5:30 which means I had to leave here by 4:30 to have a margin of safe arrival at SC. Prior to that day, I had already booked an 'OLA Cab' for that purpose....
Unfortunately, 'OLA' decided to 'play football my heart' that day. Normally I prefer a 'Before Time' arrival everywhere which is amplified several times over when it comes to railfanning... The assigned Driver didnot pick up any of my several calls that day. Cursing my luck and engaging in fervent search for a replacement taxi took another 10-15 mins. Fortunately a replacement taxi was available and whilst hopping in, I said to the man at the wheels " Bhaiya thoda tezz chalana "!
Little did I realise that 'Bhaiya' would take it very seriously. Now anyone who have had ride on the 'APSRTC/TSRTC' buses knows a thing or too about speeding. The way those 'Grand-father' dated buses are run and run with such expertise by those men, literally these men are the 'F1 drivers' on roads. The expertise and precision and accuracy is commendable, rather I am a fan of their driving skills. Calcutta bus drivers take a clue here......
Anyway, the less I mention of the taxi ride, it's better because the limited users who still find time to gaze down at my posts are obviously here to read about the rail experiences and not about the taxi. Let's just say the taxi's odometer rarely dropped under 120 until we entered Secunderabad Proper (Tarnaka).......
On reaching Secunderabad Junction, the first thing that I usually do is register on the 'MTS WIFI' there....
Though not as fast as the 'Railwire' 'WIFI' at Kachiguda, the wifi at SC is a pleasurable experience too..........
Suddenly I was Hungry!!!
Now I have never been a fan of the 'UPMA'. Unfortunately my 'hopefully would-be' is a great fan of UPMA. If she were to have to her way, and of course her stomach permitting, she would have ingested 'BOXN' rakes of 'UPMAs'!!! Been around her a while now has forced myself to have formed an unwanted arrangements of shorts with the 'UPMA'! So after dashing in SC canteen, the first thing I had ordered out of sheer habit was an 'UPMA'! I must confess that It had to be the 'worst UPMA' I had in my life :(
As usual it was 'Loco mela' at SC. Lallaguda WAP-7s and Moula Ali's WDMs running amok everywhere....Unfortunately it was too dark for me to frame them in my Cellphone camera. Actually it is a bit unfair to expect Cellphone camera to perform in such circumstances.....
The LHB run SC-BZA intercity was parked on platform 1,my train adjacently parked at Platform 2.....
My coach 'B-7' was unfortunately the least maintained of all the coaches.......
I had a 'LSB' accomodation...a rarity for me!
Actually I prefer 'Upper Berths', they have privacy and and security....however, two weeks prior to this incident, the 'PRS' gentlemen was very insistent on giving an Lower Berth accomodation.....
His logic being that since Lower Berths were available and lying vacant, my request for an Upper Berth Accomodation was unwanted for......
Adding to my annoyance, my fellow passengers had kids!!! Now small children are nuisance..... I am sure to get blasted for this statement but it is true, particularly in my case....
Maybe, ' Child is the father of an man' may hold true in most cases, but for an introvert ( I lose my normal self in trains, and turn into a very moody person who just prefers staring out of the window or minding his own business) children seem annoyances....
My mother often playfully admonishes me by saying, 'Wait till you have kids', 'You were once a kid too'....the list goes on, but the fact remains that Kids remain the biggest reason my I dread the Lower berths!
As I sat on my berth contemplating as to how would I dodge those innocent 'Kid Bombs' who have had troubled me on several occasions, a familiar twin-tone honk and and a 'CBC jerk' made it obvious that a Lallaguda White Beast was at helm that day....
I captured Lallaguda WAP-7 30325 at BZA later that day...as seen on that day.....
Fortunately the family felt asleep soon after, and I could blissfully observe the blissful early morning light peeping through my window. Lallaguda flashed by soon after.....
At Moula Ali yard I had spotted two LHB rakes that day, a new SCR LHB rake of SC-PNBE rake not the DNR-SC express mind you, and the NR rake of the SC RAJ...
The SCR Lhb was in much better condition than the NR Rajdhani rake....
I remember having a converstaion with 'Imran Sir' (Member and Forum Monitor from OGL) (Screen Name 'Boxer Bhai') on that day.....
Anyway the 'AP Reorganisation Bill' might have broken a gazillion and also fuelled hundreds of hopes and ambitions too ... but what a observant train journey from SC-VSKP does is give you a glaring example of the vast and such diverse landscape that our proud country has......
Present Hyderabad-Secunderabad-Kazipet-Warangal now lie on what once was the largest active volcanic region in the world. Millions of years, the Deccan Plateau was an hotbed for Volcanic and seismic activity....The remenants of that age can still be found in the form of the large lingering Igneous rocks that are found scattered on the landscape..... It seems as though Time has stopped here since millions of years back.......
Ofcourse you get occasional reminders of human intrusions in the form 'Ramu loves Geeta' duely inscribed in Chalk on those magnificient rocks! Why do people have to do such a thing???
Constrast the ancient 'Telengana landforms' to the vibrant landscape of coastal Andhra and one wonders of such remarkable variety observed in the landscape of what was once a single state........
Anyways, thoughts like this were grazing my mind, when the first major railhead and a major station was slowly skipped. It was Kazipet Junction, and it was soon followed by a halt at it's twin city Warangal! Please refer /blog/post/1985396 and /blog/post/1985064 for more details.
The train was around 15 mins BT at this time, and the LGD beast showered it's full accelerating abilities...
Why this train halted at WL and not a KZJ is always a mystery to me....
KZJ is easily a much busier station and certainly a bigger railway station notwithstanding it's status quo as a big junction! Maybe WL's status as Telengana's 2nd biggest city helped it bag an halt......
Anyway, WL station was mostly deserted unlike the full packaged KZJ in constrast......
The family was up and awake now....and the two nuclear warheads had started their devastating attack....the smaller one was particularly keen on bombing my cellphone which was registering the observed facts into the IRI Railacar trip diary.....
Normally SC-WL is a journey leg where passengers mostly sleep and get rid of their exhaustion. Then the WL-BZA section becomes the leg where vendors conduct brisk business and passengers have breakfasts and probably get to know their co-paasengers. This is the part of the train journey that I hate the most!!!
Hence I rolled on and prepared myself to go to sleep....
Sleep came surprisely easily and by the time I was awake we were halted at Kondapalli and were delayed by around 33 minutes.....
WHAT HAPPENED??????
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
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PART 2 :- BZA Experience and VSKP pictures.....
PART 3 :- Beautiful Bengal and KGP pics....
PICTURE ROLL :-
1. THE FAMOUS BZA CURVES!
2. ENTERING BZA CITY TERRITORY
3. BZA RRI CABIN
4. SOME PASSENGER TRAIN EXISTING BZA AS WE MAKE AN ENTRANCE INTO BZA.
5. BZA STATION BOARD.
6. BEAUTIFUL BZA SKYLINE.
7. BZA WAP-4 22342 IDLING AT BZA
8. LGD WAP-7 30325 BEING DETACHED AT BZA.
9. BZA WAP-4 22251 IDLING AT BZA
10. A FELLOW RAILFAN CAPTURED IN THE CAMERA FRAME. HE WAS CAPTURING THE ACSF, WHILE THE SC-BZA INTERCITY CAN BE SEEN IN THE BACKGROUND
11 &12 . LGD WAP-7 30239 GETTING ATTACHED TO MY NOW VSKP BOUND TRAIN .(This loco would have a fanstatic run and while we would start 35mins delayed at BZA, we would reach VSKP around 30 mins BT)(IT was an astonishing run)
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Please let me know how you feel about this report...more to follow....
Suggestations, feedbacks and comments are most welcome!