Yeshwantpur to Thrissur: Garib Rath Express

Look weekends these days invariable mean a trip by Train. I prefer trains to beat the traffic snarls that are common in Bengaluru, plus to save on some money! The trip this time around was on a Thursday, and Garib Rath operated on this day. I booked a ticket on this train without much thoughts - bagged a lower berth as well.

February 20, 2020:
After a fairly tiring day at work, I reached home fairly late. I had hardly an hour to go, since we (my colleague was also traveling by the same train) planned to have our dinner from a restaurant nearby and then head to the station. On reaching home, I found the kitchen tap leaking, and my attempts to secure it ended up breaking the tap itself! Water gushed in to the kitchen (and the kitchen sink, of course) - after some jugaad I managed to contain the water flow, and restrict it to only the kitchen sink. The landlord came in a little later, and the two of did some more jugaad to bring the leak down to the minimum, while he arranged to replace the tap.

After this herculean work, the two of us, rushed out of my place, heading to Chikkabanavara Railway station, about 500mts away from my place. There was a train from there a while later, which would directly drop us at Yeshwantpur station. We managed to get the train quite easily - and got to Yeshwantpur by around 2020hrs. The rake of our train was already berthed on Platform 1. The rear EOG was on, and was growling. The rake of Garib Rath has about 16 Three-tier AC Sleeper coach and two generators. I was in G12, which was towards the rear end of the rake - I was quite happy, since this coach would be quite close to the exit at Thrissur. I headed straight towards the front end, to see what loco would power my train that night.
The Garib Rath Express berthed at Yeshwantpur

The locomotive wasn't brought in yet. I wanted there until 2045hrs to see if the loco would come in - a few WDP4D of Krishnarajapuram shed were spotted roaming around - perhaps once of those took charge of my train. On my way back to my coach - a 12 coach long walk - I picked up my dinner and a bottle of water from a stall on the platform. I headed to my seat after picking up my food. Two other passengers, having seats in the same cubicle, were already there and having their dinner. I had my dinner after they vacated my seat. The train started of from Yeshwantpur at 2105hrs - 5 minutes behind schedule.

The dinner, what the railways call 'Vegetable biryani' was basically a flavoured rice (mostly felt like a tomato gravy) with some steamed vegetables (Green Beans and Carrot) used as garnish. The pickle given along was a saving grace since it add some salt and sourness to the entire dish. It was fairly oily as well. I managed to gulp down the dish and washed it down with some water. In the meantime, we were busy crawling towards Banaswadi. I was quite tired, and I had my berth ready as the train was crawling through Hebbal. I had pre-booked my bedroll, which I had also collected from the bedroll staff (Since bed rolls are optional in Garib Rath Expresses, they do not leave bedrolls on the berth. They need to be collected from the bedroll staff in the coach).
The dinner - notice the steamed Beans and Carrot for garnish

I had already hit the bed by the time the train rolled in to Banaswadi (2136hrs). Most passengers got in from this station - including the other occupants in my cubicle. We got moving from there by 2139hrs. I slept off in no time after we started from Banaswadi. I woke up a little later as the train was starting off from Hosur station (2224hrs). I had some quality sleep after Hosur - the coach was quite cold, and woke up a few time as my feet got cold. I remember seeing the train leave Palakkad - 0515hrs. I tried sleeping after this - it was really cold inside the coach. I did manage to sleep a little. I had left an alarm for 0615hrs - when went off right as expected, and I had dozed off at this point. I think I woke up quite some people - sorry guys, if anyone is reading this! We were quite close to Thrissur already - I saw the train pass Punkunnam by now. The door was already crowded with people queuing up to get off the train. We rolled in to Thrissur by 0627hrs - 6 minutes behind schedule.

Journey in a Nutshell:
Train Number: 12257 Yesvantpur - Kochuveli Garib Rath Express
Loco link: An unknown WDP4D!
Coach: G12, WCCNH1 #08129 built by Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala. Based at Yesvantpur.

Ratings:
Punctuality: 10/10 (Negligible delay)
Cleanliness: 10/10 (Absolutely clean)
Bedroll: 10/10 (Very clean, and smelled really fresh)
Catering: 5/10 (Food served by Base Kitchen)

Overall: 9/10 (I did not consider the rating for food)

Comments

rahulvijayev said…
Travelled in 16511/12 few times in 2AC and the quality of bedroll was really good too. Maybe a common trait in SWR trains.