I had a short but memorable outing of Pune; during which I had lunch at Sagar Restaurant (near the station), bought Shrewsbury biscuits from Naaz Bakery in East Street, and had a brief railfanning session in Kasarwadi (This video captures it in essence 😉 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms7pwCmqF_M ). The local I took from Kasarwadi (to return to Pune) came late, and was further delayed by a stop of 10 mins at Pune home signal – thus I had less than 20 mins to board my return train to Mumbai (12128 Pune Mumbai Intercity); so I didn’t have time to see the loco, my coach being 8th from the front (the train being on Platform 2). For my account of my train journey from Mumbai, please refer https://ashwinkumar1989.online/2018/02/28/a-sunday-excursion-to-pune-part-1/ .

I had a non-trackside window seat. The freight seen in the video finally entered Pune at 17 49, and passed without stopping! :O We departed at 17 56, a minute late. 12157 Pune Solapur Hutatma express was on PF1. On the right, 11041 Mumbai Chennai express pulled in. We slowly crossed over the points before accelerating just before the Sangam bridge over the dirty Mula-Mutha river. Then we slowed down before accelerating again from Shivajinagar and blasting through the next few stations Khadki, Dapodi and Kasarwadi.

When we were going through the curves, I could observe that our loco was a WCAM2/3. Both LT and HT horns were being used, and I was loving the superfast run. However, we slowed down at Pimpri; before picking up the pace again from Chinchwad. Here I spotted AEB-fitted UBL WDG4 12085. The stop-start run continued as we slowed down before Akurdi, and proceeded to accelerate through the station; before having a rather sedate run till Dehu Road home signal. Then we blasted through the station, overtaking 19311 Pune Indore express (via KJT-PNVL) in the process – hauled by BRC WAP4 22353. Again, we crawled from Begdewadi outer onwards till Ghorawadi; before resuming MPS and passing Talegaon at 18 29. I could hear mild flat wheel sounds. From here, the run  was somewhat disappointing.

We had an unscheduled halt at Vadgaon for 2 mins, as an EMD-hauled train blasted past us at MPS – probably 11019 CSMT-BBS Konark express. Then there was a fast run from Kanhe home, followed by a TSR of 90 kmph before Kamshet and then an increase in speed; before slowing down again at Malavli home – after overtaking vehicles on the road. A train led by a WAP4 crossed us at a good speed – probably 11102 Gwalior Pune weekly express. There were fires burning in the left, and Sinhagad Institutes perched on top of the mountain in the distant left. There was a tanker train in the Lonavala yard; which we crawled through, before accelerating to enter the station at a good speed – on PF2, at 18 59 (13 mins late). On PF3 was a local to SVJR (first time I am hearing of a local to SVJR :O ) – this was probably the culprit which we were trailing and lost time as a result 😛 . We departed after a halt of 2 mins, to begin our descent down the Bhor Ghats.

It was dark, and I was feeling tired after the roaming around in Pune and the railfanning session at Kasarwadi. Hence, I closed my eyes and took naps occasionally; and did not fully see the scenery of the ghat section (which anyway could not be enjoyed in the darkness, even were I fully awake 😛 ). I observed 5 WAG7s coupled at Monkey Hill, Khandala. We overtook  a long BOXN rake hauled by twin orange-cream ALCOs (with 3 braker WAG7s in the front) before Palasdhari, and then crossed a local bound to Khopoli. Passed KJT at 19 47, and had a blasting run till Neral home. Then we crawled briefly before picking up speed from the station; and from here on the LP was in no mood to let up – we blasted away in a blur of twin tones; ripping Badlapur at 20 10 – covering 32 km in 23 mins at an average of approximately 84 kmph. A train led by an ALCO with an EMD horn chugged past us before Ambernath.

We skipped KYN at a crawl through PF7 at 20 25.

From here, it was a forgettable run. We had another unscheduled halt at Thakurli home, before yet another stop-start run ensued; with some melodious twin-tone blowing to liven it up. Finally pulled into Thane at 20 51 (33 mins late) on PF6. I took a local to Vikhroli and then an auto to my home, to reach by 21 25. Hope you enjoyed this blog! 😀

Technical Terms

LT – Low Tone

HT – High Tone

AEB – Auto Emergency Brakes

MPS – Maximum Permissible Speed

TSR – Temporary Speed Restriction

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

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

LP – Loco Pilot

Station Codes

UBL – Hubli

KJT – Karjat

PNVL – Panvel

BRC – Vadodara

CSMT – Mumbai CST

BBS – Bhubaneswar

SVJR – Shivajinagar

KYN – Kalyan