Sunday, December 28, 2008

Chasing a the first LGD WAG9 31120 part 01

After a long night it was back home from work,suddenly it struck me
,why dont i call VSP and find out some news,vsp told me bharath moro
had spotted many wag9 around aler,and they were heading to SC
including one light WAG9 31120 which was without shed markings and
panto facing Warangal end,I called Bharath and asked him and got the
same status ,i wished to rush to sanathnagar but was almost close to
my house,so went in quickly bathed and rushed out.with PVS supposed to
meet me at SC around 11.45 cancelled due to budget blues,i was so
excited that i did not even have my lunch(silly mistake),then dashed
off to SC by 12.00 PM as it would take a goods around 3 hours to cover
65km from Aler to sc.rushed to SC waitied for well over an hour but
nothing turned up,then decided to take a bus to Sanathnagar and i
overslept in the bus after the night shift and went back 5 km
again,reached SNF yard and found nothing around ,went round the whole
yard and found a GTL wdm3a set coming in a with BCNA load ,and a MLY
loco 018221 and a WAG5 and shakti pair with a coal rake to
raichur,finally went to the SM office and as i had a few contacts at
sanathnagar mentioned a few names and went into the SM office,he spoke
with the SCR control and told me that no 31 series loco or wag9 was
scheduled for that day,disappointed but not to be bowed down,i called
bharath moro who was at wardha he said he had seen the wag9 for sure
and had seen quite a few wag9's at ramagundam.

I then decided to take the Palnadu express to SC and the decide on
plan of action as i susupected there might have been a stalling after
Aler like the previous WAG9 run where it stalled at a station after
Aler called Wangapalli,the palnadu express came in with a GTL wdm2 and
nice 06XXX coaches and after buying a ticket to SC for Rs27/- only i
hopped on and got some respite from the burning heat in which i stood
for over 2 hours for the loco!!!!!!

Finally reached SC at 15.05 after leaving SNF at 14.48,saw the
bhagyanagar express bound for sirpur kagaznagar,then a idea flashed
though me, anyway i lost my sleep as well i check the line to bhongir
and maybe see if the loco is parked in some siding or stalled,there
was also a chance it might already be on the bypass line to
sanathnagar but it was a chance i was willing to take,so I quickly
rushed a got a 25/Rs ticket to ride to bhongir and we left bang on
time,we had fantastic running till bibinagar with a BZA wam4 which was
clocking 110kmph with ease,but fate didn't seem to be in my hands as
at bibinagar we had a point failure on loop line and were stuck there
for over an hour,i didn't realise that up and down traffic was blocked
else i would have taken a bus to bhongir,finally at 17.00 i was very
hungry weak and tired with no sleep,but the IRFCA Sprit in me did not
give up, so i decided to continue till bhongir at any cost,we left
bibinagar and the driver showed his frustration by whipping the wam4
to its max potential and very soon we were in bhongir after maybe one
the the best runs i saw travelling in a train with a wap7.......

When we reached bhongir, i was near the loco of our train ,and did not
realize that the wag9 was near the other end,on getting off in bhongir
i saw a BCNA parked on the line for inbound trains from SC at bhongir
,sudenly my sixth sense told me the rake might have been a staller so
he is here,else he would be on the up line to SC.Then the rajadhani to
SBC came at 90 kmph and stopped at bhongir due to the line congestion
ahead,and left after 10 min,i was tired but went to the end of the
rake and saw the wdm3d reported by bharath at KZJ,sure enough he
uttered the words WAG9 on the front,clicked a few snaps all the while
watching the signal as i was worried about satavahana tearing down on
the main line, and then after a few suprise looks by the guard i went
to the end where the traction loco was there a few pointsmen asked me
what i was doing, i told them the whole story and they were suprised
that some guy could be so crazy......and i also mentioned the RPF
friend we made in bhongir who must be well known with Praveen Kamesh
and others by now...

Finally spotted a green loco at the head of the BCNA and heard the
standard phat phat sound that the 3 phase locos make, and went ahead
to loco and sure enough 31120 onward to SC with no shed markings
,asked the assistant what happened which i would post in the second
part stay tuned same time same place........

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