Indian Railways: Divided By Zones, United By Railfans - Karthik

A trip full of shocks and surprises...Reached SBC at 9PM to catch up with RF and the first surprise was not to see any P7s in the sidings as well as yard giving an indication, Mail was going to be hauled by a P4 and rightly so. CAPE exp departed on time from PF1 and sharp at 10.10, Mail was brought into PF1. After witnessing the mammoth fight for seats in GEN, slowly moved towards my coach S2 only to find the door still locked. All Sleeper coach doors were opened only at 10.20. Quite a lot of people occupied PF1 waiting for SSPN-MAS exp and some of them got confused b/w Mail and 12692. We, with ED P4 at the helm got the starter and departed bang on time. Kurla-cbe crossed at BNC and SSPN-MAS crossed at BYPL running 1 hr late. Mail was a super-crawler from BNC till...
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KJM due to TSRs and P4 unleashed its power after KJM only to be slowed down by a freight occupying main line after Wfd..Reached BWT 20 mins late like always and blasted till jtj outer. Was surprised again to see Mail given clearance without any red as Kerala had already crossed the area. Arrived at JTJ 5 mins late to see Kerala occupy the adjacent PF. This was the first time I saw the Longest running daily in India. Kerala departed immediately and as a result we had to wait at JTJ for 10 mins. Kerala was giving trouble till KPD and we arrived at KPD late by 25 minutes. Kerala again was on the adjacent PF and this time it was Mail's turn to depart first as Kerala might have been waiting for Hwh-ypr to cross and TSRs trolled us again till AJJ and arrived 30 mins late at the home of one of the ELS. We got the starter after 2 minutes and shockingly no signs of departure for 10 minutes. Apparently there was an argument b/w the LPs and after intervention by AJJ authorities the LP finally made up his mind and we departed 55 mins late. Poor Palani-Mas and Nilagiri were made to wait at AJJ outer for a long time as a result. Biggest shocks of all at TO when we were moving at a pretty decent speed and SR controllers sent Palani-Mas to EMU line and AJJ P1 unleashed its fury on us for making it wait at AJJ outer. Yes, perhaps for the first time, Mail which was on the move at a good speed was overtaken by an exp in SR territory. Pretty sure it was done deliberately by SR- clearly not impressed by the crew of Mail. I was worried we'd be overtaken by Nilagiri as well at TRL but thankfully no more surprises and reached MAS on PF8 at 5.25 late by 45 minutes. Quite easily ,this was the worst journey I had traveling by Mail due to too many TSRs, trolls and an overtake. Was also touch disappointed with ED P4 on certain sections where I have seen P7 at MPS. Also noticed in the last 3 trips PC is in b/w S10 and S11 in two of the rakes of KK. Thanks for reading.