Konkan Trip in Pictures: The Konkan Expedition.

After having relieved some stress in my life, I thought of going to a trip, and what better place could it be in the month of August, except the mighty Konkan land. To add up to the reasons, I had to visit Gokarna for some reason, and I had chalked out a trip. Secunderabad-Bengaluru City in Rajdhani Express, Bengaluru City-Gokarna in Karwar Express, Gokarna-Madgaon in Matsyagandha Express, Madgaon-Kacheguda in Amaravathi Express slip. I had booked the tickets, thanks to my friends' IRCTC transactions.

20029 was powering my Rajdhani Express, bound for Bengaluru City. It had come with LGD WAP 7 30318, all the way from Hazrat Nizamuddin.

I woke up to a phone call and I heard a strange news, about the accident of Bengaluru City Nanded Express. I just checked with my buddies and I came to know that we were about to be rerouted via Pakala-Katpadi- Jolarpettai-Bangarpet.

No sooner did I hear the news, than our train pulled out from Dharmavaram towards Pakala.

This line is the line which recently underwent guage conversions. Although the sectional MPS of this section ranges between 60-80 with numerous permanent speed restrictions, there are not many trains in this section, which means Rajdhani had a Rajdhani-esque run amidst the Royal rocks of Rayalaseema.

Probably for the first time Rajdhani Express had travesed across Horsley Hills.

Beautiful sunrise at Rayalaseema.

These people need a special mention, because these people were working consistently so that people on board are served at least some thing. In route diverted train with on board catering, its not easy to serve 1000 people with food without food being loaded at intermediate stations.

These people managed to serve 2A passengers with breakfast and late lunch, however managed to serve either breakfast or lunch to the 3A passengers. They were kind enough to make sure requests were fulfilled immediately from passengers who had infants.

Our train, probably for the first time with an electric locomotive, enters Katpadi, around 20 minutes before 12245 Howrah-Yeswantpur Duronto was scheduled to pass by. We had a crew change, I had quickly purchased some food, just in case if I was hungry.

Duronto trailed us up to Jolarpettai Junction, where we made way for the Duronto, lead by Santragacchi WAP 4.

This reminded me about the 2013 Laila Toofan, when tracks were washed off at Costal Andhra Pradesh and 12245 was diverted via Secunderabad, when Duronto was just infront of Rajdhani up to Nagpur, and then Rajdhani overtook Duronto and they both closely followed until Bengaluru City/Yeswantpur.

History made, although for wrong reasons- Bengaluru City Rajdhani entering Yeswantpur Junction with Electric Loco for the first time in history.

Being an ardent fan of Bengaluru Rajdhani Express, I couldn't have experienced this in a better way.

After deboarding Rajdhani, I took 16523 Bengaluru City-Karwar Express, upto Gokarna.

This is early in the morning at Subrahmanya Road, where the monster in the right woke up along with me (cranked up).

We had passed Shiradi Ghats, and then we crossed the mighty Netravathi River, around Kabakaputtur.

We entered into Mangaluru Central amidst heavy rain. I had breakfast at Mangaluru Central, and trust me, you will love the wada at this station.

And no sooner our 16523 was into Konkan, we were looped into Thokur, to cross Konkan Railway giant- Matsyagandha Express, and it showed up with an offlink all the way from Ratlam.

We continued to wait, which meant Kochuveli Garib Rath was also on its way. It showed up with Ernakulam ALCo, long hood forward.

We continued our journey and I thoroughly enjoyed the run in Konkan Railway. We were halted at Manki, to cross Okha-Ernakulam Express, which went past with customary Twin ALCos from Ernakulam.

16523 dropped me at Gokarna Road with a good delay of 1 hour. I checked into hotel, which was quite cheap, and then headed for darshan.

Once I was done with Darshan, I visited the Gokarna Beach to click the sunset.

I went into the miighty Arabian sea to feel the water on my legs. I had waited almost around 1 hour to see this wonderful sunset.

The only regret I carry is I haven't seen a perfect sunset till date, where the sun dips into horizon, not into intermediate clouds.

A Shiva Lingam was put up and something was written in Telugu itself, which meant someone from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana had commissioned the statue.

After the sunset, I had a good sleep.

The next day, I went to a sight seeing place nearby for some time, and then visited this beautiful Aganashini River, to which my friend Kevin Russel Sequeira was coming over. We had confusion till we executed the plan, given that both Sharavathi River and Aganashini River were really picturesque. We stuck to Aganashini because I could reach to this place directly and easily.

As soon as I came here, I could hear a honk from the Mirjan tunnel, and to my surprise, it was this KR patrolling van.

I had walked to the bank of the river, waiting for two trains to show up. Being in constant touch with Kevin, who was onboard 16336 NCJ-GIMB Express, kept giving me live updates.

Few local people at Mirjan made me feel good, by inviting me into their home if at all I had any issue. I thanked them, and continued my wait, hoping for a unlikely Ro-Ro/Freight. Unfortunately, nothing turned up.

I did some local wandering in the village, and there were hardly any people around. Few people started their day by going on to fish, few kids went to school, everyone seemed to be in a hurry.

At one point, everything I saw was green. No matter where you see, only thing you could see is greenery.

And as soon as Kev got down at Kumta, he took a bus, and he informed me to be ready because the action for the day was about to begin.

As he said, Nagercoil-Gandhidham Express chugged past the Aganashini River with twin ALCos homed at Ernakulam.

This being first train to shoot, I had messed up with the EXIF. I made sure that I won't be messing up with the Magnum Opus of spottings of that day- Trivandrum Rajdhani.

Kev had updated me about Rajdhani passing Kumta, and I got ready. But it was very unfortunate that my lens had accummulated some fog, and I didn't knew how it happened. Luckily, it was on the external glass and my microfiber cloth made sure my camera is fit to capture the Rajdhani.

And GOC WDP3A goes past River Aganashini with the mighty Trivandrum Rajdhani Express in the tow.

And as soon as the Rajdhani passed by, Kevin walked in.

We rushed to the other side of the bridge. 

And no sooner we went to the other side of the bridge, than came the LTT-ERS Duronto Express, with an Kalyan WDM3D in the lead.

And it rushed past to Kumta, doing the LHBesque cling-clangs.

Few moments after Duronto rushed past, the third Premium Class train on trott, this time the longest running Duronto Express of Indian Railways, Ernakulam-Hazrat Nizamuddin Duronto Express blazed past with Ernakulam ALCo in the lead.

We had some leisure time, because the trains were delayed due to some reason. Almost one hour was spent without action.

We had a freight with twin WDG4s, and then 12133 The Rocket bound for Kankannady, Mangaluru.

Seen here is the Rocket bound for Mangaluru Junction.

And then went the fastest passenger of Indian Railways, the Mangaluru Central-Madgaon Passenger.

Closely trailing passenger was the Intercity Superfast between the same two destinations.

And after this, we head back to Kumta by a bus, had sumptous lunch in the bus stand cafeteria (it served delicious food), and then we head to the pleasant Kumta station.

After coming into Kumta, we had a delicious meal at Kumta Bus station, it was quite delicious, especially the rasam, which was out of world.

We reached the deserted Kumta Station, where we just experienced peace. No single train passed by, for almost 2 hours, and still we enjoyed the atmosphere.

Kevin's train to his home, 16524 Karwar-Bengaluru City Express came into Kumta, before the 22655 Trivandrum Central-Hazrat Nizamuddin Superfast, which meant we came back onto platform.

I bid Kevin good bye and we promised to meet sometime later in our lives, hoping for a better day of trainspotting.

Kevin gave me updates through phone, and he told me about the power, which was something that came to me as a surprise. Nah, I'm not talking about the WDP3A, but I'm talking about this particular WDP3A, 15519.

The home signal of Kumta was damaged, and every single train had to stop here, take the PLC (:Paper Line Clearance) from the Station Master, Kumta, and then LPs were officially asked to do the biggest crime they could commit, SPAD- Signal Passing At Danger.

By the way, being a fan of numbers, I always love the loco numbers which end with "19". 19 being my roll number since my class 1, I always had some soft corner for a loco with road number ending with "519", which was my roll number in Engineering.

15519- Check smile emotic.

I had taken the late running Matsyagandha upto Madgaon, and stayed overnight a a hotel at Madgaon.

Madgaon mornings are always beautiful, and I consider myself lucky for getting to experience one.

UBL WDP4B eclipsed KYN WDG4D, the powers of Mumbai/Dadar bound Mandovi and Janshatabdi respectively.

We departed Madgaon bang on time, and the UBL WDP4B #40016 was already into MAO yard to shunt the Mandovi Express.

Seen here is KYN WDG4D.

This happens to be my first decent capture of a WDG4D.

We had crossed KJM WDM3A powered Goa "The Super" Express at an intermediate station (it was waiting for us), and Amaravathi, the Matsyakanya, which connects Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal unflured her wings, to make us reach Qulem before time. We got bankers at Qulem, with an extended halt of 25 minutes at the same place.

Amaravathi then ascended the mighty Braganza Ghats, and everyone were glued to the doors, including me.

All my prayers came true, it was not raining when we passed Dudhsagar view point. But half of the waterfall was covered with a thick cloud, and then I didn't focus the image well.

*snap*
*failed*

Leaves Camera to rest on the strap and I thoroughly enjoyed the glimpse of the mighty Mandovi river jumping a little over 1,000 ft.

After passing Dudhsagar, I enjoyed the journey, which could be my last in this year. I kept my camera aside for sometime and thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

It was after Tornagallu, I took out the camera to shoot this brilliant scene, capturing all 58 fully loaded wagons with GY WDG4 twins- a conventional freight cannot get better.

And the WDG4 duos are ready to pull this load of BOXN wagons full of coal, most of which will be burnt and converted to electricity in coming week at the Bellary Thermal Power Station.

Slip coaches had a leisure 5 hour break at Guntakal.

This brand new unallocated WDG4 was the prime attraction of the day.

Vishnu and Kumar came to meet me at GTL. For better part of those 5 hours, many topics, all about IR, were thrown into mix.

Kumar was kind enough to take me to a nearby hotel and I had delicious set of Set Dosas too.

The last photo of the trip, clicked just before going out to eat Dosas.

Yeswantpur-Jaipur Premium Express pulls into Guntakal.