MG RIDE ON AKOLA RATLAM PASSENGER
******CAUTION: 33 minutes Video condensed from a 7 hour Meter Gauge trip ******Watch it at your leisure
Complete Video coverage of the scenic Akola to Khandwa MG ride
Took an overnight train from Mumbai to Akola to make a trip on another Meterguage route and that was the Akola -- Ratlam Passenger.
Vidharbha...
more... Express was my train from CSTM to Akola Junction overnight reached Akola in the early hours around 4:30 AM, with a 90 minutes buffer to catch my MG train which departs Akola at 6:00 AM
Oh man there was a long long queue at Akola for getting a general ticket to kick start my MG journey, with only one counter issuing ticket, it took almost 45 minutes to get my ticket. The ticket counter was on the first platform of the station while the MG line was on the last platform after crossing 6 PF's over the bridge spotted the maroon MG rakes linked with a MHOW YDM4 all set to depart at 6:00 AM .
The train looked almost jam packed I wonder if people had really taken tickets that fast, who cares all I need to do is door plating and I was able to get a door. The train departed on time from Akola and the rest is all visually captured through my lens.
The Akola --Ratlam MG route is quite a long journey route , the train takes 15h 30m covering 32 halts spread over a distance 435 km with a average Speed: 28 km/hr ,due to time constrains I had to shorten my journey from Akola to Khandwa , a major junction in Madhya Pradesh , which is 175 KM and takes 7 hours to travel in the little MG train.
This being the monsoon time the entire stretch on this route was full of lush greenery and water spots. Dhul Ghats was at its best , this was the main purpose of my trip on MG. The highlight of this train route is the Dhulghat spiral.
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Dhulghat Spiral is located in Amravati district in state of Maharashtra in India. It is a unique spiral located on Akola-Khandwa meter gauge section of South Central Railway of India.
It is also called 'Char Cha Akda' in Marathi and 'Char Ka Aankda' in Hindi, both meaning 'Digit of Four' due to its shape similar to that of '4' in Devnagari script.
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The spiral is located between Wan Road and Dhulghat stations on Akola - Ratlam metre gauge railway line, at around 2 kilometres from Dhulghat station towards Akola. The area is covered by forests and hills through which the Akola - Ratlam metre gauge railway line traverses.
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The spiral consist of a 193 metres long steel viaduct across a shallow valley. Train arrives to this viaduct from Akola. The viaduct leads the track to a circular path around a hill. After circumnavigating the hill, the track arrives nearly parallel to the approach from Akola, but at a significantly lower altitude. This low level track passes below the first of the sixteen bridge girders towards Dhulghat station and Khandwa. The train normally takes around four minutes to complete its journey along the spiral.
The spiral was a part of meter gauge line from Ajmer in Rajasthan to Kacheguda in Andhra Pradesh under South Central Railway. Due to the gauge conversions in recent times, the route is now shortened to Akola in Maharashtra to Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh. However, this unique spiral may soon be decommissioned because of the planned gauge conversion of Akola-Ratlam section.
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The train reached the Khandwa at around 1:15 PM where it halts for 15 minutes where passengers can get lunch before it proceeds further towards
Mhow and Ratlam.
This being my second MG ride and first being the Thiruvarur - Pattukottai . My heart still doesn't convince me.. stills says there is a lot more to discover =)
Thanks for reading & watching =)
