A Ride from dawn to dusk

Let me present a short travel report to Salem by 2677/78.

The reason behind this journey was that i need to be in namakkal on 16th aug for a personal work ,to return bangalore on the same day and this being a pre-planned one, before 20 days itself i booked a ticket in 2677 till Salem for onward journey while for the return, it seemed to make an UR travel as 2678 went to W/L. But till the last night, i was in a confusion whether to cancel the confirmed ticket in 2677 as it will be very hard to reach city junction from my area within 6.15 considering the laziness on my part & transport facilities. At last, the final decision was made to cancel the ticket and to undergo UR travel from hosur but being a victim of murphy's laws,irctc showed the status as "Chart prepared-you can't cancel the ticket".

The next day, i left my home promptly at 5.00 in the morning but again Murphy played spoilsport in my life by sending buses only in the direction not warranted by me. Somehow with god's grace, i managed to reach hosur Railway Station by 7.00,a solid 20 minutes before the arrival of 2677. Still i was a doubting Thomas about my reserved seat as it could've been bestowed to someone else (officially!).So to be on the safer side, I took an UR S/F ticket from HSRA-SA. The crowd was normal and most of them are waiting for the SBC-SA passenger at 8.15.The station looked very clean, happy to see no glimpse of spitting, tobacco.A KJM WDG3A 13335 was lying idle in platform 3. When i checked for the running status of 2677 in my mobile, it showed the train had reached ERN at the right time.. I almost fainted on seeing this but was quickly renovated by the PA system which announced that the train is late by 15 mins(thank god.!).

A short toot was heard at 7.32 signaling the arrival of 2677 headed by ED WDM3D(couldn't note the road number as i was in a hurry)emanating a huge amount of smoke which will not be acknowledged by ecofreaks but will certainly attract a lot of ardent diesel lovers. Looks like ED 3Ds are commanding this SBC-HSRA-DPJ-SA Stretch. And to my disbelief, my reserved seat was kept pristine (A joy but at the cost of UR fare).The started turned amber exactly after 2 mins. Well seems swine flu didn't leave either with most of the people covering their face with masks.

Being a down slope and not a "chock-a-block" section especially in the day time with a 3400 hp beast at the helm, it’s quite obvious for me to expect a devastating run but rather i met with little disappointment. We maintained a speed of 50-60 kmph and crossed SA-YPR passenger just before Rayakottai. The only amusing part of this journey was the scenery depicting a typical monsoon. The ambience was so soothing with gentle breeze waving across you often. As usual UR passengers started occupying the pathway, doorway thereby creating a market atmosphere. Hungriness thumped me around 8.30 and i decided to check the pantry which is the next coach to mine. PC looked somewhat clean. Nothing was there except for the usual pazhamporis and vada. Had to contend myself with a plate of vada. And we reached DPJ at 9.05 with a delay of solid 30 mins. Departed after a brief halt of 2 mins. The patronage from Dharmapuri was neither dismal nor a Whopping one.

Now the 3D showed a part of its true colour with occasionally touching 80.We had crossing with quite a few BOXN rakes and BTPN oil container rakes.. Is this line mainly used for freight operations? But there were so many speed restrictions en route owing to some construction works. Crossed omalur jn around 10.At omalur, i saw a line steering to the right! Later came to know that it is the line to mettur dam.And finally crawled into the PF2 of steel city at 10.25.A huge crowd disembarked here. The empty rake of MS-SA express was stabled nearby.. Now i can feel a complete chage in the environment with temp., touching 38 degree.

Now its time fo my return journey, I left namakkal at 14.20 after my work was over. The bus journey to Salem was so pathetic with the fact that the PP bus in which i was onboard stopped at every nook and corner to reach Salem at 15.30 .Murphy had confirmed this too-Even a vehicle fitted with a racing engine consuming aviation fuel will tend to crawl all the way when you travel in it..

Reached junction at 3.50(Probably only in TN,you can find 2 rupees ticket ). Yuck! There was hardly 20 mins for the arrival of 2678 but i need to get a ticket before that. All the 3 counters had a long-lasting queue with the last person probably at the verge of horizon. I roughly counted the heads in each queue which summed up to 35.Entered the queue which apparently seemed to be shorter for me. But as per Murphy’s law, the queue in which you're standing will tend to move relatively slower than the other. Time was running and i became a little bit worried when the display board displayed 2678 is running on time (why the hell on earth this train is maintaining punctuality till SA and particularly on that day.!)At 16.00 there were some 15 people ahead of me when my intuition suggested me to scrap this journey, see a new flick in ARRS and make an overnight travel.But i decided to challenge the fate today. There were regular announcements regarding the arrival of 6627 west coast, 2512 raptisagar and 2676 kovai. At 4.07, 3 were ahead of me and the PA System was announcing about the coach composition and arrival of 2678.I was irked to the core when the lonely person ahead of me was searching a change of 5 rupees for a very long time. Atlast,i bought the ticket at 4.10 and rushed {with the aim of beating usain bolt’s record} to platform 2 to see ED WDM3D 11223(Most probably the same loco which powered the 2677 in the morning) pulling 2678 was slowly entering the platform. Pacified myself with a bottle of aquafina and was delighted to see a normal mass in UR compartments. But the crowd in the platform was terrific.God obliged to my prayer by diverting them to other trains. Boarded the last but one GS coach from the rear end. Parked myself comfortably in the doorway.

We left Salem at 16.13 and had a quite neat ride till Omalur. But after that the 3D struggled to power the 19 coacher in the uphill gradient (1:60.??) thereby emitting a greater amount of smoke. It almost stalled for some point of time but immediately gained some momentum. No doubt, a WDP4 will be the best candidate here. Upward slope coupled with speed restriction made us to reach DPJ at 17.30, a delay of 20 mins.. After DPJ When the terrain becomes somewhat flat,3D hit the Max. speed. This section of SA-HSRA is a visual treat with beauty of flora spreading over the entire stretch.

As we're approaching hosur, drizzles started pouring in which ultimately turned into heavy rain. As usual, raindrops started coming in thereby making the coach stinking. We were made to wait at the hosur outer for signal clearance and finally headed into the PF1 of hosur at 19.15.Again an incredible 2.30 hrs drive to reach my room in Bangalore at 21.45.! Thus my 19 hours journey from dawn to dusk ended bankrupting all my energy which i regained by dozing off for more than 10 hours.