12988 - बारह नौ सौ अठासी , इसके नखरे हैं नवाबी ! - Keshav Saxena

For 12394 departing Ndls on 16 nov, unfortunately it was a loco failure that caused the delay. I was travelling by the same. To start with the PNBE rajdhani departed late and so SK started 12 mins late.. Then after when Sk crossed maripat a buffalo got strangled n cut by the engine. The engine was damaged n failed ( pipes damaged n brake no not working. So all other trains overtook from left down line. Since arranging engine is tricky ( also need drivers) it took a lot of time n infact a WAG 9 was made to haul it till CNb. Although it maintained good speed and hardly stopped, but again with all those trains in front and a wag 9 with the damaged wap 4, it took could only reach at 2.30 am.. (3.5 hrs delay as compared to 2.5 when it started from maripat). At CNb the...
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engines were changed again to remove the damaged ones n replace the wag by regular wap4. In addition the pipe connectors to EOG had to be fixed. This delayed further and 2410 n 2818 overtook Sk. It left CNb at 4 am but then had an excellent run to reach Ald by 6.15. It did not stop there though I was expecting as was running quite late. It maintained good speed then up to Mgs but had to slow down several times as SK had caught up with 2818 n was right behind it. Once it left Mgs it then made n excellent run to reach danapur in 2hrs 20 mins.. After that the usual pf issues caused a further delay and finally made to PNBE at 12.30 pm