Trip report
27th December 2021... The whatsapp message beamed .... Bro arr you taking today's 16591 Hampi from Hubli... Fellow has switched to end to end electric .. Oh..... The EMD run is gone ...New era begins on this section too.. The doubling was commissioned recently and now it's Electric Era beginning .. But of course only one train is getting electric
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The visit of Gadag Temples and Hammigi dam was done and we were back to Gadag station at 1825 hrs, for 2 EMD's to enter simultaneously from Hubbali end and Koppal end onto PF-2 and PF-1 . The Hubli Karatagi Express and Karatagi Hubli Express with their share of evening crowd had a simultaneous entry , chorus horn and exit .
The display board hadn't announced the platform of Hampi yet and there was no announcement. Huge crowd waited on the platform returning from the weekend . The display board displayed all trains till 9PM , but missed out on the 16217 and 12650 arrival.
Time kept ticking and the patience started reducing as clock went to 1850 hrs. The Where is my train revealed that train was about 35 kms away and yet to cross Annigeri. Checked out the Guntakal Hubli pass which was also similarly delayed . 12650 was heavily delayed and had left Hospet
Crowd started getting restless waiting for the announcement , as at 1915 the announcement came for the Hubli bound pass to come to PF-2, followed by the coach display of 16591 arriving and announcement of the same arriving. Checked our coach position S-2 and walked towards the same
The DMU rake with evening crowd pulled into slowly on PF-2 as the light were visible at Hubli end. The light slowly changed tracks pulling into PF-1 . RPM WAP7 was the lead for the day, as 16591 entered into Gadag at the 1925, 15 min delayed departure. The crowd occupied the available space, waking up the spread out UR and short distance reserved passengers , some of them who had even slept out
It was a quick start, we did not even realize that we had started moving ... But the traditional track sounds have gone and only the new welded drrrr sounds echoed. WAP7 seemed like it did not want the section to miss the EMD, and a continuous echo sound similar to WDP4 Boeing sound echoed through
A EMD hauled 16217 bound to Shirdi crossed soon and we blasted through the evening. The packed masala dosa was soon gobbled up, as delays mean to increase the dryness of the hotel packed foods. A tea was soon gulped to refresh the throats
Freights of various sizes and locos , with diesels and elocos waiting at sidings and some of them crossing us at high speeds. The late running 12650 crossed us at Bannikoppa outer as station was lightened up with the cranes on the sidings .
A quick stop start at Bhanapur with a empty platform and moved onto Koppal where sizeable crowd boarded. The regular passengers moved out to give place to reserved, in process discussing about delays faced bg Hampi reducing post doubling and performance of Amaravati vs Hampi. Well discussion was how Amaravati reaches Bellary ahead of schedule while Hampi barely managed to pull in. But there was no talk of duration of the trains . One of the passengers even murmured " Hope upcoming stop is Bellamy". Regular travellers and such comment was unexpected, considering time was 2050 and Bellary was still 2 hours away.
A quick stop at Munirabad bought us face to face with New Katni WAG7 twins with a BOXN. Slowly pulled out, delay still maintaining and pulling into Hospet at 2115 reducing delay to 5 mins owing to slack, as the coach now got filled with RAC passengers too... Laid down the berth to sleep for the night
Crossed a pair of freights just before sleeping, before loud chattering woke me up. Time was2255and it was a couple with RAC ticket discussing om how to sleep. TTE came immediately and marking the UB berth as absent , allotted it to the RAC. Train had crossed Bellary and I slept back
Next time I woke up, watch showed 0435 and station as Gauribidanur. The delay was still maintained . Turned and slept
Slept back till I felt someone waking me. It was my Dad calling me, as we left Yelhanka and deviated on the line to Yeshvantapur. We trotted through the line, slowly but continuous, as Kodigehalli and Lottegolahalli crossed soon and we pulled into Yashvantapur outer crossing past a LHB rake with a EMD.. The Queen of SWR, "Rani Chennamma", Express was waiting for us at 545AM , as rake of 16575 Gomateshwara was moved from the yard to PF-5. 12650 had arrived already on PF-4 as we went past the duronto rake in the pit
We left sooner in 2 mins and reached quick acceleration on mainline in seconds, switching over to right side line of twin single section. We went past Malleshwaram and pulled into SBC, as 12079 Jan shatabdi to Hubli pulled out of PF-9 onto it's right side track, as we entered straight into PF-10!!!
Thanks for reading !!
