South Konkan Outing 17th/18th April 2008.

The view inside the pier, looking vertically upward. This is a time exposure of 15 seconds - with normal eyesight you can only see the light from the opening at the top of the pier.

We climb up again. This is the western portal of the 4.1 Km long Tike Tunnel. See the tunnel at the end of viaduct the satellite map - place your mouse o

Looking towards Ratnagiri, the portal of the 1.1 Km long Banewadi tunnel. The tunnel opens onto the Pomendi viaduct and then to another tunnel whose portal can be seen from this end.

After a long wait in the hot, humid weather this pair of Erode shed WDG3A hauled BOXN rake arrived from the portals of the Tike tunnel towards Ratnagiri.

Another look at the BOXN rake from a different angle. As the wind was flowing in the other direction, we could not hear this train coming. But we did see a rapidly rising puff of smoke from the distance, where the train might have entered the Tike tunnel.

The mineral in the BOXN was about a meter deep, yet the locos had to struggle to get this rake going. What a fabulous sound this pair of locos were making.

We had a train to catch in the afternoon so we waited for one last train which was the 2051 Jan Shatabdi to Madgaon. The ED shed WDM 3D # 11106 just rocketed the tiny rake past our location. 18th April 2008.

The 2051 rake is an assortment of JS type coaches of different batches. This is the fastest train on the Konkan Railways. 18th April 2008.

The tiny 2051 rake fits on the Panval Viaduct. 18th April 2008.

Another view of the 2051 rake. 18th April 2008.

2051 rake seen from the top of the Tike tunnel. 18th April 2008.

We now move to Bhoke (code BOKE) station which is located 7 kms north of Ratnagiri. This station is near the southern portal of the longest tunnel on the IR, the 6.5 Km long Karbude tunnel. View the satellite map [url=http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=17.0518

As we arrive at Bhoke, the Ernakulam - Bhavnagar weekly express passes with Bhagat ki Kothi (BGKT) shed's WDM3A # 16276R. As with many KR stations, the platform is located lower or higher than the surrounding level. A motorized vehicle cannot go beyond th

The south portal of 6.5 Km long Karbude tunnel. This is the longest working tunnel on the Indian Railways. The tunnel has three ventilation shafts with blowers and control rooms placed equidistant at the top. The control rooms turn on the powerful blowers

The tunnel has a low maintenance ballast-less track where the rails are set in a bed of concrete. When we visited the tunnel, it resembled a workshop with sounds of grinding, welding and other shop floor activity due to maintenance work inside. The tunnel

A line phone that is provided to all the people working along the track. Sockets for this phone are available every 200 meters inside the tunnels. 18th April 2008

The line phone shown above is plugged into these stations. The blue box connects to Bhoke station while the red box connects to the Karbude tunnel control directly. This ensures that the messages are passed with the minimum delay. Bhoke station has facil

Simple implements like this trolley are used to carry maintenance material from Bhoke station to the Karbude tunnel. 18th April 2008.

After Karbude, we return to Bhoke station to catch our train, the northbound KR6 passenger.

Ernakulam's WDM 2 # 16674 hauls the southbound KR5 passenger out of the Karbude tunnel. 18th April 2008

Our train to Chiplun, the KR6 passenger arrives at Bhoke on the platform line with Ernakulam WDM 2 # 17968 while the KR 5 passenger to Sawantwadi waits on the other line. By this time, the nifty RMV has vacated the platform line and parked itself behind t

12.5 Kms north of Bhoke is the idyllic Ukshi (code UKC) station - the block sections on the KR are huge, as much as 18 Kms between station. This is the only station on the IR in which the platform passes through a tunnel! This also happens to be the only

The LED based emergency light module in the KR6 chair car. 18th April 2008.

Even after Panval and Karbude, our railfanning agenda was not done as yet. We arrived at Chiplun on the late running KR6 and rushed photograph the northbound 2431 Rajdhani - while it was on the [url=http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=17.526181&lon=73.54007

Frankly, our skewed yet determined railfanning aims do take some getting used to - specially in a small town like Chiplun. The cost of the Rickshaw hauling four railfans to the Vashisti river = Rs. 150/-, the look on the face of the Rickshaw driver when w

Our last ride of the day. The KJM WDP4 @ 20032 hauls in the 24 coach rake of the 104 Mandovi Express. Three of us from Pune took this train from Chiplun to Mangaon (from where we took a bus to Pune) while Sachin traveled to Mumbai in the same train. 18th

As the daytime Mandovi shares rakes with overnight Konkan Kanya, the seats/berths have two numbers - three numbers for the berths for the night travel while the day travel accommodates 4 seats. 18th April 2008.