Money is nothing; RailFanning is Everything

A VERY LONG TRIP REPORT, finally stands concluded.
Part I II III IV V VI VII
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Making our way through SIX zones of IR touching FIVE Indian states, continuously on the go for FOUR days covering all the THREE gauges, we were TWO people on this ONE unforgettable RF trip. The idea was to cover the...
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hotspots of all the three gauges in a single weekend and it all happened more interestingly than planned. A 10 leg chain is bound to get risky, and it did! With four days of travelling, food and battery is bound to get scanty and it did! But making our way through all this is bound to get exciting and hell yeah, it did!
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The train and the station tagged above seem unrelated to each other right? Well just follow the blog as I and Stevenson** unveil the relation and report some of the selected events that happened in the course of this outing, along with the respective photographic/videographic captures, for the entire narration might just go on and on.
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Route: NZM/NDLS-AGC--NGP-G-BTC-JBP-INDB-MHOW-INDB-NAD-KOT A-NZM
Trains: Samata Exp – Kerala Exp – NGP-BSP Intercity - G-KGE DEMU - Satpura Exp (NG) - JBP-INDB Overnight Exp - INDB-MHOW-INDB Passenger (MG) - Avantika Exp - Swaraj Exp - Mewar Exp
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Day 1 (The BG day).
Friday, April 18th, 2014.
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06:00 AM (THE 20H DELAYED RAJDHANI)
Even a 5 hour journey waiting for me in the morning doesn’t spare me with the luxury of a sound sleep the previous night. And with all this planned up, it was nowhere close to being a possibility. The night was spent checking the forum of the to-be-travelled trains /stations and shortly after daybreak here I was on board bus#534 driving me to NZM. Hostellers pertain to the most ravenous class of human population and hunting for breakfast that morning was as important as a dose of insulin for a diabetic. But the overpriced samosa had not even gone down the throat when the unusual announcement caught my attention. Priorities shifted a few gears and the foodies were stuffed into the bag for dealing with them on a later stage. From the bits and pieces I could hear, some train from TVC was just going to arrive. Turning the pages of the virtual TAAG in my head and finding no relevant entry, I was sure of something strange in the offing. The second announcement made it all clear as I made my way to capture the 20 hours delayed TVC-NZM Raj.
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08:40 AM (FACE-2-FACE WITH SL CLASS OF KERALA EXPRESS)
Samata Express was boarded for AGC which dropped me there sharp at the scheduled time. Obviously, when you call it ‘The BG day’ how can you not travel on the fastest BG track of the country. Although the journey had nothing exciting to offer but the punctuality left me in content. It was a Friday and I needed to attend prayers and with active guidance from our admin Abbas, I was able to locate the mosque which was just outside the food-court. Meanwhile Stevenson departed from NDLS in a rather ancient sleeper class coach of Kerala Express. Oh how happy he was that we’d got a CK for 2A instead of continuing in SL till NGP. (Although he’s always happy with CKs in 2A, but that’s a different story altogether :P)
While Steve was reaching, and I was free of my duties, I had an exhaustive RF session at AGC, just for enough time as the place requires.
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02:30 PM (THE REALITY ABOUT THE NON-EXISTENT PANTRY OF KERALA EXPRESS)
We departed AGC. The A2 coach was brand new and the cleanliness was top class. Now here’s something to note, it was 02:30 PM but we were dubious whether or not will we be served the lunch. Some 30 minutes later a pantry guy appeared declaring that the Lunch had been served LONG BACK. Our idea of an ideal lunch time perished at that very moment. Shocked and hungry, we settled with snacks as the train blasted on the Ghats. Later around 5 PM, when we asked as to when the orders will be taken for dinner, there we had the epic moment that made this probably the most unique pantry of IR.
“Sir, the orders for dinner were taken at 12:30 AM before Agra Cantt. I’m sorry but I don’t have any extra food to serve apart from the ones ordered”. Poker face was redefined by our expressions. “And what about the passengers boarding after Agra?” asked we. “I can’t help sir. Let me see if I have an extra one, I’ll serve you”. Not surprisingly, he never returned.
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Report continued under Day 1: Part two in Comment 40th.