Saturday, February 01, 2003

Narrow Gauge Odyssey Central India

India is a rich and diverse country and there are several lesser known areas which makes it interesting to visit them. Traveling in Central India in the state of Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra is one such experience. I and Vaibha Sarin planned this trip for some time and we even had few companions to come with us. They were Poochi Venkat from Chennai and PVS Praveen from Hyderabad. Sarosh Mehta and Viraf Mulla were supposed to join us later in Nainpur and were coming from Mumbai. This trip was planned over phone calls and emails and we hardly knew each other well.








We are at Shikara station. Driver and conductor are having tea near by while others oggling at our clicks galore
We passing through a typical forest cover in the area
Morning sun shines on th rails. We are on our way to Gondia


Accident Relief Train Coach parked at Nainpur station. This was newly painted Controls of ZDM3 taking us from Nainpur to Nagpur. Notice the "Read minus (-) 10 KM" painted on the panel below LED display speedometer (large dial above)
One of the stations between Nainpur and Madla Fort. Here the LC is unmanned. So the gangman gets down from train and closes the gate. Then train passes through LC and stops for gangman to open the gate and get on the train. The dedication of staff is remarkable as they do it religiously without having a need for it. The area is totally open and train or vehicle can be seen from miles
The only tunnel in entire section! Its not a tunnel actually, narrower than foot-overbridge but something overhead than that. One can see the its other end.

Ghat section starting between Nainpur and Chhindwara. The terrain is totally barren but with small hills.
Semaphore in the Ghat section. Assistant is supposed to get down, press something and then proceed
The second Ghat section on Nainpur-Nagpur line after Chhindwara. The terrain here is totally different from earlier Ghat section. It is thick forest same as that between Itarsi-Nagpur BG line
The Nainpur diesel shed. The shed is relatively clean being small.
Nainpur station at early morning from foot overbridge
Train about to depart for Nainpur at Mandla Fort station. Station bulding is eclipsed by train.

A narrow gauge crossing at some unknown station between Nainpur and Chhindwara station

It was such a unique sight BG, NG together! This is Chhindwara station. The BG train is Chhindwara-Amala passenger hauled by Itarsi WDM2
More proof of barren train. Notice bullock cart in the middle.