Jungle Trail
With an uncommon feel of being in someone else territory, we rode across the Gir forest. The land of great Asiatic Lion, whose foot prints extends far from the core jungle of Gir. Along the border of the Gir National Park is the ever so charming meter gauge railway, that still maintain harmony with the jungle and its habitat. Here are some pictures from the many routes, culture and people we discovered during the journey.
We begin our ride along the MG railway that borders the Gir National Park from Veraval station. As seen from the Junagadh end, the MG section is to the left side and the BG to the right. (Harish Kumar)
(Naveen)
We next rode to Talala junction which is about 20 kms north of Veraval to watch 3 trains arrive and depart in 3 different directions. At Talala, the trains to Junagarh, Dhasa, Delvada, Kodinar and Veraval converge. (Harish Kumar)
(Naveen)
(Raghu Jayaraman)
A view of Talala Station (Benher)
The second train to pull into Talala Jn. is the 52929 Veraval - Dhasa Passenger with Sabarmati YDM-4 #6247 (Harish Kumar)
Passengers from the Delvada-Veraval train change here for their further journey towards Dhasa (Raghu Jayaraman)
A young ice candy vendor (Raghu Jayaraman)
A naughty young man enjoys his ride, bit dangerously though! (Raghu Jayaraman)
A little girl guides her baby brother to walk across the railway lines, as their father hurriedly walks ahead to drop his bicycle and come back to take the kids. (Harish Kumar)
The third train pulls in. This is the 52952 Junagadh-Delvada Passenger (Raghu Jayaraman)
MG inspection trolley securely parked in the Section Engineer's office (Harish Kumar)
Talala Junction is bustling with all three trains converged (Harish Kumar)
The action side of Talala station here all three active lines are occupied with arrival and departures of train, as seen from the booking office (Harish Kumar)
The two trains all set for their further journey toward Delvada and Dhasa (Raghu Jayaraman)
The Delvada bound passenger exits Talala. Harish and Raghu took this train to Delvada (Benher)
Naveen and Ben proceeded further to Sasan Gir where the 52946 Dhasa-Veraval passenger has a scheduled crossing with the 52929 Veraval-Dhasa passenger (Benher)
The Keyman of Sasan Gir seems to be in pensive mood, as the wait continues for the passenger from Dhasa (Benher)
...which eventually shows up, with a delay of almost 30 minutes (Benher)
After a long wait, the Dhasa bound passenger leaves Sasan Gir (Benher)
The deserted Sasan Gir station. Given the frequent visits of Asiatic lions, station staff prefer to stay indoors. (Benher)
The entrance to Sasan Gir station (Naveen)
Bovines laze around grazing (Naveen)
Both Talala and Sasan Gir stations are infested with pug marks. Here is one! (Naveen)
Another view of Sasan Gir station. According to the SM, after the previous evening's departure horde of Asiatic lions descended on the platform, and left the place at the break of dawn (Benher)
While on the other side, the Delvada bound train had just reached Gir Hadmatiya. This railway line is aligned right at the edge of Gir National Park, all they way to Jamwala, from where the line takes a big right turn and heads south. Most stations here h
Recent comments
This album is a treasure. Hats off to you guys for your courage.
Posted by Abhinav Bhattacharjee on 2013 Dec 22 19:17:20 +0000