Travelling today to HWH on this one.

Rescheduled to depart at 00:30 on 1st Nov.

Will be interesting in this timing for crossings and overtakes
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Journey report to follow

Going home is always an emotion, doesn't matter where you are travelling from and how you are travelling. This feeling is always a good one.

In my earlier travelogue (20889 HWH-TPTY Hms), I returned Bangalore in June. Post that been busy with work and what not. I didn't had any plans
to go home during Durga Puja and Diwali but decided to come...
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back home in December for a month or so. The initial plan was to
ride from Bangalore all the way to Kolkata on my bike but I wasn't able to set up the bike with necessary luggage accessories in due time
due to delays in supply from vendors. The weather becomes absolutely blissful from November end all the way till March or so which is apt for
long rides. I decided to take a train. Checked tickets, there weren't much available tickets for November
but I got confirmed tickets from 30th Nov onwards. So on 2nd week of October, I booked a 3A ticket in 12246 Duronto, DOJ: 1/12/22.

Initial IRI post: (/blog/post/5560137)


I have been constantly getting notifications from Railways regarding change in the Source of the train and I was well aware.
Most of the HWH bound and East/NE bound trains have been shifted to the new terminal which is SMVT (Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal), situated at Byapannahalli.

It's a much hyped station, inaugurated with fanfare, as I have seen in media or in newspaper & online. I have been busy with work throughout November as we were approaching
Year end, client work etc were on full swing. Since I was to start journey on a weekday , got my leave approval as working from train isn't a viable option.

Packing was complete on 30th Night after work. Pre-booked an Ola cab at night for next day morning at 9:30 AM. Even though the train leaves at 11:20 AM, recent Ola and Uber cancellations have been very troublesome for people relying on them. Hence decided not to do last minute booking.

Till now, this was just the preface and now the travelogue starts.

Day I, DOJ: 1/12/22, CC- as mentioned in IRI


I got my cab sharp at 9:30 am. Stowed away my trolley in the boot, hopped onto the rear seat and off we go. The arrival time was showing as 10:40AM due to morning traffic but it wasn't an issue as I had enough buffer time. I already had my breakfast before starting so now worries on that side though. While travelling to the station I just tried recalling when was the last time I had travelled in Duronto, couldn't remember though. Been a long time. Must be around 2016-2017.

Now that it's a full LHB, mazaa to aayega hi !!

Just as we entered the approach road towards the station after a sliding down a flyover, got a glimpse of a WAP7, leaving with some train. It was the 12864 HWH SF Exp.
Reached the station at 10:50PM. The approach roads were pretty narrow and through congested areas but the station complex itself is a big one. A new sort of design replicating the KIA. Drop and pick up bays, sensor based entry & exit doors, high ceilings, intuitive display boards, concourse, food court, airport styled escalators to reach the upper floor.

PF 1 is 1st platform that can be entered at the same level. From 2nd to 7th PF, one should take the escalator to 2nd floor and then move out through the overhead walkaways. Pretty impressive. Ticket vending machines were there and no one was seemed interested in using it. Overall the station was neat and clean. PF's were spanking clean.

Could see a reflection ya !!

The display boards were showing the list of trains currently arriving or departing. 22888,12864,12246 (wham!! 3 trains for same destination in a space of 1hr), 12510 was scheduled to arrive.

12246 was slotted at PF1 so no escalators to try this time. Again sensor based doors to enter or exit the PF1. I was in B4,38 so had to move front. Display boards were displaying to Coach numbers.

This time I had just a backpack and mid sized trolley. Not a long stay in home. I will be back on 19th Jan (12863: HWH SMVT SF)

Hopped onto my coach, I didn't see anyone in my coupe but couple of bags lying under-seat. I had space to slid my trolley underneath and chained it. I kept the backpack with me and got down from the train. I was accompanied by a friend so we were just moving around the PF. I noticed few RPF's in the PF strolling but nonetheless decided to click some pics. I did go at the front to check the powerhouse powering us through to Howrah, (TATA P7-30699) but didn't take pic.

Looking at the display boards I understood that we will at least overtake either the 22888 or 12864 or both en-route, but I wasn't sure where it will be.

We came towards our coach and right at 11:15 the signal turned yellow and in few mins, it turned green. The LP/ALP waved the flag and it was loud honk of the P7 and we start. Bade goodbye to my friend whom I would meet in Jan again once I am back. Came back to my coupe, found a couple of college students sitting. Both of them were heading to BBS. The side lower was occupied by RAC passengers. Yes, that day almost all the Side lowers
in 3A's were having RAC's as informed by TTE later (more on that in a bit).

Our coupe had only 3 pax including me, so we were happy that till Renigunta (RU) we can sit and have lunch. We were slowly crossing the outskirts of Byapannahalli, Chikka Banaswadi & joining the main line at Byapannahalli station and crawling towards KJM. We were slowed down to a tortoise pace while skipping KJM, for a moment it looked like we might even stop there and passengers would board.

There were lot of passengers ready with their luggage. I wasn't sure whether after the SMVT rescheduling, Duronto was given a halt at KJM or not. But we somehow push through and once you see the Old Madras bridge, it's
the end of the PF. We had skipped KJM and then the TATA P7 was in Race mode. Started picking up speed very quickly and thundering past the KJM yard and WFD, Hoodi stations.

We were maintaining speeds of around 108-111kph. The TTE came in to check the tickets. We were informed that the remaining passengers in our coupe would board from RU all the way to BBS. The RAC passengers were begging him to give them a seat but he informed only couple of seats will be empty from BZA till HWH. And those were already allotted based on the RAC status. Rest of the Side lowers are mostly occupied by RAC passengers. Only few handful passengers had confirmed Side lowers that day. The only seat available is in H1 (1st class)if someone wants to pay the difference in the amount and avail the seat, they are free to do. As per what I saw, no one was interested in paying the difference amount and move to H1 as the RAC passengers somehow were travelling together. I mean most of them had 2 tickets and they were RAC's themselves. Crazy thing.

I didn't know if any passenger would have opted to move to H1. Once the TTE left, the Pantry guy came and handed over the water bottles and asked for Veg or Non Veg food options. I opted for Veg lunch and rest of the meals as Non-Veg.

From 30th Nov to 3rd Dec, there was rain alert in TN and Kerala and in some parts of KA as well. This was resulting in cloudy and foggy conditions outside. We were slowing down intermittently and I noticed lot of track works going on.

Few unscheduled halts were also made.

Good time to tell about the coach condition, I didn't look at the manufacturing year but there were individual charging outlets, no reading lamps, mirror, water bottle holders missing in few berths and present in few (very strange).
Same goes for Side lower and Upper. One thing I didn't like was the headroom on the upper berth. It's quite cramped up there specially in the regular upper berths.

Washrooms were clean and tidy but it all depends on people using it. The OBHS staffs were present and were cleaning the coach interiors in between. They kept doing their work every 1-1.5 hours interval till the next day when we were 1hour before HWH.

I came outside and enjoyed door plating for sometime, I could see distant hilltops covered in mist and fog and here we were snaking through the plains. It started to drizzle a bit and it resulted in my phone getting drenched. Came back inside, wiped out the water droplets, all good.

We were nearing Kuppam when the Pantry staff started handing out the lunch trays. Since I took Veg meal, it had plain rice, dal, paneer gravy, 2 rotis, curd, a pickle sachet, a mango drink (Frooti sort of) and later ice-cream was provided.

The 2 guys in my coupe started eating and I decided to wait till they finish so that I can use the tray table. We were nearing JTJ around 1:20pm. Track works were ongoing till JTJ and were done under the jurisdiction of SR. Possibly to facilitate the high speed runs. Few days back I read somewhere that there would be increase in speed limits in few sections. One of them was AJJ-JTJ and JTJ-SBC/YPR/MYS.

As we entered JTJ slowly, crossed the Patna Ernakulam Exp with ED P7. We made an unscheduled at JTJ for about 10mins. As we started to leave, our counterpart 12245 came in briskly with a SRC P7 and mostly possibly would have skipped JTJ.

The tray table was cleared out in another 10mins and I decided to complete my lunch. Tasted very mediocre to be honest. Soup has been stopped long back.

We crossed Vaniyambadi around 1:50PM. After my lunch, I wasn't too interested in catching sleep & came out again to stand at the door and enjoy the run. I was standing on the other side now & by the time I realised that we are arriving Katpadi, I was too slow to react start the recording but nonetheless took the video.

We literally flew past KPD in no time around 2:45PM and continued onwards. We dashed past the VIT campus. Too much of sideways swaying was a cause of concern because of the speed at the Duronto was running.
I was talking with the Coach attendant who seemed to be a very jolly guy and was quite amazed at the questions I was asking him about the journey or some interesting instances he may have come along or general maintenance of the coaches etc.
It all began when I asked him if blankets will be given. He told he will give in evening but they will need to take it back by noon next day as few passengers have been stealing the handtowels or bedsheets thinking it's a gift from Railways. Such a shameful mindset to be honest. The guys who work as attendants have to compensate the loss from their daily earnings.


Dispatching all stations with aplomb, we reached Melpakkam Cabin and switched over to the Ajj north cabin towards RU.

We crawled till Tiruttani where we stopped for few secs. Spotted a blue TNP WDG3A. Time: 3:55PM

No twin-tone horn from the P7, all along it had a uniform tone. Just like EMU's

As we started again from Tiruttani, we were given the evening snacks tray (puffrice mixture packet, a greasy samosa, soanpapdi, greenpea mixture and tea kit). I was standing at the door and in coach B5 the pantry staff was setting up the tray, where I clicked a pic of the tray, without even disturbing him in his work. He sensed someone was there behind and turned around to see me looking at my phone sensing I would have clicked pics. He asked me what am I doing. I told I just clicked a pic of tray having the snacks arranged. He was like, this is wrong, you shouldn't have done this. Then I asked anyway people would have taken pic of the tray after you hand it over to the passengers. And you have kept the trays nicely cleaned, everything is kept symmetrical, nothing wrong. But still he murmured something and went away with a set of trays. It kept me bothering for sometime but then later I brushed it aside.

I wasn't in the mood to have the snacks as I don't eat samosa. Returned it to the pantry guy, the rest of the items were all packed, so kept them in my bag. I used the tea kit but nothing special to mention about. We reached RU at 4:50pm.

Got down, took a short stroll, got myself a cup of coffee (tasted better). Washrooms were cleaned. lots of passengers boarding the train at RU, I guess most of them were students from nearby colleges in TPTY and RU. Right at 5:05PM, our loco's honk was audible and the signal was green. We were on a roll again and slowly we negotiated the outer and curved towards Gudur to join the HWH-MAS-HWH main line.

Coach was completely packed up, all the seats were taken. I came back to my coupe and found another 3 students boarded from RU and all of them were bound for BBS and one for Patna (via HWH). They were given the evening snacks and their food orders were taken.

We were nearing Gudur and somewhere it clicked that we might be overtaking either 12864 or 22888 at Gudur. By the time I came out, on the adjacent PF I saw a train was stationery. I did already started the recording of the overtake and then I realised it was the 12864 standing on the other side.

We were cruising post GDR and only before Nellore south, we were slowed down but in motion. The slow pace resulted us crossing Nellore 10mins behind the actual time and we kept crawling till Padugupadu. Post crossing Padugupadu, we started to pickup the speed and within minutes we were doing 100KPH.

Swept past Kavali, swept past Ongole around 8:15pm and we crossed 12863 as we charged out of OGL.

The pantry guy was seen rushing with the trays so that gave us the indication, food is on the way. I had opted for Non Veg meal (plain rice, dal, chicken curry, 2 rotis, curd, a pickle sachet)and later ice-cream. Being seated inside the train without much mobility was taking a toll on probably everyone after dinner. We did overtook the 22888 before Krishna Canal as we headed towards BZA ahead of time. Without getting too slow we passed the Krishna bridge and were soon bypassing the ELS yard before the station. We were slotted to arrive at PF7 at BZA

We arrived at 10pm (10 mins before time). Sigh of relief !!!

Most of the passengers for VZM, BBS, HWH got down to stretch themselves and get a little bit of walk. I was one of them. Knew we had 20 mins time in hand and that's a good duration to have brisk walk through the PF which was buzzing with passengers, food vendors.

Soon 22888 (SMVT-HWH Humsafar) followed us and arrived on PF6 at 10:15PM. I just had a look on one of the display board, 12864 was given PF7 where we were stationed. Meant it might be stuck behind on the bridge itself.

very compact runs by the 3 trains for sure !!

at 10:20PM, we got the starter and we start off again with a strong lurch. The washrooms were cleaned again, water was refilled. Post BZA, since it was already 10:30PM and all the berths were laid out, I hopped onto my upper berth with some effort.(I haven't been on an upper for a long time)

As usual not much headroom to sit, I had already made my bedding. I was anyway to be awake to watch the last group(E) match of Germany vs Costa Rica. So kept a track of our on-time run. Very impressive run I tell you all.

We were on time when we crossed SLO. But i felt lot of jerks when the train would pick up pace after slowing down. Like when the P7 pulls the coaches, there is a wave that travels through. More evident on upper berth rather.

Once the match was over, i was dead tired and too sleepy. Just switched off my ph and went in slumber.





Good morning then, day II

I managed to get a good sleep and woke up by the commotion of passengers ready to get down at BBS. Our coupe and most others were getting empty at BBS. We were 5mins before time. Got down from my upper berth, just washed my face and got down at PF. morning stretch done.

A lady was in one of the lower berth in our coupe and that's it. Good time for the troubled RAC passengers to stretch and get good sleep I guess. They helped themselves to some of the other empty berths.

Freshened up, came back to my seat. The pantry guy already placed my share of breakfast on the rack where linen packs are kept. Fortunate, that it didn't fell off.

Very bland, 2 slices of bread, 2 boiled eggs, butter chiplet, salt & pepper chiplets. that's it!! Oh we're already on our way towards CTC by the time I came back to seat.

We skipped CTC at a decent pace. But we were going at good speed over the bridges. Exciting stuff.

Post CTC, we were literally on a roll, blasting past Kapilas rd and all other stations.

I was door-plating and we crossed JJKR, Manjiri rd at frantic pace. So much so, I didn't dare to take out my ph and record.

Skipped Bhadrak at 11:50AM. We were gunning ahead of time and at 12:30pm, we were halted at BLS for 2-3 mins.

By this time, the final meal of the day was ready to be served.

Chicken meal (2 rumali rotis, plain rice, curd, dal, chicken curry, pickle, ice-cream), somewhat Ok Ok in taste. We were flying through Odisha but couldn't see stations as the window curtains were stretched
by the lower berth folks.

in no time we were nearing Hijili when 12245 crossed us as I was on my way back from washroom. Since there wasn't much to do, went up again and laid down for the final few hrs.

We crossed KGP around 2:15-2:20pm, very much early. Got a good siesta after lunch.

I woke up around 4pm, checked Google maps, we were crossing SRC. looked below, few luggage bags were out. there were few big family groups hurtling their trolleys and bags towards the door. Don
t understand that mindset.

We were at HWH outer at 4:15PM. on one side the HWH-NDLS Rajdhani was being shunted. other side, the HWH-MYS Exp sniffs out of HWH with LGD P7.

We crawled into HWH, PF21 at 4:35PM. 15 mins ahead of time.

Got down at a leisurely pace, booked cab and within 30 mins back home