Tunnel Vision !

What better way to start our day of railfanning that get a darshan of a diesel ! Kalyan shed WDG 3A # 14981 arrives with a loaded BTPN rake out of Tunnel 25C. The extreme gradient after the Khandala platform 1 is clearly visible in the picture. The rake i

Peaking the ascent of the Bhore ghats, a BTPN rake is flagged through the Khandala Platform 1 by the morning shift station master. 2007_02_03.

This is the Khandala end portal of the first Tunnel in our challenge – the venerated # 26. The tunnel is 900 meters long and carries the Up line (used only for descending traffic) and the Bi-directional Mid line. The line we are standing on is the Up li

Interior of the tunnel 26 – this has been shown as Tunnel 1 in this map from 1926. This tunnel is lined on the side and on the roof with masonry – even the many refuge points (like the one seen in ...

The interiors of all the tunnels are marked with regular number markers. This is inside the tunnel 26 – the larger “10” is in stone from the GIPR days, while the modern version is the angled plate with reflective text that universally found in all t

Golden dawn at the Tata bridge end of the Tunnel 26 – a set of triple WCG 2 bankers hurtle downhill on the Up line, along with the customary janata hanging on the buffer beam. The mid line is being kept free from traffic for the crack Deccan Queen that

We cross the 356 meter long Tunnel 25. We find these curious concrete pillars around the Tata bridge side portal – any idea about the purpose of these structures? There is this size and a larger square profiled version buried into the rock face in the p

As we walk towards away from the Tunnel 25, a flock of triple WCG 2 bankers use the mid line to cross the Tata Bridge.

Another view of the triple WCG2s taking the curve at the Tata Bridge.

Ashish walks towards the portals of Tunnels 24 and 24C. The Pune-Mumbai expressway crosses over the tunnels, while the road on the elevated section is the NH4. The tunnel 24 was made in 1929 but the tunnel 24C was completed only in 1982. Although these tu

We missed many train shots because we were inside the tunnels, so we decided to wait for the 2126 Up Pragati Express to arrive through the 100 meter long tunnel 24. We did not have to wait for long.

We walk till the Up and Mid line distant signals for Monkey Hill which is about 1.2 Km distant. The 1024 Up Sahyadri Express goes past towards Mumbai on the Up line.

At this point, we complete half our trek and turn back. We now take the tunnels 24C and 25C to reach Khandala. This is the Monkey Hill side portal of the 350 meter long tunnel 24C. This unidirectional tunnel has the single line and is used only by the dow

The portal of the last tunnel, the 2156 meter long 25C – this was the longest tunnel on the IR before the KR tunnels were dug. Like the 24C, this tunnel too was started in 1982.

Inside the 25C tunnel – I place the camera on one rail and try to capture the enormous length of this cavern. The interior of the tunnel is very quiet, except some stray “50 Hz” hum from a lamp ballast – regularly, one hears sounds of large object

Surprise - We find one more ventilation shaft in the 25C tunnel ! This one is much smaller than the famous hole (that is located quite some distance uphill towards Khandala), not more than 2 meters across. From within the tunnel, one could see vegetation

In yet another rail top shot, Ashish stands in the light patch from the newly discovered vent hole in the 25C. He tries (unsuccessfully) to get a GPS fix through the hole to log the coordinates that would prove useful during the next Tunnel top trip. In t

Here is a view of the Jet Fan inside the 25C tunnel – actually we were standing below one while the 1007 Down Deccan Express came by. Our experience – the pin drop silence, the sudden gust of air rapidly exploding into a whirlwind, the thunder of the

Two transformers are located inside the 25C tunnel in caged refuges to power the jet fans and perhaps the lighting systems. The warning plate was originally meant for 22000 Volts, but one of the zeros has been scrapped off in both the English and Devnagar

The 25C tunnel Jet Fans are provided with Larsen & Toubro Soft Starter units model PM 12 to ensure that the motor starts gently while accelerating the rotor. The lamps on the panels were not lit, making us suspect that the Jet Fan system was not work

A retro-reflective Infra Red sensor on the tunnel wall is used to detect something – our local instrumentation expert opined that such a sensor cannot detect smoke level accurately, in any case the performance would degrade as soon as dust would accumul

A view of yet another type of retro-reflective Infra Red sensor in the tunnel 25C– a bulkier version many times the size of the first unit – this one was complemented on the other side of the tunnel wall by a equally huge reflector. The yellow spot is

The huge reflector, almost 300 mm square in size located on the opposite wall of the tunnel 25C from the bulky IR sensor.

The light patch from the famous vent shaft in the tunnel 25C – I stand on the Khandala side of the whole while Ashish walks with his lit torch making a yellow orb on the ground.

One thing this fella always does is to take notes – here is Ashish doing his obsessive compulsive activity below the second vent of the tunnel 25C. His torch is still lit, but in his pocket – how else would he wield the pen ?

There is enough light in the tunnel at this point to permit reasonable hand held shots – here is the massive vent shaft in the tunnel 25C. There was considerable

Out of the tunnel 25C – rushing to meet the 1130 hrs arrival of the 1029 down Koyna Express that would take us to Pune.