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This story is actual events that took place. All the persons involved are real. To make the story more compelling I have taken the liberty in describing some thoughts which they might disagree. These are just my thoughts and I request them not to feel offended.
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There are certain things which are beyond the realms of time, something's which could be built only once and intended to stay forever with an inexplicable charm. SATPURA railway was built with the same intended, to stay forever with inexplicable charm. But in this world does anything really stay for ever? Indian Railways thought on lines of Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model which makes the existing model absolute,” and decided to close Satpura Railway for ever to make way for faster and more reliable broad-gauge system, but can they replace the charm as well? For every railfan or trainspotter or anorak this question is difficult to answer. When I first heard the news of closure both sorrow and joy engulfed me. Having travelled in the FASTEST NG TRAIN of ASIA the SATPURA EXPRESS through the BIGGEST NG JUNCTION NAINPUR on the LARGEST NG NETWORK of ASIA SATPURA RAILWAYS a few months back I badly wanted to do it again and the rest of the routes before they close.
What happens when railways decide to close such an old and legendary network, you guessed it right, but no prizes for guessing, all journeys especially of railfans head to capture the moment some like me in their memory and others who are more talented through lens. Got a casual call from our admin [/members/profile/22522|
/members/profile/225 22] Vijeth and he sowed the seed for the last ride in ‘CHOTTI LINE of SATPURA RAILWAYS’, in April/May itself when first announcement of closure was made. The same casual thought was put forward to other friends and by the time booking opened on ARP for our travel which coincided with Bakrid weekend only Ashok [/members/profile/65693|
/members/profile/656 93] joined with Shashank [/members/profile/37833|
/members/profile/378 33] making his usually promise of joining. Nothing moved during next couple of months and I had personally given up hope, but it was persistent nagging by Vijeth which led to few phone calls and messages being exchanged between the three of us that finally convinced me ‘this trip will happen’, with additional responsibility of planning the trip on my head. Tickets were available in plenty so we took our own sweet time in booking which proved to be a blessing in disguise. The unreliable SpiceJet with its reinvented avatar and owners threw offer and we grabbed the seats from Hyderabad to Jabalpur. Just like MasalaJet’s re-entry, Mr.Anand Nambyar [/members/profile/223080|
/members/profile/223 080] also re-entered, as he shifted base back to India from Abu Dhabi. Between all this Shashank was booking in every possible flight route to Jabalpur from Karnataka.
Planning part was simple in my mind do all the section in the limited amount of time that we had. Having experienced the trains and people of that area who happen to be accommodative, I managed to convince my mates not to book in any train or rather travel unreserved in any convenient train. Coming to the Broad Gauge part of the travel from Bengaluru/Hyderabad and back, Vijeth booked in 12786 for our journey to Hyderabad and I again managed to convince them to travel unreserved while returning. Ashok was both comfortable and confident with my planning, I just don’t know how I gained so much trust of him but Vijeth was sceptical about our return journey from Nagpur. He desperately wanted to travel in ANDHRA PRADESH Express which was also due for the political axe to fall and change its name to TELANGANA Exp. After a lot of perseveration he finally agreed on the plan and consensus restored. The re-entry of Mr.Anand Nambyar replenished the debate of first class travel as he is from the elite class of Indians who pines for the bygone golden days of rail travel. An era of varnished woods and polished brass, of travelling in FIRST CLASS. But for me Romance of train is not about luxurious First Class Compartment, neither is in polished wood or brass fittings, but is in the romance of ‘Real Old India’ trains. The times of quaint old Small trains consisting colourful little coaches and a curious loco with a whistle, which would chug along leisurely at their own pace, were no one was in any hurry and every one stopped to smell the flowers, the fields, forest and the earth. When breakfast, lunch and dinner time was included in timetable and stations used to come alive with the arrival of a train. When actual Indians travelled 3rd or 4th class or call it cattle class and we complain of today’s unreserved class which are actually wallowing in luxury when compared with them. Again it took a lot of stubbornness on my part to convince in travelling unreserved. Between all these Shashank finally booked tickets via City of Joy Kolkata as he had some personal work to attend. As the D Day approached I contacted few friends and acquaintances for travel related help, which they did with open heart and will be narrated in the respective sections. The only advance booking we actually made of Satpura railway was a ticket for 14kms of travel from Jamtara Paraswara to Jabalpur in 2S of 58871 with departure at 4 am to avail retiring room at Jabalpur for our stay. Seeing the PNR
/blog/post/1597409 posted on IRI Shiva kumar Mishra shared his travel plans but since there were two days apart we did not peruse it further.
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I request other members admin involved in this trip to share their experience and photos here.
