** My first meeting with TN Express :D **

When i look back into my life, i wonder how fast time has gone, how fast every thing around us changed. Was born and brought up in Warangal, as a kid i was so excited to travel in trains, but i rarely travelled as almost all my relatives stay in nearby towns and villages, within 100 kms range, the farthest destination was Hyderabad (it is just 130 kms away though) but for me as a kid it was too far :D I think...
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i was around 8-9 years old when i did my first train journey to Hyd by WL-HYD pushpull passenger. It took more than 3 hours that day and we returned back the same day by Kakatiya Fast Passenger which took a little less than 3 hours. That was my first train experience which was very interesting for me as a kid. Later i travelled in other passenger trains to visit my relatives in nearby towns like Mahabubabad, Ramagundam, Bhadrachalam Road. So all i know was passenger trains, i used to think all the trains stop in all stations, i dont even know that there are other category trains like express and superfast.

One day me along with my mom, dad and uncle visited Vijayawada Kanakadurga temple, after darshan we are supposed to go to Kothagudem (Bhadrachalam Road). It was evening time, we took Vijayawada Kazipet passenger, our plan was to get down at Dornakal junction and catch another train which goes to Bhadrachalam Road, but our train reached Dornakal Jn late and we missed the connecting train. So my parents decided to catch Andaman Express (back then it was called as Janata Express) go till Khammam and take a bus from there. There was sometime for Andaman Express to arrive Dornakal, so we all sat in the station, my father gave me prasad which we brought from kanakadurga temple, while i was eating i was looking at the electric wires, platforms, etc, everything thing was so interesting. After few minutes we heard continuous honk far away, we thought it was Andaman but not sure, my father asked a railway police who was sitting nearby is that Janata express, that rpf guy said no there is still time for Janata to come, my parents sat back and i continued eating delicious prasad, within no time the honk became louder and louder and then booooooooom the loco with its head light turned on crossed us in a fraction of seconds like a spark pulling series of blue coaches, so much noice whole station was vibrating, i could feel the vibrations of the bench on which i sat, i was trying to read the name board but it was so fast i couldn't read anything, but my father could make out the name board. After few seconds of all that noise and rampage, train disappeared and station became soo calm. Then my father said to my uncle that it is TAMIL NADU EXPRESS. With prasad in my hand i was in a kind of trance for sometime after looking at the rampage of mighty TN, i was listening to what my dad was saying to my uncle, that because of the speed of TN concrete on tracks will jump and sometimes can fall on platform, he also said about one TN accident which happend in past and since then its speed was reduced. (I donno if that was true or not but listening to all that was intetesting for me back then). After that incident, i always wanted to experience speed of trains.

Now present, me in my mid 20s, did many jouneys, travelled in many trains. Recently when i went to New Delhi, though there are so many trains available on this route i booked my ticket only for TN. There might be Rajadhanis, Durontos, Vandebharat, Gatiman or more faster trains these days, but i still feel TN is special, and so are other legendary trains like Kerala, GT etc. Especially TN, those mps skips, continuous run, cleanliness, limited stops. Atleast till Itarsi/Bhopal on Delhi route. Yeah, after that its current TT is screwed a bit.

Eenadu news paper article with the title " VandeBharat troubles for Konark " 😀 It says, to let VB go all other trains are being stopped for hours. On friday 11019 Konark was stopped at Chintalpally to let VB overtake and meanwhile other express (i guess Secunderabad Shalimar Weekly SF) too overtook it causing more delay. This has become a daily scenario. It is impacting the job holders who work in Mahabubabad, Khammam and other places. They complained, since introduction of VB the timings of Konark got messed up.

Well well, a...
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lot more things got messed up in railways in recent years, im sure many more to go in future 🥲