In what was a desperate last minute decision, I was to undertake a Journey to Chennai in September 2015. Having travelled in most of the trains already, I wanted to take something new this time around. This led to me book in the Kamakhya bound Premium Special. And I shelled out 600 bucks for a SL class ticket. After a hectic and nail biting rush to Bangalore Cantt; I found that a WAG9 from AJNI shed would power my train to Chennai. After initial hiccups, we finally pulled out of Bangalore Cantt.; at 10:25, the Mysore bound Shatabdi Express waited at the station outer to let us pass. After a mediocre run till Whitefield, our train finally started to pick up speed. A steady MPS run upto Bangarpet followed. At Tyakal we crossed a unique formation of LHB 2S and 3AC coaches belonging to SWR, it was led by an LDH...
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WAG7. This crossing was followed almost immediately by the fierce high speed meet with the Bangalore bound Seshadri Express.
Bangarpet was skipped at a sedate pace of 30kmph, and the Double Decker express from Chennai entered pf3 with an RPM WAP7 as we slowly accelerated out of pf4. The WAG9 maintained a brisk run all the way till Jolarpettai outer, the legendary Brindavan Express crossed us at Kuppam. It was a steady descent from Bangalore to Jolarpettai in Tirupattur Taluk of Vellore District. We had climbed down almost 530metres in a span of about 140kms. The cool breeze of Bangalore gave way to the arid climate of Tamilnadu. At Jolarpettai, a freighter from Salem enetered parallel to us. After a brief unscheduled halt and meeting the Arakkonam Bangalore& Erode Jolarpettai Passenger trains, we pulled out and continued the merry run till Katpadi Junction, the main station in the city of Vellore. It was our only scheduled halt in the 354kms run to Chennai.
Fate played spoilsport as a freighter on westbound the mainline blocked the view of the Mangalore bound Westcoast Express. Both trains arrived and departed Katpadi at almost the same time. Post Katpadi, our train accelerated through the huge campus of VIT. At Sevur, a freshly POHed RPM WAP4 leading the Arakkonam Vellore Passenger pulled out just as we skipped through. The RPM WAP4 led late running AC express from Kamakhya to Yeshvantpur crossed us at Arakkonam outer. Scrapped AJJ WAM4s were lying dead inside the loco shed. The next 27kms to Tiruvallur was a breezy run.
Just a few kms before Tiruvallur, the Bangalore bound Intercity crossed us led by an RPM WAP7. At Tiruvallur, the Tirupati bound afternoon Intercity Service crossed us led by an AJJ WAM4, a relief to sore eyes which saw very little other than RPM WAP7s that day. Coimbatore bound Intercity again crossed us led by RPM WAP7. And as we inched closer to Chennai Central, the last stations which were skipped at high speeds were Villivakkam and Ambattur. The Premium special covered the 354kms from Bangalore Cantt. to Chennai in 5:38hours. The train ride was one of the best I took to Chennai in all these years.
Coach Composition: LOCO-SLRD-S9-S8-S7-S6-S5-S4-A1-B4-A2-B3-B2-B1-S3-S 2-S1-SLRD

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Rail Fanning

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