Glimpses from the journey

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full set of pics here

It’s Done !!

We finally made it !! At 0730 on the 18th of August, we finally got off in Kanyakumari after 8 gruelling but enormously fun filled days of travel.

Enroute, we missed trains, changed trains, slept on trunks, platform benches and even made it to the papers !! All of that will slowly make its way to these pages, but for the moment all we want to do is sleep….. sleep in a bed that does not move, where kids don’t bawl in the middle of the night and you don’t wake up to find strange men sleeping half wrapped around you…..

We had to made some alterations to our original route due to missed connections, but still we stuck to diesel, nothing else would do. Here is the final route map

Hectic Preparations

The D-Day is almost here, we are leaving tomorrow. Hectic preparations are going on, check lists are being created and hectic text messages are being exchanged. I was in Chandigarh yesterday for some work, and a fifteen minute break was utilised to buy boxers !!

News of the day is that permits for photography from Northern Railway have arrived, and there is a slight change in schedule as well. Now we are taking the Gokul Exp from Mathura Jn. to Bhojipura Jn. and then changing over to the Nainital Exp. at Bhojipura for our onward journey to Aishbagh. This change in plan allows us to cover the Mathura – Bareilly section mostly in daylight and also catch the Ganga Crossing at Kachhala in daylight.

For those who don’t know, at Kachhala the road and the rail bridge are common and travel on the same level. So when the train comes, all road traffic is stopped and the train is allowed to go ahead. Very unique and worth the change in plan.

This may be the last post before we leave… don’t know if I’ll get time tomorrow. Am not carrying the laptop as planned earlier, but will still try and post updates if we manage internet access on the way.

Bharath is arriving by the Indigo flight tomorrow afternoon and then we’ll be off……

The method behind the madness

Many thanks to one and all for the enthusiastic support and good wishes. Many of you have also left suggestions on possible detours and alternative routes. We did consider a few of them in our planning stage and a few tempted us later as well.

Our final route however was chosen keeping in mind the leave that office would allow us and feasible connections and more importantly – make it to the end while retaining our sanity.

The original plan was to do the trip isimply diesel – with no complications involved. But then it would have been too easy, all we had to do was to get to Trivandrum from Kanniyakumari and catch one of the Kerala – Gujarat expresses that ply via the Konkan Railway. At Ahmedabad we could have switched to the Ahmedabad – Jammu Express and that would have been it – no sweat. THAT – certainly was not the idea.

Mohan playfully suggested that it’d be fun if we through the middle of the country – and that too under wires to make it more difficult, and then we added the MG and NG bit as well just for fun

We started with the South – North approach first – that was abandoned pretty soon after connections refused to work out. Then came the north south approach. We desperately wanted to do the North Rajasthan MG lines near Bikaner / Hanumangarh, especially the canal loop, but that too didn’t work.

It took us at least 10 days to hammer out the routes, timings and connections, and here it is:

We get to Udhampur from New Delhi on 9th August By the Uttar SK express – then on ….

10th August (Fri)
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4JU DMU (GS) – 55km
Udhampur : 10:20
Jammu Tawi : 11:50

2414 Puja Express (SL) – 731km

Jammu Tawi : 18:15
Alwar : 07:26

11th August (Sat)
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184 Bhiwani-Mathura Pass. (GS) – 123km
Alwar : 09:55
Mathura Jn : 13:30

5314 Mathura-Aishbagh Express (2A) – 529km

Mathura Jn : 19:25
Aishbagh : 10:20

12th August (Sun)
————
5009 Chitrakut Exp (SL) – 582km

Lucknow Jn : 17:30
Jabalpur : 07:55

13th August (Mon)
—————–
7609 PNBE-PAU Exp (SL) – 245km

Jabalpur : 11:15
Itarsi : 15:00

285 INDB-CWA Pench Valley Pass. (SL) – 244km

Itarsi: 20:55
Chhindwara : 04:30

14th August (Tue)
—————-
22NNJ (SL) – 147km

Chhindwara : 08:20
Nagpur : 15:30

15th August (Wed)
————
7606 Nandigram Exp (SL) – 933km

Nagpur : 06:00
Manmad : 00:20

16th August (Thu)
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1032 Gyan Ganga Exp (SL) – 312km (PNR: 2601929243)

Manmad : 01:35

Pune : 08:00

6339 CSTM-NCJ Exp (2A) – 1736km

Pune : 16:00

Nagercoil : 03:00

18th August (Sat)
————
2633 MS-CAPE Exp (GS) – 15km
Nagercoil : 06:10
Kanniyakumari : 06:30

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Grand Total KMs – 5662

We’re looking forward to the Lassi in Jammu and Pedas in Mathura. The kebabs of Lucknow and the Oranges of Mathura. Biryani at Daund and Vadai in TN. And if anyone knows of any seedy bar enroute where we could down a cold beer….. do let us know. It may help plan the next trip.

The Route

This is the route. We start in Udhampur in the north and work our way down the country.

The beer is to blame

Just like most other crazy trip ideas, this too must have originated while drinking beer in a shady bar outside some godforsaken station. Was it Betul or was it Ferozpur? Nevertheless, the idea stayed and took shape. Soon we’ll be off again – this time from Udhampur to Kanniyakumari, only by diesel trains and by all three gauges.

A crazy 8 day, 5000km 5662km ride that will take us from the northernmost station in the country to the southernmost. Across a dozen states, we’ll cover the broad gauge, meter gauge and narrow gauge with just one vow – not to board a single electric hauled train. This one is for the smoking Alcos, transition jerks & token exchanges… carbon footprint be damned.

We start on 9th August.