IRFCA Bangalore Chapter-A Report
by Karthik M.V.
2001-10-14
I have been asked to report the meeting of *4 bangalore Irfcaites along with Mr.Apurva bahadur*. NOTE: unfortunately all the SBC fans could not make it to the meet.
IRFCAites to make the trip:
- Mr.Apurva bahadur
- Mr. Srinivas
- Mr. John Mani
- K.N.Manoj
- yours truly (Karthik.M.V)
OCTOBER 13th:
This was a round trip to Hindupur by the DMU Passenger. Hindupur is a station about 140km north of bangalore. The train took the following route SBC-Malleswaram-Yesvantapur-Lottegolahalli-Yelehanka-Thondebhavi-Gauribidanur-Hindupur.
Departure from SBC at 18:45 arrived at Hindupur at 21:45 On a personal note -- I had difficulty in finding the fans as I was seeing them for the first time.
Just before 18:45 I saw a group of guys talking about trains. This was the clue for me to make sure that they were IRFCAites. This journey had all the 5 of us in the lead loco cabin. All of us were seen asking lots of questions to the friendly supervisor on board. The supervisor obliged all of us with informative, lucid explainations. Especially Apurva did ask a lot of questions on technical aspects (electronic governors, WDGs,WDMs,WDps,etc.etc.) and did receive prompt answers!
The journey also had some of us trying our hands at honking the horn. Some of us were also calculating the speed mathematically (using the km boards and our time pieces) and verifying with the speedo meter.
At hindupur
Mr.Srinivas had brought some home made delicious sandwiches. All of us enjoyed it. we did see some locos and udyan exp there, which had some fans scampering to note down the number, shed, livery, etc.
Return Trip
Dep at 22:45, Arrival at 00:45 hrs.
Left Hindupur in rainy conditions. The rake was empty,with no scheduled stops. The return journey was exciting as it was non-stop except for three crossings with the 6340 Nagercoil-CSTM,6594 SBC-Hampi and an empty goods train. The DMU did near the 100 mark a several times.
There were less discussions amongst the fans, probably we were all tired also the loco was quite loud. It was really amazing to see the communication and co-ordination between the drivers. Manoj dis-embarked at YPR and others got down at a quiet and deserted SBC. Apurva and Srinivas left by car and yours truly and Mani left by Auto.
OCTOBER 14th:
Yours truly received a call from Mr. Srinivas to be present at the famous CSDR-bye pass control tower. At around 4pm the group arrived. Apurva was really excited. Yours truly and Srinivas explained the group about this unique system of rail lines and their destinations. Mr.Apurva did take a lot of photos. Some of them are:
- An arrakonam WAM pulling the 2007/8 at about 70km/hr.
- A 58 (BOXN) wagon goods train, double headed by 2 gooty shed WDM2s and BANKED by a KJM WDM!!!!!!
- The guntur pass. with Dynamic brakes ON.
- The 17 coach marikkupam - SBC with Dynamic brakes ON
- 3 KJM locos mued together (heading to SBC from KJM shed)
We also had Mr.Srinivas explain to us the wheel slip marks on the salem branch line. This line has a right angle curve and gradient of 8m for 400m of track.
We then moved to the serene and peaceful Chennasandra railway station. (CSDR) This is about 1 km from the tower. Apurva did take a photo of the 7086 SBC- secunderabad exp at full speed.
Now The Inevitable Part:
Yours truly had to sadly leave the company of these great fans. Mr. Apurva had to catch the 20:30Hrs Udyan exp. So we all wished each other and dispersed to carry on with our regular lives.
I hope the photos will shortly be on the web.