RailFanning is an art-form; RailFans are the paints - Ayush Kumar Singh

Journey full of surprises..:) Ticket ended up in RAC and coach was after PC.Reached SBC at 10.20PM, finished up dinner in 10 minutes and just as I was entering PF1, Mail's rake was brought into the PF giving an indication departure will be delayed by atleast 10 mins. Since there was obvious signs of delay, went all the way till the Loco and came back to my coach S11.To my surprise, I could not find the Pantry car. Checked with TTE and his opinion was that PC is near the AC coaches which was wrong :) Hmmm.. so pantry has been removed from KK's rake for some reason i thought? Oh wait, I was wrong..Just when the train was entering BNC, to my surprise, KK's rake was stationed in the centre line at BNC.So, SWR finally had woken up to give a separate rake for Mail. Why would SWR send a...
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separate rake when KK arrived at SBC less than 2 hrs late that afternoon?! Perhaps KK was too dirty due to less maintenance time this week due to fog delays. So yes, Mail was a 23 coacher yesterday headed by LGD P4. Arrived at BWT 30 minutes late but there were signs that it would reach JTJ just 15 mins late given its history.YPR MAS exp was forced to trail the Mail as always. Ticket was confirmed at BWT and my fellow RAC passenger was sent to his MB in the next bay.
LGD P4 of Kaveri greeted its pal at JTJ outer and as we left JTJ, Cheran was arriving on time. As we arrived at KPD, Palani exp was stationed at PF3 and there was an announcement Nilagiri will arrive shortly on PF1. Mail was allowed to leave KPD first and likely Palani exp would have departed before Nilagiri. Had a nap for an hour after KPD and woke up as we crossed TVL at 3.35 with a delay of more than 30 minutes. As we crossed Avadi, started walking towards S1. After a 20 second halt at MAS outer, PF8 welcomed Mail which arrived with an unusual delay of 5 minutes. A journey full of surprises overall. Thanks for your patience in reading.