My first ever journey on a Double Decker train and that happened to be the newest train I had traveled till now.
Date: 06th Oct, 2012
Location: Bharuch, WR, Gujarat.
After a loooonnng...
more... stay of 4 days at home (long stay called only in IT and ITES sector) I needed to get back to Bangalore. But after experiencing pain and restless on Bangalore bound train from Mumbai. I decided to book a bus ticket. As I was short of time so all the buses were running almost full so booked a KSRTC bus finding one convenient seat in Airavat Multi Axle Volvo Semi Sleeper bus. and DD Exp allowed me a sufficient 2 hrs buffer time in Mumbai.
So the D day has come. reached the station quite early to do some railfanning and witness some fast freight action. But the only 2 trains that arrived were Valsad-Viramgam-Valsad exp and Ahemdabad passenger.
Soon the bright and shining milky white 5450 BRC horses with 2 red stripes on the body sprinting to a halt at PF#4. The livery looked very odd to me but the rake was shining hot. I banged into my seat no. 26. it was in the middle of the Lower deck so got a bid white table in the middle to keep my luggage which I could not adjust in the luggage rack. the rack was too small to keep even a medium size hand bag so kept it on the table.
The train started just within 2 mins and picked up a good speed over Narmada River bridge and in another 5 mins it blasted off Ankleshwar Jn at MPS.
Astonishingly the seating was quite good and comfortable comparable to Shatabdi Exp CC class seating. there was enough legroom even for me, a 6'3" tall person. Large and clear windows gave me good opportunity for a good session of railfanning and avoid doorplating. The pantry boys were freqently roaming around with too many different stuffs raning from coffee/tea to cutlet, sandwich, aaloo paratha and also Jain Special food and a horrible soup. The rake even at MPS din't gave too much jerks, infact the ride was quite smooth except some lateral movement while changing tracks at high speed. We reached the scheduled halts quite well before time but as soon as entered Mumbai Suburb the train started crawling (though speed was as good as more then 60 kmph) and reached BCT just 2 mins late. that was ok.
first time in my life I was at BCT. saw a brigade of WAPs ranging from WAP1 to WAP5. The only train ready for departure was lonely Karnavati Exp hence there was not much crowd at the platform. took some snaps while I avoided RPFs or GRPs.
Pics are following soon. videos will follow late.
Thanks very much. :)
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