Highlights of my trip from MAS-SRC on the 18-19 of this month . Full travelogue with complete picture sets will be shared soon :)
Trip diary can be found at /blog/post/4404094
1. Never seen Chennai Central so wet in my life. It is great to see a metro such as Chennai facing acute water crisis experiencing some bouts of rainfall. However this has come at a very high cost with incessant rainfall ravaging Karnataka and Kerela, leading to tremendous loss of property and livestock.
2....
more... The load on Chennai Central has only increased.... Our train had an extra 2019 made Deen Dayal coached marked for ECR attached in front, possibly in transit somewhere in ECR, from ICF.
3. Tondiarapet ALCOs are still a stunner. I remember a very loved admin requesting me for more pictures of Tondiarapet WDM7s and WDM4s back in 2013. I couldn't find any WDM4s but WDM7s were sure present. This picture is dedicated to him.
4. The MAS-SBC AC DD is probably one of the few silver linings for the that otherwise disastrous concept. It was fully packed and it's assigned loco was a stunner white stallion from Erode, with the prancing deer logo proudly engraved on it.
5. A new SR marked Uday rake was parked at TADA railway station, possibly for the proposed VSKP-BZA Uday under SCoR or maybe some plans are present to run it on some SR route, maybe MAS-CBE or MAS-TPJ/MDU.
6. The amount of water in the Krishna river was absolutely terrifying and it told the full story of the amount of water it had received at Karnataka. Vijayawada was otherwise dry but the river Krishna was fully filled up to the brim .
7. Coastal Andhra was fully drenched in rain. Rajahmundry was fully drenched , and Godavari looked even more intimidating.
8. Vishakhapatnam was lively and buzzing with activity as ever. Rainfall had subsided post Samalkot and fully stopped at VSKP. Finished dinner and went to a night sleep. An ICF CBC ECoR pantry car was attached with the ECR LHB coach at VSKP.
10. Woke up at BBS, the congestion at BBS is obvious with several long distance trains being parked out New Bhubaneswar. Cuttack was timing with activity even at 4 o'clock in the morning.
11. As expected Mahanadi was in a state of overflow. This river has otherwise a pretty average water flow but during the monsoon it's water flow approaches that of the Ganga even though Mahanadi is nowhere the size of River Ganga. This makes Mahanadi highly dangerous during and it was obvious since the near 2 kms rail bridge over the great river was bustling with ferocious cackle of turbulent water flow down.
12. Woke up near KGP. Two new brand new 12 coached MEMU rakes were present at KGP, I apologize for the picture quality but I had just gotten up. Another SER ICF CBC coach was now attached at backside at KGP.
13. Deboarded at SRC,....
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Some pictures :-
Picture 1 :- Chennai Central suburban terminal
Picture 2 :- Chennai Central long distance terminal.
Picture 3 :- Royyapuram and Lallaguda WAP 7 s with their loads of Mangalore Central-Chennai Central Express and Charminar Express respectively.
Picture 4 :- Small Station board.
Picture 5 :- Main station board.
Picture 6 :- Train board of MAS-SRC ACSF Express.
Picture 7 :- ED WAP-7 30554 with MAS-SBC AC DD in tow.
PIcture 8 :- 12 Coached MEMU rake at KGP. There were two of them present there.
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Picture taken :- MOTO G5plus.
Picture source :- Self.
Arnab :)
