Hello all,myself Aryan sarkar.On 31st October i.e Tuesday,i boarded the train 12262 Howrah-Mumbai CSMT durunto express.I reached howrah well in advanced i.e 1.20 hrs before its scheduled departure.Accompaying me in this trip was my mom.As per announcement,12262 was to be shunted at Pf no 22 of Howrah station.But 12809 Mumbai CSMT-HOWRAH mail was already standing with SRC wap4 and it was yet to be shunted towards SRC coach yard.At the same time,Puri-Howrah Garibrath express arrived at pf no 23 with SRC wap4 in lead.Secunderabad bound Howrah-Secunderabad Falaknuma express was at pf no 21 and it departed late by 20 mins.
Its near 8'o clock in the morning,no sign of 12262.After much confusion, finally announcement were made that 12262 will be shunted in...
more... pf no 21 instead of 22.There were total chaos after that.Some were running, those who had good amount of luggage were the ones who had to suffer.Even some catering staff also face some problems.
Finally,At 8.05 am,We saw a Kharagpur WDM3A #16646R shunting our 12262 at pf no 21.As train stopped,Passengers gone inside the train to find their seats.I was lucky enough to got a lower side seat,but unfortunately it was on non-track side.Since it is an LHB train,comfort and cooling is excellent.
Time is 8.15 am,5 minutes before departure.Many people who'd to came were at outside of the train.Some were crying,some were having final cherish moments,some were going towards home while some were going to college/hostel.
As the WAP4 gave the honk at 8.25 am,we departed howrah junction,5 mins late.I could see many people waving hand still to their near and dear ones.After that,40 minutes later,the Staff members served us Breakfast.I opted for non-veg so got Omlette with Alu fry,juice packet,some sweet and bread with amul-butter.Overall it was good.
The run from Howrah-Tatanagar was superb, Continuously doing 110 almost, overtook many Freights,E.M.U on the way,crossed with LTT-SHM express at Kharagpur outer.Thereafter,The "Triple line section" started.We were crawling post kgp because some Passenger train was ahead of us.It was looped at khemsauli.To'd my surprise,it was powered by TATA WAP7! yes you saw it right,a Tata WAP7!. After having a good speed from here,in between there were some TSR's/PSR's etc,we reached Tatanagar late by 30 minutes.I was expecting Durunto will have a good run from here,but SER and SECR controllers where thinking some thing else.
Post Tatanagar we departed from here at 12.10 pm.At this time,we were given soup before lunch with bread sticks.We were expecting food to be of Nice quality.As usual,it turned out to be bad.Those who opt for veg were very disappointed.Paneer was tasteless,Roti served in it were looking like a long handkerchief,dal too had looking like as if it wasn't being cooked properly.Only exception was Rice,Dahi and a Rasgulla.Those who opted for Non-Veg were served Chicken ,Dal,Rice, Dahi, Rasgulla etc.Non-veg was slightly good.At this time, we crossed 2nd largest freight yard of India, Bondamunda freight yard, spotted UDL WDM3A,BNDM WDG4/WDG4D/WDP4D gearing up for next duty.After having lunch,I dediced to take a short nap of 2 hours.
The time is 5 pm.I woke up thinking that 12262 must have covered delay only to find out been from other passengers that the train was running late by 2 hrs!.In between we were served by "Evening snacks". Anyway,From raigarh the train wasn't running up to the full speed.Since it was running late,many freights were seen on the mainline.As a result of this,sometines, 12262 is switching from Up line to reverse and vice versa, sometimes halting at outer station for signal.This run continued till champa,where 12262 took an unscheduled halt for 20 mins.After that,we reached bilaspur 7 pm,Delay of 90 mins.At this point,i'd took a small risk by capturing the power loco of 12262,it was Howrah WAP4 of ER.Durunto took some more time to depart as BSP-BGKT express was ahead of it.
The time is 7.15 pm,we departed from Bilaspur,and we are at Up main line.Like in afternoon,before dinner,Soup was given.And Dinner was served,many people in anger did not ate.90% of food was back in dustbin.So u can assume the food quality service here.Now,after some pet puja,time for some Spottings.Just before durg junction,we overtook Bsp-BGKT express only to get re-overtook by the same train.Bsp-BGKT is having a halt at Durg so we were made to halt at Durg outer.We overtook the train via of no 3.
I sleeped at 10 pm.At this point of time,Durunto was still 3 hrs away from Nagpur, delayed by 110 mins.
The time is 5.30 am.I woke up and saw Durunto just arrived Bhusaval, delayed by 2 hrs.From the opposite side,12322 Mumbai cst-Howrah Mail via Allahabad came with WAP4.We departed Bhusaval at 5.40 am after a Crew change.I sleeped again.
The run from Bhusaval-Devlali was good.As expected Durunto took an unscheduled halt here.Many passengers got down here.Wondering many people got chance to go their home via shortest route!
Reached igatpuri at 9 am,delayed by 90 mins.Breakfast served here.We were expecting from here to have a superb run.But unfortunately,Durunto was running late and it was under "EMU peak hour" zone.From,Igatpuri-Vasind 12262 had an amazing run.Then from here,the problem started.Train was stopped at Vasind since an EMU was ahead of it.As a result,Durunto was passing Single Yellow signal.Well,what was the awkward as well as Weird moment was that we were being looped at Titwala to face the overtake of Asangaon-CSMT emu.After facing the overtake,durunto reached kalyan well in style,arrived on a 12-coach platform used by Locals only.
The pf no 5 of Kalyan was blocked by Sewagram express hence we are at Pf no 3.As per schedule Sewagram was to departed first,but Kalyan controllers had some other thinking,we got the mainline starter first.We overtook Sewagram express and had a decent run after that all the way to CSMT.
Finally after a delay of 2 hours and 10 minutes,reached Pf no 18 of CSMT.Overall,a good run.Took a local to go towards my home.Indeed another memorable journey! :)
Below are some of the pics that have i clicked.Hope yoy have enjoyed it! :)
