I had my first visit to Pandharpur, reaching Kurduvadi on Sunday May 14th early morning by 22139 CSTM-SUR superfast; from where I took 11309 SUR-Miraj express to PVR. I returned the same evening to KWV by 11310 Miraj-SUR exp, before proceeding to Mumbai by 22140 SUR-CSTM superfast. At KWV, I had about 3 hours to kill in the night; so these were my observations:

1) 16339 CSTM-NCJ express (via KJM) pulled into Platform 3 behind ED WDM3A 16804 at 19 31 (33 mins late); continuously sounding its LT horn. It departed 2 mins later with two blasts of the HT horn (which was similar to that of a WDM3D/EMD).

2) 11028 MAS-CSTM Mail arrived at PF 3 behind GTL WDM3A 16600R at 20 15 (53 mins late) sounding a shrill HT horn.

After 3 mins, it sounded an LT horn and then the HT horn. A minute later, it sounded the LT horn again and departed finally with furious chugging. I could faintly hear the turbocharger in full song (and the LT horn) even 5 mins after it departed! It was sheer music to my ears.

3) A BCNA rake headed by GY WDG4s 12560 and 12680 came to a siding on the other side of PF 4 and stopped, at 20 33 – but the EMD motors continued to idle, which was again music to my ears.

4) 11020 BBS-CSTM Konark express led by KYN WDP4D 40260 came to PF 3 and made an unscheduled stop, at 20 39.

The poor train had to be detained for half an hour, in order to wait for:
a) 17031 CSTM-HYB supercrawler to arrive at 20 45 (37 mins late) on PF 2 behind an ALCO sounding its HT horn(similar to WDM3D/EMD).
b) 12157 Pune-SUR Hutatma express to arrive at 20 59 (half an hour late) on PF 1 behind an ALCO with hard HT honking(again like WDM3D/EMD).
c) 12026 SC-Pune Shatabdi express to overtake it at MPS at 21 02, with an electric type LT horn from its EMD. I could hear the EMD humming in the distance.
d) Hutatma express to depart at 21 04, sounding both its LT and HT horns; which were more or less similar.

5) Konark finally departed at 21 09, with 3 blasts of its impressive horn – pure EMD.

6) 17031 finally departed at 21 14 (1 hour 4 mins late) with 2 blasts of its harsh LT horn ‘praam’.

7) 18519 VSKP LTT express shattered the brief silence of the station at 21 47, skipping at MPS with superb honking by its WDG4 127X3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHcgc0WWoyc

8) 16382 CAPE-CSTM Jayanthi Janata express pulled into PF 2 at 21 58 (23 mins late) behind GTL WDG3A 13254 with a shrill HT horn.

9) 11041 CSTM-MAS express came to PF 3 at 22 07 (24 mins late) behind KYN WDM3D 11389 with a sharp HT horn ‘praaam’.

10) 16382 sounded its LT horn, then short blasts of the HT and LT horns as it departed at 22 08, 31 mins late. A minute later, 11041 departed with the same HT horn.

An interesting point: The chugging of the ALCOs and humming of the EMDs could be heard in the distance even 5-7 mins after a train departed – towards Daund side (probably because of the sound being reflected by the mountains between DD and KWV, I guess). This was not the case with trains going towards SUR.

Technical Abbreviations

LT – Low Tone

HT – High Tone

ALCO – American Locomotive Company (and a class of diesel engines of the 1960s)

EMD – Electromotive Diesel (and a modern class of diesel engines)

MPS – Maximum Permissible Speed

Station Codes
CSTM – Mumbai CST
SUR – Solapur
PVR – Pandharpur
KWV – Kurduvadi
NCJ – Nagercoil
KJM – Krishnarajapuram
ED – Erode
MAS – Chennai Central
GTL – Guntakal
GY – Gooty
KYN – Kalyan
BBS – Bhubaneswar
HYB – Hyderabad
SC – Secunderabad
VSKP – Visakhapatnam
LTT – Lokmanya Tilak Terminus
CAPE – Kanniyakumari
DD – Daund