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This Journey Happened in March 2018. During the onset of Summer, I embarked on a rather long journey from
#Bengaluru to
#Chennai, via
#Palakkad &
#Madurai. On a Saturday evening, I left for Carmelram Railway station, to board the 16527
#Yeshvantpur #Kannur Express, which was hauled by an
#Erode WDM-3D that day. The rains were consistently pouring down that evening, and there was respite only for a brief period when my train arrived and we departed. By the time we crossed over the state border and reached Hosur, we were already delayed by more than 30 mins. And it didn't end there. With the rains pouring down consistently, I didn't stay up late. With some hope that we will cover up the delay, I called it a day and slept, for I had to wake up the following morning for a 04:40 hrs arrival at
#Palakkad.
But when I did wake up to my alarm, I realized that we were nowhere close to gaining up on the previous night's delay, but were in fact delayed further. We pulled into
#Coimbatore at 04:50hrs, delayed by 1.5 hrs. And with the little bit of slack in the schedule, we managed to reach Palakkad just at the crack of dawn, at 06:00 am. A Friend and local resident, Avinash Venkitachalam had come down to meet me at those early hours, and we had breakfast a local eatery. My connecting train was the newly extended
#Amrita Express to
#Madurai via
#Pollachi,
#Palani &
#Dindigul. The train which used to terminate at Palakkad Town earlier was extended to Madurai after the gauge conversion of the Palakkad Town - Dindigul line.
The train had a history of running late and that day was no different. Coming from
#Thiruvananthapuam, the train reverses twice in its run, once at
#Shoranur, where the slip coaches to
#Nilambur (#Rajyarani Express) get dropped off, and the second time at Palakkad Jn., the train pulled in slowly at 08:15, and after a loco reversal, the rebuilt WDM-3A from
#Ernakulam shed, pulled us out at 08:48 hrs, nearly 80 mins behind schedule. But with the enormous slack thrust into the schedule, I was hopeful that we will make up for it.
And sure enough, the delay went down slowly. At Minatchipuram, we crossed the Chennai Palakkad Express via Palani. The train was originally running up to Palani, but with gauge conversion was extended to Palakkad. After Minatchipuram, we crossed over the border and entered Tamilnadu. Our first commercial halt was at Pollachi. Post Pollachi Jn., we crossed a beautiful stretch, where in both sides of the track was laced with an array of wind turbines, which was probably handled by a firm in Pollachi.
We then set onwards to our next halt,
#Palani, which is one of the 6 heavenly abodes in
#Tamilnadu dedicated to Lord Murugan. The station has a really good view of the temple on top of the hill. The Palani hills gave us company for the next few kms. Though it was early Summer, the heat was beating down upon us relentlessly. Dindigul Jn. the convergence of 4 lines, one each from
#Trichy,
#Karur, Pakkad & Madurai.
The alignment of tracks from Dindigul till
#Kodaikkanal road was normal, from where the up line crossed over on top and went to the left, thus making it look like the trains are moving tracks opposite to the usual convention of keeping left. This is the reason of the two crossings of #17616 Madurai
#Kacheguda Express &
#Guruvayur #Chennai Egmore Express appearing on the left. We moved along briskly and reached Madurai at 13:40 hrs, delayed by 30 mins, thus gaining about 50 mins from the delay with which departed from Palakkad. It was curtains down on the first part of an exciting journey which I undertook.
Also, this was the first time I attempted to do a
#Train #Journey #Vlog in
#Tamil. So, with the hope that you all enjoyed it, I leave you to watch the video. For people who don't understand Tamil, I have added Subtitles in English. Do let me know your opinion and if you have any questions, put it down in the comments section. Thanks for Watching
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The only major river featured in this Video is the Vaigai, apart from the Kannadi. And a few canals too were crossed, but most of them were pretty dry.
Featured crossings listed in the order of their appearance:
- 22852 Mangaluru Santragachi Vivek Express
- 22651 Chennai Palani Palakkad Express
- 06710 Palani Coimbatore Passenger Spl
- 17616 Madurai Kacheguda Express
- 16128/16130 Guruvayur/Tuticorin Chennai Egmore Express
