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)
(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)