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.

Delhi Metro - Inaugural Day (25-Dec-2002)

Dear Friends,

Today is one of the most memorable day of my life as I have just come after experiencing the Delhi Metro. It may also be one big day for Delhi and may be for many more cities in India. I feel rejuvenated and there is a feeling of achievement for me as a citizen of Delhi and India though I may not have contributed anything. Who says big projects can't be executed in India? I hope this project becomes a model for every other infrastructure project in India. Amen! So now onto the reality. Yesterday in the office I saw all the newspaper splattered with Metro advertisements though I don't know about electronic media as I have not seen television for one last three days. Earlier I had thought that I will go in the afternoon to catch the action but changed my mind to catch the very first train. The way it is said in Bollywood lingo "First Day First Show". So I slept yesterday with alarm set at 4:00 AM. From day before yesterday cold wave and rain has swept the whole Delhi and adjoining area. I thought getting out of quilts at such an hour will be difficult for most people so it would be cakewalk at metro but I was going to be proved wrong. I got up at 4:30 AM, left home at 5:00 AM. It was pitch dark, fog and very cold throughout the 18km drive to Shahadara from Noida. I reached Shahadara station at 5:35AM. In between I gave lift to a "Metro Sahayak(Helper)" who had his duty at Welcome station next to Shahadara. Shahadara station has elaborate parking, square shaped compounds, one for each type of vehicle. When I reached there, 50 people were already there, though station was closed. It has normal shop like shutters to close the entrance. Slowly the number grew as people dropped in. Everybody was talking about how far they have come like me to experience the metro. Few DMRC employees came and went inside through quarter open shutter and some passengers also stormed the station. Zee news camera and some reporters also came. AajTak was conspicuous by its absence. Shutter was finally open at 5:45AM and lo, people ran to queue up at the counters. They were on both sides 8 on each side though only three on one side and one on other side opened. The personnel at the counters were sleek handsome young men, wearing brownish-cream suit and smile on their face. After this here was the low point of whole experience. Though there was a queue, some uncooperative elements mobbed the counters to get the tickets first. There were some shouting among people. Few women came and made a "Ladies line" like many places in India. Though there was some information about tickets on station walls but none was depicting the entire process of traveling either using tokens or smart cards. Each person was taking some time which is acceptable as this was the first time. My turn came and I bought smart card of 100 Rs. denomination, valid for one year, for which I had to pay 200 Rs., 100 more for security which can be refunded. The tourist travel card, which is valid for one day, somebody said is only for tourist like foreigners. By the time I got the card, first train had left around 6:10 AM. Sigh!!! Now station was bustling, just like any suburban station in Mumbai. There were many DMRC people on duty who were manning the Fare machines at entry-exit meticulously helping each passenger. Many security personnel were there from Group4, Delhi Police and Metro's own. Most of the people there seemed to be from middle class who had very little chance to hi-tech equipments like ATM, credit cards, computers or security access system. This was evident through their body language, over enthusiasm or trouble with fare machines. Somebody would over-step or start walking before machines resets. The station walls had very few informative boards as compared to wall area. The ticket counters and other empty space was at ground level whereas platforms were elevated, some two building floors up. So finally, I also went inside showing my card to the machine. There was a Dong! There were stairs as well as escalators, which were working. I went to platform number, 1 or 2 I don't remember. Platform was already full of people, some 500 to 1000. There was even a Santa Claus to cheer up the metro passengers on Christmas. Equivalent number of people must have left in the first train. There is no place to sit anywhere in the whole station which is true for all other stations signifying the fast paced metro culture. There are yellow lines across all the platforms in all stations for people to stand behind them lest they collide with train. Finally, the train started shunting. Wow, what a beauty, its two orange lights glowing, LED display showing 001 and its horn so loud and sharp.
As it made its way into the platform, people started shouting slogans, "Bharat Mata ki Jai!". Then some people started "Jai shree Ram"! God..., this saffronisation will never be away. I thought somebody would "DMRC ki Jai!" or "Engineers ki Jai" but none did. It was clicks galore at platform as many people took photographs. I also clicked away in this free for all frenzy. As soon as the doors opened there was huge uproar and clapping. People jumped and ran like some dog is behind them, to find to their surprise that whole train is connected, one big tube in which you could drift anywhere. I also boarded from one of the doors. After a minute or two, doors closed automatically and we left again with huge uproar inside. Then I started inspecting the train from inside.
It was spacious and well-lit by white light. All the holding bars vertical or horizontal were stainless steel, infact seats are also of stainless steel but color is light silvery grey. The walls were off-white with huge windows. There was a running, multi-colored LED display which showed information both in Hindi and English like "Delhi Metro Welcomes You", "Next station is so and so" etc. There were frequent announcement about keeping away from doors, next station is this and doors will open on this side. There was a map of metro including unfinished corridor above the door, just like locals in Mumbai, though neat and bigger. The floor was non-slippery, black in color. The overhead handles were flexible, attached to the bar using a spring, red in color. The warning signs were in green. There was a plate about manufacturer, "Rotem and Mitsubishi", in every coach.
Each coach had a number which was displayed inside. It might be used when some passengers complains about any problem in his coach, he can talk to driver and tell him his coach number. Example coach number is M108. About dynamics of train. The acceleration is good , though you may need to hold on if you are not attentive. There are no joints in rails so you never hear any "clickety-clat". The train speed after RDSO tests has been clipped to max of 50 kmph. Stopping is also smooth, far from normal IR trains. The doors opened in two jerks, first jerk would like releasing the tension and second like pulling it apart. The level of coach floor is same as that of platform and distance between coach and platform is very less even for a foot to go in. Don't know for other stations. The vestibule in coaches is as wide as the coach. There is a floating platform placed on top the joint which is easy to step on and travel. The tacks on surface corridor are similar to normal IR tracks except that they are mush cleaner. On the elevated corridor, the tracks are joint to the concrete hollow bed i.e. there is a ground level of concrete structure over which two vertical, 2 feet or so slabs slightly wider that rails, on top of which the rails are joint. There is no ballast on elevated corridor. The place where surface and elevated corridor meets will be interesting to see. The whole metro tracks are fenced with concrete slabs up to 10 feet high with barbed circular wire on top of it, so any trespassing by any element is ruled out. At some places on surface corridor, the embankment is too high, still, fence has been kept at the ground level, i.e. the fence will not obstruct view of train from a distance. The normal IR line to Saharanpur via Shahdara is parallel to metro. Sometimes they come as close as 20 meters. The overhead structures like masts, catenary and turnouts are identical to normal IR structures. At one point when IR and metro tracks were close by and I at a distance could not make out which mast belong to which track. Only with closer observation could I make out. Though there must be some difference but would require closer inspection. The atmosphere inside the train was electric. Everybody was going here and there, sitting, standing, changing seats, leaning against bars and doing what not. There were and 2-3 camera crew. Young boys were asking them to take their video and they were obliging. Somebody had brought sweets too. The kids and aunties having time of their life, always used to congested buses and trains. At each station large crowd was gathered to cheer each train. People were waving both inside and outside the train to each other. Due to dark and dense fog at certain places, much could not be seen outside the train. Finally in ~15 min we reached the Tis Hazari station. There was a "mela" sort of atmosphere there. Huge crowd. I got down from train, took stair and came down to level of ticket counters which is still elevated for this station. I stayed there for few minutes watching the scene. The people with tokens at the exit were asked to submit the tokens. Though they are supposed to be collected in machines, but because of huge crowd, tokens were also being collected in "buckets"! There are two ramps on Tis Hazari court side from this station. One goes bang inside the court premises and other ends just in front of a stinking garbage bin cum open urinal near to St. Stephen's hospital. Aaaargh! MCD doesn't even have a sense of shame to cleanup the mess just outside the station. Still sun had not risen and fog was there. Visibility was there but due to rains last day, whole atmosphere was damp. I took a stroll and came to a Tea Shop which was just beside the road below elevated metro structure. I could see the corridor taking curve towards ISBT. I decided to stay there and click any incoming train. But it took one hour(!) before the next train arrived. I was just standing there hoping that it will be there any moment. Atlast it came, clicked and away it went into the station. So now I decided to go back to Shahadara. I went up to station. The Group4 security person stopped me for bag checking which surprised me as today seemed to be free for all day. Then he found camera inside and said it is not allowed. I said, I won't be clicking inside to which he said, let me check and asked me to wait. I waited there as I was not at all worried as this cannot be enforced. You can not photograph, nor can you eat inside, that does not mean we can't carry any photography equipment or any eatable! He asked his senior who said no problem. So I went upstairs, again huge rush at Fare machines. There were few foreigners visible who were watching this operation. I think BBC correspondent was also there. Anyways. So I went ahead in one machine and lo, the machine refused to accept the card. The metro Sahayak also tried many times but no success. Then he gave it to his colleague on other side for "exit". Now "exit" means that when you get off at any station, you must sense your card to the Fare machine, so that appropriate fare is deducted from the balance. He also tried to "exit" but nothing happened. So I became a unique case of a person having a card but card is not working. Now ten metro people were suggesting different things which I don't remember. One of them took me to a special counter. I told the person that I have come from Shahadara 1.5 hours ago and now this is not working. He told me that there is a time limit before which you must "exit" your card otherwise, it becomes defunct and you need to specially reactivate again paying some penalty. Here I would like to point out that though there were so many ads in print and TV (I can't say definitely) but none of them explained how to undertake whole journey. If DMRC could present a graphical/animated sequence in media then it would have been helpful. This procedure was not depicted even in stations. May be this is not required as people get used to the procedure, everything will be alright. The fellow then reactivated my card without penalty and now the machine accepted my card. I went to platform, again huge crowd, whole families with Grandfather/mother, kids, infants and all. Whole family traveling to experience the metro. I must say, DMRC's revenue has started on an auspicious value! A train came from Shahadara side, people disembarked, it just went 50-100 m ahead and crossed over to down line towards Shahadara and reversed, so simple! This time also journey was smooth. Though at Kashmere Gate there was a pungent smell which other people also felt and concluded to be from brakes. I didn't have any idea of metro rolling stock technology so I did not comment. Again in 15 min we reached Shahadara. This time I went and "exit"ed my card. The frequency seemed to had risen by 8:30AM as we crossed two trains in Tis hazari direction. Then I came out of Shahadara station, saw a board for restaurant, went there but guard said, it is not open, somebody said it is not even ready. Same with toilet outside station premise, sever pipe line has still not been laid. Clicked an incoming train entering Shahdara station.
Now I had to decide what to do next. I had earlier decided that I will go to each station en route but that would have taken a lot of time so decided not to. Then I thought of going back to Tis hazari on my scooter to see how long does it take to cover distance equivalent to metro distance. It took me only 15 minutes to reach Tis hazari as this being a holiday, so less traffic, less jams. Though road is certainly very bad. Otherwise it takes 30+ minutes to go by own vehicle and 45 by bus. So I covered the distance watching 2-3 metro trains and all its station buildings.At Tis Hazari, I again thought of atleast going to Kashmere Gate station and check out ISBT. Metro goes right through the ISBT premises. This time I boarded without any hiccups and got down at Kashmere Gate. Went down the stairs and one of the exit takes you to the mouth of ISBT's formal entrance. I came out of ISBT and climbed a flyover parallel to metro elevated structure about of same height. Here I clicked few pics, though because of haze and wrong direction of sun the photos are not supposed to come out good.Then I came back to Tis Hazari and decided to go back to Noida. The parkings at all metro stations is spacious as long as non-passengers don't start parking their vehicles which I think is wishful thinking. Such safe, clean parking for free is a free hotcake. While I was riding back to my office in Noida to report my experience I clicked few pics. Infact I stopped at Shastri Park station which is in the middle of huge empty space.
The land around the station I think has been acquired by DMRC but nothing has come up there. The station is a bit far from the main road but ample amount of parking space. From this station, the Rail-Road bridge over Yamuna was also visible. Two-three trains passed over it which I clicked but too far to identify the trains. The station building was under finishing stage. Though I did not go inside. Here while going back one person asked me for a lift. He was a untidy guy complaining about how far the premises is from main road. He had also traveled in metro but said he did not like it even a bit. When I asked he could not give any plausible reason. I dropped him and went on my way. In between I clicked two more pics, one of train and other of Welcome station. Then I had to take a turn towards Noida and bid goodbye to metro. I have the travel card left with 82 Rs. left. I may use it over an year but refunding it, no way! I am going to keep the card with me forever as a souvenir.Thanks for reading till here and hope you liked it :-) The pics, there may not be any dearth of them on the net but will try to post as soon as I am able to scan them. You know I have cut short my camera roll and developed and printed the photographs. They were in my hands today 1:30PM! regards, Roopesh

Bhopal Railfanning Trip

Hi All!

This report is about the trip which I and Vaibhav Sarin made on the weekend of 28th July. The prime motive of the trip was to travel in one of the Shatabdis as I haven't been on any one of them and experience sustained high speed. So initially we thought of going to Gwalior which was not very far yet could give good experience of Shatabdi. But later on I proposed to go to Bhopal to which Vaibhav agreed readily. So we did reservation for Bhopal by Shatabdi(2002) Chair car for 28th July and return by Bhopal Express(2155) 3A on 29th July. We were looking for a branch line travel in Bhopal other than mainline Delhi-Chennai. Only other line that goes from Bhopal is towards Indore which comes under Western railway to our surprise. On morning of 28th 5.30 am we were on pf no. 1 of NDLS. The rake was already put in place when I came. The first generator was of Rajdhani and making loud noise. Loco was WAP-5 30000. We then came back and settled in our seats. The coach was dull. Color was pink tinge in coffee color. The lights were not bright enough. Outside rain made the interior very damp. Our seats were the last in coach 67,68 near the door. Other coaches were better with good lighting, wall paintings and color. The number of foreign tourists seemed to outnumber the number of local travelers in train. The windows were having double glass with white moth balls inside them which looked odd. Train
started slow and stopped just outside the pf. The Bareilly Shatabdi also took off with us and ran
parallel for some time. Again on Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM) we stopped for 2 minutes. The run was slow till Tughlakabad (TKD), then it suddenly gained speed. We passed Faridabad (FBD) at good speed (100+). We chatted for some time with catering staff. He told us that though train belongs to NR but everything is looked after by CR people, even the drivers are from CR. He did justify by saying that it runs mostly in CR territory. The run mostly was good around 100 but it did not excite me as I used to dream that it will run at sustained speed of 120. Why shouldn't I be as till some time ago it was the fastest train on IR! It hardly touched 120, I am not sure. We were delighted to see 2952(Mumbai Raj) on its way to NDLS just outside Mathura on Mumbai tracks. We reached Agra, 30 minutes late. That was a disappointment as I thought that if it reaches Agra at 7.55 am, average of 100, then it must run sustainably at 100+ for it to makeup slow run till Faridabad and slow runs due to other reasons. Vaibhav was totally unexcited as he told me that he has seen higher speeds in Howrah Raj which has reportedly been cleared for
140. We reached Gwalior 29 minutes late. Most of the foreign tourists alighted at Agra and Gwalior. Now strength in the train was very meager. We went through whole train. Coaches were empty. The passengers too were mostly sleeping. The low occupancy plus most of the passengers sleeping made the atmosphere dull. Bhopal Shatabdi seemed to have very low patronage. We sat on different seats of different coaches. The executive class too was empty. It hardly had 10-12 passengers when we saw it. We went to attendant with cassette of "Lagaan" to play it. The speakers of our coaches were poor. Very little sound was coming overwhelmed by clickety-clat and rumblings of train. We could hardly enjoy the music. Though it was better
in other coaches. We reached Jhansi (JHS) 20 minutes late.There we were surprised to see Hazrat Nizamuddi-Trivandrum Raj. We could not see any reason except that there maybe some problem in Konkan railway. We bought CR timetable at Jhansi. At Jhansi lunch was loaded.
Vaibhav was delighted to know that lunch will be served. The Jhansi to Bhopal run was good with average mostly above 90. Train did not stop anywhere in between. At one time it looked as if train is going to reach before time. But it reached on time 14.10. The rake is cleaned at the platform itself for return journey which is at 14.50. That is why in the announcements the announcer urged passengers to carry mineral water bottle with them so that they save on time to clean. Very few passengers alighted from train. At Bhopal train was virtually empty. I think
catering staff were more in number than the actual passengers. The rake was quite old and return of coach in which we travelled was due in coming October. Overall satisfactory journey but no feeling of high speed and glamor of Shatabdi. One thing is that I have traveled to Bhopal many times while going to other places but this was effortless travel and never felt like I am 705 kms away from home when alighted.

Same day we went to Habibganj station to find out about Indore line trains and trainspotting. The station is very neat and clean with 3 pfs. 3-4 trains originate and only 5-6 trains stop there. The tracks adjacent to were so clean like we had never seen. Photographed station from over bridge and NDLS bound Dakshin Exp. Next day at 5.30 am we were at Bhopal Jn. to catch
8234 Narmada Exp to Ujjain. It was already there. We sat in the SLR coach next to loco WDM2. It was 19 coach all maroon. It left 10 minutes late at 6.00 am. It is passenger from Bhopal till Indore though from Bilaspur it is exp till Bhopal. So it stopped at all the stations except one station "Panchwan" if I remember correctly. There are a LOT of stations in between. A station used to come at every two minutes. But still train ran on time and stopped for hardly a
minute at most stations. Bhopal till Ujjain is electrified but double only in few sections. The route
was very beautiful. Green and green and green but not dense forest like. Also not much human population to be seen. Traffic on route also seem to be very less with only one passenger and 2-3 freights crossed us in opposite direction and none crossed us in our direction. Journey was therefore uneventful but we still enjoyed. We reached Ujjain at 11.00 am. We roamed a bit at Ujjain station. Vaibhav was delighted to see MG train. Pf 3 was for MG and a train to Mahu
was ready to leave. We shot 2-3 photos with one that of new WAP4 of BRC with new livery of small yellow band and grey bottom.

After sighseeing again came back to station at 14.00 to catch Malwa 9367 scheduled to depart at
14.50. It came at 1520 but the announcement of it coming started at 14.45 itself. We were quite
frustrated with this wrong announcements as we were to catch train to Nizamuddin at 2115 too from Habibganj. There was quite a rush in general coaches but we did manage to sit. There was a passenger train to Ratlam at pf 2. It came from Bina hauled by WDM but without taking
away its loco a spank new BRC WAP4 was attached in front of that 6-coach rake and departed in fromt of us. What a waste of power! Territory is that of WR. From Indore Malwa came hauled by WDM Ratlam but at Ujjain WAM4 was attached. Train reversed direction. This time we were at the last coach. It was 19 coach rake. It ran at good speed till may be 95 as I clocked it whenever it ran at good speed. It stopped only at few stations like Maksi etc.(forgot others). We sat on
the door alternately for most of the journey. Felt really good sitting there and whole long train
negotiating a curve. Satisfying moments. We reached Bhopal 1900 pm 15 minutes late but train covered up 15 minutes. Our faith in IR rose. Vaibhav fell on platform while alighting but is was not serious. He was alighting wrong way opposite to train movement.

We collected our stuff from our staying place after having dinner. We were again at Habibganj at 2100 to catch Hbb-HZN exp 2155. There was peace at platform, no hawkers,no beggars and no hustle bustle. We were in 3A. Both the rakes of this train are new. This one was definitely. I have never such neat and clean coach even in Raj. Toilet was clean. Washbasin area was good and a door mat kind of carpet provided near toilets. A mug was provided in toilet below the tap. Bed roll was spotless. Everything was good. At Bhopal we ran to see the loco. It was WAP-4 most probably Jhansi. We had to rush back as it stops only for 8 minutes there. As we were quite tired after to and from journey to Ujjain we slept immediately after train left Bhopal. This was for the first time that I slept so long at stretch in train and never got down before destination station if
I ignore Bhopal. I slept at about 2200 some distance after Bhopal and woke up only at Kosi Kalan at 0650 or so. Almost 9 hours. It made unscheduled stop at Ballabhgarh where Vaibhav alighted. It reached right time at 0755 at HZN. Comfortable journey.

Overall we travelled 705(NDLS-BPL)+184(BPL-Ujjain)+184(Ujjain-BPL)+ 701(Habibganj-HZN) = 1774 kms costing 850+26+52+676 = 1604 Rs. in four different trains all of which were new to us. From the luxury of Shatabdi to drudgery of Narmada and Malwa to 3A comfort of Bhopal Exp. Vaibhav had made AC coach travel debut in non-Raj train.

Rewari Trip

This is about my trip to Rewari on Meter Gauge (MG). Few days ago there was a trip report to Jaipur where I realized that there is a MG track in Delhi too. Actually I never gave it a thought. I used to live near Delhi Cantt railway station some 12-13 yrs. back and our house was near the track. I had never traveled on this route. So on reading this mail, I made up my mind to do this "railfanning" trip. Firstly I decided to go up to Alwar and come back. I researched TAAG (Trains at a glance) which did not give information whether the train is an MG or BG. I also visited www.inidanrail.gov.in and found out the timings, though it also did not give info whether the train is MG or BG. So I decided to go station and find out there. So, on Saturday(03-02-2001) I reached Delhi Cantt station at 12.45 (I had to go to office in the morning for some work). There I saw the time table and enquired about train to Alwar. I was told that there is no train before Ashram Express at 3.05pm which was quite late. Then I thought to cut short my trip to Rewari for which a weekly train runs on Saturdays only at 1.50pm. So I bought ticket for Rewari which was just 15 Rs. and confirmed that it is on MG.

Delhi Cantt. station is a small one with platform no. 1&2 for MG and 3&4 for BG. Between 1&2 were 2 other MG tracks. And no overhead wires made the station so open. I tried to look for Palace on wheels rake, but it was not there. Two Fairy queen coaches were there, with Fariy Queen engine locked inside a compound. With bright sun, no activity and cold atmosphere made it perfect and I enjoyed standing on station. Then I saw Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Udaipur Chetak exp from Udaipur. It was hauled by YDM4 and was 15 coach train with two AC coaches. I wondered how the AC coaches, which are smaller than BG coaches, look from inside. It came on platform 2 and departed after 2 minutes. I took a quick lunch near station and came back on platform and waited for train to arrive. The crowd increased every minute. I was little bit worried how are so many people going to come into the train. Then I thought may be they were waiting for other
trains. Mostly the passengers were daily passengers or milk vendors with their milk cotainers. All the crowd looked rural. People were standing both side of the track i.e. on platform and on the ground to embark on train from both sides.

Train arrived I don't know at what time as this was one of the few days when I forgot to tie my watch so I don't remember any timings. People tried to get into it haphazardly. I was also standing on the ground on other side of track. I had already decided to doorplate, so I did not try to get into the train. Milk containers were clunged to window bars. I also got into one of the coaches standing at the door. Train started moving. It was crowded but not packed. It went upto 60kmph and after few minutes came Palam station whose view I could see from distance as train
curved into it. It was so crowded that I thought, are they all going to borad this train? I have seen this station many times but only deserted. Soon Palam station came but nobody get off, only to embark. I got down to let people get in. The train now was packed. Then I saw few people going on roof from the space between coaches. Trains hardly stopped for one minute. The coach in which I was travelling was so packed, people leaning out of the door that I had to find a
different coach. I could get hold to one of the door bars and space to keep my foot. Train started, I was completely out of door, holding on to bar and door. 2-3 other people were like that. Same condition of other coaches. People were leaning out with their bags on their shoulders, completely out of train. When train attained some speed I was a bit scared that I should not fall off or bang on some pole of tree branch as I have not travelled like this anytime, but nothing happened. There were few people more out of the coach than me. It was so amusing, people were carrying wooden table and chair and other heavy luggage with them in such a crowded train. The cool breeze and scene of "yellow mustard fields" made me a bit happy. I decided that I will get off the train, take a bus and go home as I found it a bit dangerous. Then came Shahbad Mohammad Pur station which was not that crowded. Here also people only embarked. I remained in that coach. Again I was leaning out of coach. At Bijwasan also, people only embarked, in coaches and on roof. I again decided to get off the train but persisted. Train was usually doing around 40-50 kmph. My palms were aching holding the vertical bar and bars of window in door. At some curve, I had a view of the roof. It was completely full, I could see people walking on roof while train is moving and one of the gentleman sleeping with his blanket, his legs
coming upto side face of the coach. Few women were also on the roof. With people on roof, milk containers on every window, and people leaning out of doors, I remembered the picture of a crowded train in which people leaning out, on roof, on engine etc. Only difference was that here nobody was on engine. Then we reached Gurgaon. It was also crowded but there were few people to get off. After a minute, train departed with a man running after it on platform with few
others yelling "baccha rah gaya" (child left on the train). I don't know where the man was looking, on the roof or in the coach. After few seconds, he stopped, may be some of his relative was also travelling on the train with whom remained the child. There were few chain pulling cases but resolved within 3-4 minutes. The single MG track was always on the right of BG and I was on the right side of the coach i.e. I could not see BG track and any activity on that. Changing side was not possible. But I never a heard a train passing only except a freight. After some time came "Garhi Harsaru Jn.". I wondered what other route goes from this station. Then I saw an MG track going on the right and disappearing into the field with an MG train "Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Farukh Nagar" waiting on the platform with live YDM4 with only 6 coaches. Farukh Nagar line is the oldest MG line in the whole world laid in year 1883. Many stations passed where now people started getting off and milk containers also getting off. I changed side so that I could see BG track. Now the train emptied a bit. But people on roof did not try to get down and crowd the coaches. I expected some train on BG track but could not see any. I also forgot time table of trains on this route so that I could logically expect some train. Standing on the door with mud blowing, all my face filled with mud and clothes got dirty. But I could see open green field, cool breeze, bright sun, and most importantly very few people in the open except the train. I had never been to villages of Haryana but this trip was a cover up. Then came one station called "Kumbhawas Mundhalia Dabri" which can also qualify for longest station name. Reached Rewari junction after "Khalilpur", I don't know at what time as I did not have a watch. I
could sense approach of Rewari as there were consistent mile stones on ever kilometer indicating
distance from Delhi. I knew, Rewari was 83 kilometer which came out to be. The train was really a rural train. Even a goat travelled with us. I don't think most of the people had bought any tickets.

Rewari was a big station with many parallel track, both MG and BG. Also saw one MG freight and 1-2 empty MG rakes. I did not know how to get back to Delhi i.e. go by train or bus. Till now I did not see any BG train. One BG train I saw on one of the platform was Rewari-Bhiwani passenger. I knew, Ashram express will be coming as it was to leave at 3.00 pm from Delhi. So
I waited on the overbridge for it. The tracks come straight into Rewari station so you can view train coming from quite a distance. I thought it would be quite a scene to watch long express train crawling into the station. When I reached Rewari, there were people already ready for this MG train. Also the loco got detached immediately, so I sensed that it will be going back soon. Instead of Ashram, I saw "Chetak exp" from Delhi. It stopped very oddly. It came on middle
track and crossed over to track beside platform and stopped. Out of 15, 5-6 coaches remained on middle track including the 2 AC coaches. After waiting for 1/2 hour, and no sign of any BG train from any side, I decided to go back to Delhi by bus. I was also looking forward to travel on Delhi-Jaipur National Highway no. 8 on which I had never travelled. I came to bus stand by rickshaw. It took 33 Rs. for ticket to Delhi as compared to Rs. 15 for train. So train travel was much
cheaper. Rewari was a small town, crowded in market area. From there I took bus to Delhi and came back home at 7.30 pm.