This is the TRIP REPORT of my travel to Vaishno Devi in last year May-June.
***Planning***
The plan to go on a vacation came to mind of my Mom in January. She told this plan to all the members of my family and being a Railfan, i readily Agreed. Later on we added My Mausi, Her two children, my maternal Grandparents and my maternal cousin ( Son of my Mama), Mom's Paternal Cousins. A total of 11 people. A big group it was. In...
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that year. At first, we planned for 12355 Archana Express.. But that plan was cancelled at it had low number of seats. We decided to do a break hourney ...
1.By 12569 Garib Rath to NDLS
2.By 22461 Shru Shakti to SVDK
The Plan to return was by...
1. 18102 from JAT to ASR
2. 15708 from ASR to DLI
3. 12310 from NDLS to PNBE
The ticket of 12569 was of 25th of May
And the return ticket was of 3rd of June
It was all set and i eagerly waited for the reservations to open. The ARP was of 60 days then, Not 120 days as of now. All the tickets were booked by me and all were confirmed... The moment i printed the tickets... I felt enormous Joy. I had 60 days left to the Start of the trip..
These 60 days went... And came the start of the trip...
*** Near to Start ****
On 24th May... All the Family members, My Mom's cousins and my Maternal Grandparents came from Siwan to Danapur.... All the Packing was done.
*** 25 May ****
And finally... The day came... I was very happy.. From morning to 3 in evening... The ladies were busy in cooking the travel foods, Like Littis, Namkin and many other things...
I.. Being a die hard Railfan.. Started tracking 12569 right from Start... I was happy that it was running Right time....
Everyone was ready by 05 PM... Suddenly, my mom called everyone and asked us to read the news flashing on the Channel.. It said:-
Uttar Pradesh ke Kaushambi Me Tata - Jammu Express Derail... We were worried... But we thought that The line would clear... And set off towards Patna Junction.
We reached PNBE around 6:30 PM and went straight to PF#6 where GR comes... I checked the status.. It was near BKP.. That meant it will reach around 07:30 @ PNBE.. We waited and waitied...
And the heavenly announcement was made @ 07:25 that Garib Rath is coming on PF#7... It happenedhappened due to a Memu was standing of PF#6..
*** In 12569 Garib Rath ****
It came with a GZB WAP4.. Our seats were in G13.
We boarded and settled to our seats till 07:45 PM...
But then... The Signal remaind red... I wondered why..
Even the Patna Rajdhani has departed.. It was annoying.. It standed and standed and standed..
It departed @ sharp 08:30... After an Hakt of 1 hour.. It was frustrating..
But soon it picked speed and started doing 90+
But this joy went soon.. It instead of ripping through Zamania... Halted there for 25 minutes... And then it started to crawl... Now i thought these of being the consequences of the derailment of 18101..
We reached MGS @ 23:45... And i though to sleep.. I slept @ Around 01:00..
I waked up @ 02:00 and guess what.. We were still standing @ MGS...
I felt thunderstruck.... I was thinking that we will atleast now would be ripping @ 130, but.. It was standing..
And standing that too without a loco.. Yes without a loco...
The GZB WAP4 was nowhere to be seen.. I was worried..
Was the train cancelled between MGS- ANVT...
Will it return from MGS to JYG... These thought started to frighten me...
But soon a TTE came with Charts into our coach and went to every Passengers which were going to ALD and asked them Politely to deboard them here @ MGS.. I now knew that it was Diverted. But didn't knew by which route...
And the Garib Rath standed loco-less @ MGS... All the Allahabad bound passengers were gone and i was standing outside just waiting... At around 0230 hrs.. Our new locomotive came... It was the Mighty TKD beast WDP-4D.... I went to see the attachment.. Soon we were given starter @ around 0300 hrs... The mighty TKD beast was in just like waking from sleep kind of mood... We were moving by the speed of 5-6 kph... I was doorplating and sooner... The train curved right... My mind said - ' we are going towards BSB'... And we slowly went on... After stopping many times.. We crossed the mighty Ganga bridge. Amazing sight itt was... We reached BSB by 0400 hrs.. And again... The GR was standing... Oh.. Frustrating it was....
And after a halt of 30 long minutes.... We departed BSB... Soon the WDP-4D was showing its might a MPS easily doing 100 kph... We roared past small stations... I being little tired.. Took a nap...
When i waked up.. Train was moving at Very good speed.. Soon it halted @ Pratapgarh...
All my family members gathered in a bay, and wrtalked about the chances of us getting to NDLS by 170p hrs, that is before the departure of 22461 Shri Shakti AC SF, which looked very bleak.. We all decided to Cancel all the remaining tickets :( except the Rajdhani Return ticket... But we hoped to reach by 1900 at least. Then the train started again and skipped many station.. We departed from Amethi at around 1000 hrs and hoped to reach lko by 1300..
But all of sudden... We started to get looped for ICE, MEX.... We halted @ Rupamau for 2 hrs... Amd from there it just started to Crawl... Oh instead of 130 mps skips which i expected... We were crawling and givving passes to MEX and InterCities....
We reached UTR ( Utraihtia) @ 1500 hrs... The scene which was created there was very interesting.. The things which happened @ UTR were unexpected... But it did happen..
We reached UTR. There were 3 tracks to the left of us. I saw that on the leftmost track that 14055 Brahmaputra Mail was standing. It departed Patna last day aroun 1330 hrs.. That is it took 25 and a half hour to travel a distance of 530 KM with an average speed of 22 kph... The People of General & Sleeper coach were sitting outside under the tress and those who were sitting inside used thing like newspaper to get some fresh air. Looked like the Fans have failed... The People looked in dismay.. They were saying... 'Ki 1 din me to Lucknow nahi pahuche . Dilli to av door hai".. I was seeing this from our coach door.. Suddenly i heared a horn and then saw a WAP7 coming slowly towards us on the track just left of us.. I wondered which train it was....
But as the loco passes ahead.. It was all amusing.. It Was the ER King 12301 Howrah Rajdani. A 2A coach halted in front of our coach.. A Gentlemen Came to door and asked me.. 'av kaha pahuche hi train?' I replied that we are 12 KM away from Lucknow. He just sayed 'uff, av Lucknow v nahi aaya.. Pata nahi kab pahuchenge...' . I asked him when the HWH Raj departed MGS? He told me that it departed @ around 0200 hrs.. That meant it took 13 hrs for the King to travel 271 KMs.. I calculated the average speed of 12301 and found it to be 21 KPH.. That was the extent to which even Rajdhani was affected due to diversion...
Well now i heared a Horn.. Since i was not able to see the signal.. I thought that surely the Rajdhani would be departibg being on Top of the priority list.. But my speculation was proven wrong.. I saw froom the Rajdhani's door that 14055 was departing..
That guy on the door of raj Said.. ' What... Is gadi ko rajdhani se pahle bhej diya.. Ab bhagwan hi malik hai.. And sooner.. The BP mail was out of sight..
This was a huges surprise as a MEX was given priority over a Raj..
But you know.. IR keeps surprising.. An other surprise was there to come....
After the departure of BP mail... I heared another horn and this time i was confirmed that the King would depart... But when i went out.. I saw a pantograph coming from behind. I waited and after seeing this one i was very amused.. It was the ER queen SDAH Raj with a Duronto liveried WAP7.. It came and halted on the Track right to the king. It was a splendid scene seeing King & Queen standing side by side.. Which would not have been possible under any other circumstances.. I was very happy... Sooner i heared a horn... And Guess what. Our GARIB RATH was given stater ahead of the Rajdhani.. That guy on the door of Raj was now frustrated... My whole family was overjoyed seeing that we are going ahead of the Rajdhani... Hehe.. The were also doing bit of RF ;D
At 1625 Hrs.. We entered LKO... That meant we took 12 hours to travel the 301 KM disrance of BSB- LKO with an avg of 25... :(
The scene at LKO was chaotic... Since all the food from the EOG was ended. ( Jyg GR have food carrying area in the EOG ). Everyone was hungry.. 90% of the trains people got down in search of food. I saw that a vendor selling "Chawal- chole" sold all his food under 5 minutes.. Even we were not able to get any food and came back to my berth. Our train was standing at pf#5. I saw food in packets were kept at pf#7. That was for ER king. Soon the Raj came and departed ahead of us with loaded food. Meanwhile we were again loco less and waiting for an E-loco.. Looked like LKO had a shortage of WAP loco so we got a AJNI WAG9 loco.. The Green monster was matching with our GR. We departed at 1630 and continued towards CNB. We stopped at Amausi, Harauni to Get pass to GKP-YPR Express. We crossed the Ganga bridge and Entered into CNB @ 2030.. Yes.. It took us 04 hours to travel 70 kms.. Again i saw pcked food coming to the adjacent PF.. Soon the Queen came and pantry staff started loading food. In this time we started our journey towards ANVT.. After Panki.. WAG9 unleased its fury as we constantly clocked above 110+ .. I slept soon and was waked uo by mom @ ANVT.. I checked my phone it showed 0200 hrs.. But mom told me that tge train arrived at 0130 hrs at ANVT..
This meant it took 29 Hrs for us to travel upto ANVT. The delay was of 17 Hrs.. We got down from the train and since all of us were tired and didnt wanted to go out at midnight.. We slept at pf#2 of ANVT.. Soon i saw the SDAH Rajdhani rushing past ANVR... Tht meant it trailed GR all the way... But now we were planning about how will we now go to Katra??.
But all my Grandma said was:- " ki Mata ki kripa se pahuch jayenge.. Av sone do"
*** In Delhi ***
We waked up around 06 in the morning and got outside the station permises and took two taxis to Paharganj. There we rented a hotel and Just being so tired.. All other people slept but i was figuring about how will we reach SVDK.. As a railfan Bus was not an option anyway.. I searched and fount that at that time obky one train was from NDLS that waa Shri Shkakti AC express.. But we didn't have enough amount in the Debit card so that we could afford a 3A takal ticket. We were worried but then came the 04401 Anand Vihar - Katra Special to our rescue.. It had SL and went to SVDK also.. I booked tickets in CK quta @ 10 AM.. Nw we were bit relieved that we wilk aurely be reaching Katra. Till the time of departure.. We had 1 and a half day. So we went to explore delhi in these time.. Not much but we went to two Places, India Gate on the eve of 27 May & Akshardham temple on the noon of 28th may. We checkedout of our hotel & Leaved for ANVT @ 1900 hrs.
We reached ANVT @ 2050 hrs and rushed for PF #2 for the special.
We all were worried about the train as the spls of bihar are nowhere punctual.
We settled to our seats and The train depared @ 2100 hrs. The loco was TKD WDP-4B. We started and soon were having parallel run with the Mighty 12556 Gorakhdham SF.. Our train competed with GD for 1 minute but 04401 slowed and BGKT WDP4 showed its might...
We entered GZB after overtaking an EMU.
After GZB... The beast was on free run in GZB- MTC sectio. And ripped the tracks @ MPS.... We reached before time @ MTC, MOZ and SRE.
At Saharanpur. We Overtook 13049 HWH - ASR Exp and xinged with 6 DN ASR mail.
Again we were ripping tracks.. I slept and waked up after a jerk @ JRC.. The spl was running bang on time... It just was amazing to see a Special doing such good run.. We halted @ SMBX for 30 minutes for crossing some train. We reached JAT delayed by 30 minutes and departed soon... He scenery after JAT cannot be explained... Just Amazing and beautiful it was... Every body ha their cameras/ mobiles at windows to capture these beauties of nature... We were halted somewhere for 30 minutes ...reached UHP with 1 hour of delay. The station was very clean and very calm... The views after UHP were even more scenic and beautiful. When we entered SVDK.... We got the first glimpse of Trikuta Mountains and every one shouted - " JAI MATA DI"... The station was super clean. We exited the station and was feeling Devoted.. The view of the Trek Path and the mountain was beautiful....
We booked a room in Katra and just relieved ourselves. We went to Yatra parchi counter @ 1630 hrs and then reached Banganga Check post @ 1700 hrs.. We continued for our trek and did darshans @ around 0200 hrs and came down back to Banganga next day 1100 hrs.. We booked a hotel and just slept as we were very tired.. Next day i and my Mama went in search of a Cyber cafe to book the tickets.. We found one cafe near the old bus stand and i booked the tickets in 12414 Pooja SF express
Continued