Part - 1 : Scenarios at early morning of Mondays at Thanjavur Jn.
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It was a chill winter morning, and the sky was dark, left my place at 6 am for a train which is scheduled to depart Thanjavur Jn at 0610 hrs, anticipating that my train should arrive minimum by a delay of 20 minutes. The only fear I had was the link it is supposed to get from Tiruchirapalli Jn, reason being that this train is known for getting WAG - 9 as a link for majority of the distance...
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this train travels, and if it gets the same, the maximum speed will be restricted to 90kmph against the MPS of the route, cannot enjoy a superfast run with limited stoppages. And i had these experience quite few times previously on the same train. Anyways, not expecting much about the scenario at Thanjavur Jn at the busy morning hours, went with an open mind to the railway station through platform - 5 entrance, 5 minutes later than the scheduled departure of my train.
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By the time i reached, I could see some LHB train already departing from platform - 3, towards mayiladuthurai side. Though the train in which I am supposed to travel is also running with LHB rakes, comes and departs in the same platform towards the same direction, I was able to confirm that the train leaving platform 3 is not the train I am supposed to travel, by seeing lots of sleeper class in that one. Yes, it is occasionally late running Mayiladuthurai bound Express from Mysore departing late by an hour. Once upon a time, this delay used to be pretty common for mayiladuthurai express, but post electrification, the incidence of this train getting delayed at Thanjavur is greatly reduced.
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Though it is by default that my train arrives at platform 3 in Thanjavur, but anyways, went to the front entrance and again, checked the platform which my train was supposed to arrive, and yes, the display board also showed the same. So, as of now, my train is delayed. Strolled slowly to my platform and stood near the coach position, and the platform had a good crowd for the train I am supposed to board. People kept asking about the train to the railway staff in platform 3, regarding the train, since there was no announcement till then, and it is already 0630 hours now.
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Since that the Mysore - Mayiladuthurai is delayed, the entire lineup behind it also started getting delayed. And announcement were going on for Mannargudi bound chemmozhi express that is supposed to arrive on platform 3, and yes it arrived with a Vijayawada based WAP -4, which will be leading it till Nidamangalam. Already the platform had good crowd, in addition to that, the crowd deboarding from chemmozhi, platform 3 was now flooding with people, and some passengers were rushing amidst the crowd to take ticket for karaikkal bound DEMU from Thanjavur and board the same, which is supposed to depart from platform - 5 on that day (usually it departs from platform - 4), but still it will not be a cross platform transfer. As chemmozhi got starter after a halt of less than 2 minutes, heard a loud shrill honk from a distance, yes, empty rake of uzhavan parked at platform 1, made its departure towards trichy for its scheduled primary maintenance there. Wished that it was operated as an express special towards trichy bidirectionally, it could have been very helpful for a lot of people going for office/College/etc. and, in antiparallel fashion that chemmozhi express also made its departure, and at the back of luggage car at the rear end, an erode based WAP - 4 was taking nap since Trichy, will wake up post Nidamangalam and, tow chemmozhi express towards Mannargudi, it's destination. This arrangement of attaching locomotives at both sides was made for chemmozhi express to minimise the time taken for locomotive to reversal at Nidamangalam jn, blocking the traffic for a long time, affecting the road traffic.
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By the time chemmozhi departed, took out my phone and checked the running status of my train, and WIMT showed that my train has already arrived outers of Thanjavur Jn, and waiting for the empty rake of uzhavan Express to clear the line. After some minutes, my train made a slow entry into platform, and it was a great sense of relief after seeing that a royapuram based WAP - 7 30680 was pulling my train. So, my train arrived Thanjavur Jn with a delay of 36 mts, and I boarded my train.
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Thanks for reading it patiently.
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Part - 2 : /blog/post/5963946