Category: Travel

  • An eventful Saturday Monsoon Outing by Godavari express – Part 1

    I love having a full weekend off ; especially in the monsoons. It provides you the opportunity to undertake train journeys which might otherwise have been difficult; given that there is a Mega Block on Sundays – due to which many daytime intercities usually tend to get cancelled. Moreover, the train in this case was…

  • A Saturday Night of Action at Manmad

    I will begin with the disclaimer that this is purely for railfans and rail enthusiasts; so others can read this if they like; but they are really better off giving it a pass – so that they don’t get bamboozled by all the technical jargon here! 😛 Anyway, there is a legend at the bottom…

  • My first journey by Pragati express

    12125/26 Mumbai Pune Pragati express is one of the regular daytime intercity commuter trains serving the bustling Mumbai-Pune route. However, it is a train in which I had never travelled; until yesterday (from Pune to Mumbai). 12126 was parked on its customary platform 5; behind chocolate brown KYN WCAM2-6P 21864. My coach C2 was of…

  • My first tryst with LHB Panchavati – Part 2

    Well, much to my pleasure (being my first ever ride by this train 🙂 ); 12110 MMR CSMT Panchavati express had a swimmingly good run in BSL division i.e. upto IGP – here you will see how it fared in Mumbai division. Please don’t forget to check out Part 1 before reading on! https://ashwinkumar1989.online/2018/06/03/my-first-tryst-with-lhb-panchavati-part-1/ We departed…

  • My first tryst with LHB Panchavati – Part 1

    12110 Manmad Mumbai Panchavati express is an extremely popular commuter train – used by thousands of passengers mainly between Nasik and Mumbai. Recently the train got an LHB rake and there was a lot subsequent hype; unfortunately, the new LHB rake did not go well with many regular travellers; due to its cramped seating arrangement…

  • A long, dreary and forgettable journey – Part 2

    A 33 hours long train journey (from Trichy to Mumbai) makes for a similarly elephant-sized blog as well 😛 – as to how it started, please see https://ashwinkumar1989.online/2018/05/20/a-long-dreary-and-forgettable-journey-part-1/ . Where were we? Ah…at GY. As we departed after a halt of 3 mins, I saw GY WDP4D 40117 in the DLS. The twin GY WDG3As that I had…

  • A long, dreary and forgettable journey – Part 1

    Since when I have found train journeys “dreary” or “forgettable” ? Well, this one by 11044 MDU-LTT express was a notable exception. It is a weekly train with oodles of slack at quite a few points in its schedule: 5 hours 35 mins for a distance of 132 km (at an average speed of 23.64…

  • Rescheduled Train Blues – Part 2

    Where were we? Ah…at SUR; 18520 LTT-VSKP express having followed us all the way. To refer to how this began in the first place, please refer https://ashwinkumar1989.online/2018/05/11/rescheduled-train-blues-part-1/ . 11018 KIK-LTT express arrived on Platform 5 behind an EMD (with an electric type LT horn) at 15 10, 20 mins late. As I feared, 18520 finally overtook…

  • Rescheduled Train Blues : Part 1

    It was going to be yet another long train journey from Mumbai to Chennai – yep, you guessed it – by 11027 Mumbai Chennai Mail. The 4th time in 6 months – boringly predictable to most of you by now….or so it seemed. Early on the day of the journey (April 30) I was just…

  • Do Not Underestimate the Deccan Express!

    11008 Pune Mumbai Deccan express is not a very fast train – it takes 4 hrs 2 mins to cover a distance of 192 km; an average speed of 47.6 kmph. It also has 9 stops i.e. an average of almost a stop every 21 km! 😛 However, these stats are not enough to dismiss…