All Good things, must come to an End
~ Anonymous
As like the quote says, it is the best for any good thing to come to an end. Else, we won’t have a lot to talk about the memories we build, going into the future. With that being said, here is last part of this illustrious story of our trip to Himachal Pradesh in 2021, describing the final two days of the journey back home.
Meanwhile, we were descending the Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh and making a steady progress on the way back to Manali. I wasn’t awake for long but kept an eye on the proceedings, whenever I got a chance.
We were cruising along Sundernagar and Bilaspur in the middle of night and long before we were in the plains, I went to slumber mode.
Arkya is a passionate Vlogger and was determined to bring in the best videos to you all. He didn’t sleep for a very long time, while I was in a different zone altogether.
Somebody poked me and called my name. We were blasting at around 100 kmph in the speedometer and were in a larger highway. We were in the plains of Chandigarh and Ambala is barely 50 km away from where we were. The clock read around 4.45 am in the morning.
Arkya narrated what he saw earlier. He told about some top notch overtakes in the midnight and how the captain maneuvered a mammoth 14.5 meter long B11R bus with ease in the mountains. Meanwhile I was keeping an eye on the speedometer and the captain was storming with full force, while the roads had moderate to less traffic inflow.
We got down in the middle of the highway, when the clock read 5.20 am. We took our baggage from the luggage deck and checked our dashboard and got down without wasting any time.
The mammoth bus zoomed past us towards Delhi at full force, while we were witnessing countless cars and vehicles zoom past us along the highway.
A short walk took us near the Ambala bus stand. This is where we started our journey in the first place. We had a cup of tea and biscuits, while waiting for the dawn to arrive. The railway station is on the other side of the bus stand.
We went inside the station premises and were looking for the cloak room. The one on the main entrance side was closed for some reason. Since our train time was at 10am, we thought to push our main bags and explore the neighborhood in the meantime.
As it was set, we went to the waiting hall and took turns to look for the bag and change our clothes and use the washrooms. The time was around 6.30 am, and Ambala Cantonment is a true haven for railfans.
One after the other arrival/ departures meant we spent the next hour or so in watching trains. We had a cup of tea and then I went about a kilometer inside the town, in search of an ATM. I came back when the clock read 8.30 am and went to some eatery to have our breakfast.
We still had more than ample time and our train was yet to reach Sirhind Jn at that point, while we had perhaps the worst breakfast in the entire trip. I have never had such a tasteless Chola for a long time and this meant we didn’t have much food. The good news was Ambala, has plenty of eateries and some of them are featured by many fellow travelers on serving excellent Chola Kulcha for the record.
We were tired and looked to crash the moment we board the train. Unfortunately, we had RAC ticket and the train was miles away from being empty. Never thought Gurumukhi Express would see such demands. The reason was simple. It was Navaratri holidays and Durga Puja in West Bengal, where almost all trains run packed.
We bought Chola Kulcha from the station and were skeptical about the taste. Given the quality and the cleanliness of this station stall, we were convinced on this being good.
Sachkand Express from Amritsar to Hazur Sahib Nanded came ahead of us and departed shortly. Our train was held up in Ambala city, while we saw crowd gathering to board our train in large numbers.
From a far distance, we saw a WAP-4 curve in with ICF consists. We saw a bang on time arrival at Ambala Junction, when the clock read 9.59 am, a minute before than schedule.
The train was unbelievably packed. We assumed the crowd would start fresh from Ambala, Saharanpur, and Bareilly onwards. To see it packed with passengers in other coaches was a big surprise.
We hopped on our coach and saw the Side Upper empty and our Side Lower occupied by a family, who were onboard till Bareilly.
Soon at around 10.08 am, with a delay of 3 minutes, we kicked off our journey back towards Kolkata.
In minutes, we experienced the classic WAP-4 accelerating in its pace and quickly notching up 110kmph, the maximum speed of the train and skipping stations enroute.
We slowed down at Yamunanagar and skipped at a decent speed and crossed River Yamuna to enter Uttar Pradesh from Haryana.
We moved our way to the next halt at Saharanpur Jn, where we once again were a minute before time. In the meantime, I bought a packet of Biriyani at the station, which would act as our lunch for the day.
The whole Lucknow-Moradabad-Saharanpur stretch is filled with WDG-4G and 6G variants. These were the new diesel locos, and unlike General Motor’s successful EMD class, these locos are rolled out from General Electrics and they are now Made in India in Bihar.
These locomotives are currently homed in Roza and Gandhidham sheds. The former shed falls in the stretch and the entire stretch sees a fair amount of diesel hauled freight in stretches, where electrification has fully completed.
Nevertheless, the railfan bug in us enjoyed every other locomotive on the route and the crossings we looked upon.
To our advantage, Gurumukhi Express is a decent skipper and halts only on a few major stations enroute. The next stop was Moradabad, followed by Bareilly and Lucknow to complete the night.
The disadvantage however is the lack of food options. The train doesn’t have a Pantry Car and onboard catering is absent. What’s worse? No 3rd party vendors in the train to see.
With the heat and temperature increasing, we felt tired and exhausted. We imagined only less than 48 hours; we were experiencing bone chilling chillness in Rohtang and Koksar. Now, were in the regular plains and UP hinterlands weren’t any exception in heat.
Moradabad Jn was our next halt and this was some 190 km from Saharanpur. The run wasn’t as smooth as the previous time. We crawled in phases and we were running behind the schedule at this point.
We reached Moradabad when it was around 3pm in the afternoon. A large number of people deboarded the train and some boarded. I rushed ahead and bought two bottles of water and a bottle of Cold Drink.
We moved out of Moradabad at a delay of over 30 minutes at this point and crawled out to cross River Ramganga. The crawl seemed endless and frequent halts and slowdowns didn’t help the cause by any means.
Our plight to experience on-time run was marred further when we arrived Bareilly, when the clock ticked near 5pm. We saw a massive crowd getting down and the coach becoming partially empty. We soon saw a cluster of people boarding, who seemed more like Daily commuters and local ones.
We started Bareilly at 5.10 pm in the evening and moved ahead towards our next major halt, Lucknow Charbagh.
We saw major skips including Shahjahanpur, Roza (including DLS), and Sandila in the route. A few crossings including Howrah Amritsar Mail, Ganga Sutlej Express, Begampura Express were among the ones we spotted from our windows.
After Bareilly, I decided to order Pizza for the night from Dominoes at Lucknow. I ordered 1 medium sized pizza and a couple of Tacos for me and two regular pizzas and a cup of Red-Velvet Cake for Arkya. We couldn’t be more excited for the dinner and hoped the train to make up from the delay and ample slack in the route provided.
Hope was perhaps the only thing you could do, and leave the rest to the controller’s mercy. Already we were hungry and sleepy and the run didn’t help either. Frustration was an understatement and we just hoped the Pizza guy delivering it on time.
We entered Lucknow, when the clock read 21.20 pm, with a delay of over 1 hr 20 minutes. Still no sign of the delivery guy till this point.
We were anxious about our food and although I have ordered in the past, none of the previous delivery saw me waiting for the food like this. In all the previous orders, the delivery executive arrives before the train enters the station. This time it was an exception and we only had a halt for 10 minutes.
5 minutes already past and I got a call from the executive, who rushed from the main entrance and gave me our parcel. We breathed a huge sigh of relief on seeing our food delivered without a problem.
In a few minutes, we heard the honk of WAP-4 and Gurumukhi Express was off towards Kolkata.
Accelerating a puny 14 coacher was like a Child’s play for a 5350 HP locomotive and we skipped the suburbs of Lucknow in a flash.
In the meantime, we finished our sumptuous dinner and went to sleep shortly after.
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I woke up while we entered a station at around 1.45 am in the midnight. It was Varanasi Junction. I didn’t bother getting up and deboarding the station once again. Instead, I slept in no time.
A massive hustle and bustle woke me up. The time read 5.30am and we were amidst seeing a large number of people deboarding the train. It was Patna Junction and guess what?
We were bang on time! All thanks to the slack and some aggressive run meant we arrived Patna on time.
We didn’t have the best of sleep but still managed to extend for about an hour or so. I woke up and saw the train with mostly daily passengers and some end-to-end ones onboard. We slowed down at Mankatha. We thought it was a case of regular stop signal, while we were surprisingly overtaken by Gorakhpur Asansol Express. At no point did we expect this to happen and we barely tracked the actions.
Soon we saw crossings of Himgiri Express at near MPS. Once we started from Mankatha, we crawled our way to Luckeesarai and just before the platform entry; we saw a WAP-5 led HWH GAYA Express taking the line towards Gaya via Nawadah.
We crossed the river immediately after Luckeesarai and entered Kiul Junction for our next halt. We had one plate each of local puri sabji from the station and this was absolutely delicious. Full marks for the breakfast and a cup of railway tea soon followed.
We were running before time and saw the Asansol bound Gorakhpur Express soon departed. Our next stop was Jhajha, followed by Jasidih and Asansol being the last ones.
We departed sharp at 8 am towards Jhajha, which was around 53km from this point. With clear tracks ahead, we zoomed towards Jhajha and reached there when the clock read 8.45am.
20 minutes was the time we waited before getting the clearance. Jhajha is a beautiful station with lush green hilltops all around the surrounding and the weather felt somewhat nice.
We started off at right time towards Jasidih and with an aggressive schedule between these two stations; we managed to get delayed for about 5 minutes. However, the next station was around 110km away and we have a non-stop run to back up.
Departed with a delay of 7 minutes, Howrah WAP-4 leading our train accelerated quickly to MPS and skipped all the stations enroute. We slowed down a bit at Madhupur, an important station in this route, which our train skipped.
We crossed Joramow, Vidyasagar, Jamtara and finally Chittaranjan to make an entry to West Bengal.
It felt we are home partially. It marked the entry to the state after over 10 days.
Slowly, we joined the Grand Chord line via Dhanbad at Sitarampur Jn and our paths continued in Quadruple section. We arrived Asansol when the clock read 11.15 am.
Finally, we saw some food vendors entering our train and we were spoilt for choices. We had some Jhalmuri and Soan Papdi to suffice our hunger, by this time, we heard the starter honk and the clock read 11.32 am. We were on the last 200km odd stretch to Kolkata.
I saw the side upper empty and climbed up to sleep. Gurumukhi Express was cruising at its level best. I have fond memories of traveling in it till Asansol from Kolkata about 7 years back and this journey gave me all vibes of that nostalgia.
Whether it’s the ride, run and the partially empty coach by this point, Gurumukhi Express was on a roll and skipped Raniganj at a good speed.
We slowed down at Durgapur and then picked up speed once more till Burdwan outer. The run was typical clear line run.
We entered Howrah Burdwan Chord section and there seemed no stopping in the run portion. For some reason, we were placed in the reversible line till Kamarkundu (I might be mistaken) and this meant we neared Dankuni, when the clock read 13.20pm.
We took the line towards Sealdah and cruised at a slow speed to cross Dum Dum and finally take the line towards Kolkata.
We kept our bags ready and planned to hop down if the train takes an unscheduled halt at Patipukur. This is the penultimate station before Kolkata with a better and shorter access to the main road.
As we predicted, the train halted at Patipukur and we got down with our stuffs. We walked across the platform and crossed to reach the main road.
We breathed a massive sigh of relief and to our surprise, the time was barely 14.10pm. Gurumukhi has an official arrival time of 14.45 pm at Kolkata, which was barely a kilometer away from this station. We had a stupendous run after Lucknow the previous night and the slack made up for compensating the delay.
I bid Arkya goodbye and took a bus till Belgachia Metro Station. I took the metro back to Netaji (my home station) and reached around 15.45pm.
This was it my friends 🙂
Our illustrious and joyful trip to Himachal Pradesh of 2022 🙂
A big thanks to Arkya, Mohit, Sonam Sherpa, Neha and all the other wonderful people I’ve met along this trip 🙂
Stay Tuned for the Next Series, based on our tour to North Sikkim in April 2022 🙂
Until then… It’s a big Thank You from Suraj 🙂
The Track Walk 