This trip is a rather emotional trip as it was to be the last time I was travelling with a privilege pass that my father is entitled to and I get to use it until June.
The onward journey was done by 11302 and after finishing my work in Chinchwad on 01/06/2016, tickets were booked from Pune to Bangalore by two trains instead of the customary Udyan Express.
The thought of travelling by two superstars was an entertaining thought and the trains I booked for were 22881 BBS Superfast and the...
more... SUR YPR 22133 Express on 2/6
The day dawned and I was rather late in waking up, and after the morning ablutions, vacated the dormitory from the Railway station and settled myself near the mobile charging station near the Food Plaza and settled down with a Pune Mirror which seemingly focusses on gossip and not much about Pune itself. But the lure of trains and the hustle and bustle of the station was enough to keep me engaged.
After a late breakfast of Idly Vada from the overpriced Food Plaza, I headed to platform 4 where the Bhubaneswar was supposed to depart from. The platform was packed with passengers waiting to board the Solapur Intercity, a train I would cross on its return journey.
The train arrived and departed after a few minutes halt and my 22881 was announced on Platform 3. Hauling the strolley, I went to the Daund end as that was where my A1 was supposed to come. A pair of KZJ twins went from the trip she'd to haul our train. The rake was backed up only at 11:10 and we left 15 minutes late. The boards and stickers in the train were all green and the train was supposedly a GREEN TRAIN.
My bay had two young women and their super cute kids who kept me entertained with their pranks throughout. The train was doing a good pace until Patas where some track maintenance was going on. There after the run rather sedate till Daund. Thereafter we did pickup pace and the kids in the bay began to sing Char Bottle Vodka which left me with a desam uruputta madhiri dhan expression.
At Dhavalas, we were halted for a very long time to allow both Udyan and NCJ CSTM to cross us. Kurudvadi was a blast and Solapur welcomed us with showers and an entry into platform 1 and a delay of 40 minutes.
I had a late lunch of Paratha and Paneer Masala and headed to the upper class waiting hall to charge my phone and kill time till 7.
Our rake was backed in at 6:30 and the rake had surely seen better days with a lot of coaches being made in the 90's. My A1 was a 95 make but was well maintained with clean toilets and excellent cooling unlike the train that brought me to Solapur.
The coach was rather empty with only 6 passengers and the rest were to board at Gulbarga which was the case for most of the coaches. At 7:10, Basava pulled into the neighbouring platform and would leave 5 minutes after us but reach Bangalore long after 22133 had gone to sleep.
Gulbarga ensured that the coaches were packed and then I hit the sack for some sleep. I woke up as we were chugging away to glory on the Makali. Doubling work is going on in full swing and the erstwhile metre gauge alignment is also being used. We were halted at Yelahanka for a long time and the train became empty again and we reached YPR with 5 minute delay with the PUNE loco doing a great job.
I headed for platform 3 from 5 where the Gol Gumbaz arrived to take me home to KGI.
This was a fairly uneventful run except a near runover at KNDV with the person surviving and getting thrashed by the ALP
