The inspection special with a WDP4....

The day was quite normal in the morning...I reached Kurla at 0735. Unusually there were manual announcements at the station regarding arrival of trains on various platforms. Suddenly, WCG2 # 20159 rushed through with the Pune bound Deccan Express...My train - 0741 Asangaon - pulled in right behind the Deccan Express at around 0738 or so. The train turned out to be a 12-coach rake instead of the normal 9-cars! There were announcements that a Mumbai CST bound local (Scheduled to arrive at 0658) had reached Kanjurmarg! The train pulled out sharp at 0741. It was all normal upto Vidyavihar. The train slowed down heavily at Vidyavihar. I spotted a WCG2 hauled Freighter train on the UP line.
Then came a rude shock - Our train slowly changed tracks and entered the slow corridor! The train ran normal upto Ghatkopar. Near Ghatkopar, we crossed the Mumbai bound Devgiri express (loco: Pune WDM3A). I spotted the 23-Coach Kushinagar express waiting outside Ghatkopar station as we slowly pulled out. The journey was all normal upto Bhandup outer signal! This is where all the misery began! A Slow EMU was running one block ahead of us! We were literally trailing that train, and as a consequence my train stopped at the outer signal at each station! Once the EMU ahead clears the Advanced starter of the station, we move ahead, pick up enough speed and coast through the platform. The once again stop at the advanced starter. At Mulund outer, a Fast train scheduled to run behind us over took us! We crossed the Kanpur-LTT Udyognagari express somewhere near Mulund/Bhandup. Finally we pulled into Thane at 0815, delayed by over 17 minutes! The Madgaon bound Mandovi Express was seen moving out of the station from Platform 7.
From my friends, I came to know that Slow trains on both directions were late, and there were plenty of cancellations on the Down line!
The evening was no better! I took the 1637 Fast from Thane. I spotted KR3 Ratnagiri passenger pulling out of the station while entering Thane. The EMU departed from TNA on time. The journey was all normal upto Vikhroli. (This EMU stops at Vikhroli, but skips Ghatkopar). After Vikhroli we moved on to the slow UP line! We crossed the Pune bound Pragati Express at Ghatkopar outer. There seemed to be no problems on the main line, but the reason why our train was send to the slow line baffled me all the way to Kurla. We reached Kurla at 1700. Just as I prepared to get out of the train, a WDP4 rushed towards CSTM. The load: about 7 Inspection cars, one pantry. I also saw a "GM's Saloon" in the rake! God knows which section was inspected now!
I rushed over to Platform 7, and the first sight that I saw was WDM3A #18764R of Pune rushing through Platform 5 with the 12-Coach rake of Mumbai-Nanded Nandigram express. I took the 1704 Belapur EMU! Bye for the day!!!

Comments

Binai K Sankar said…
Update: The reason why the 0741 Asangaon Fast EMU was diverted to the slow line at Vidyavihar:: There was a signal failure near Mulund on Down Fast line. Due to this the fast trains on the section were diverted to the slow line, and this caused late running of UP trains, and cancellations of DN trains. The fault was rectified at around 0750, and this is the reason why the Ambernath local trailing my train worked on the fast line itself...