BLACK OUT

Today is 4th February 2007 , sunday and i planned to visit my grandparents in ambattur. The first thing that hits my mind when i think about it is the level crossing where one gets to witness hi-speed rail action.I landed in the level crossing at around 11:30 and a goods train halts , around 55 bogies of coal and 2 vijaywada wag-5ha's hauling it simultaneously, the halt had coused a lot of inconvienience as the last 4-5 bogies blocked the level crossing one side , by this time i comfortably place myself in of the foot-over brdge pillars, under the shade at aroun 11:45 west coast express heading towards mangalore starts the precedings horning all the way in an erode wap-4 after 15 minutes the mumbai cst express in a arakonnam wam-4 6pe cruises elegantly with a romantic set of horns . Ok , now a "11"007"" wdm-7 comes into the station and positions it self to the goods train end and the station master etc. are out inspecting , i kindly asked the SM whats happening , he asked me why , i said i like trains and i would like to know he treats with a glance such that he seen a terrorist, silently i go away not falling in his eyes . the wdm-7 is attached to the goods train and the last 5 bogies of the freight are seperatly pulled away and clearing the level crossing and ending the distress for the passer-by's , at this stage i speak to sridhar joshi (irfca) and he tells me that he's in vizag....................................there goes my mobile out for a six already it comes to around 550rs/month.
ok i start getting tensed , lalbagh express hasnt yet crossed and then i see the signal change and in less that two minutes and erode wap-4 whizzes past me around ten minutes late "it is"......... (G.P. style). and then in 15-20 minutes trivandrum weekly super-fast horns asking people to clear the way for it as it was running behind schedule ,the loco - wam- 4 6pe. freight traffic was frequent and they were hauled by erode wag-7's
i take a lunch break................................................ 12:30
i returned at 2:00 p.m. sharp, angry that i had missed the coimbatore intercity towatrds central (actually i hadnt'). At 2:20 p.m. i see a yellow green livery EMU cab approaching at fast pace towards me, that is the Tirupathy express in such hurry , dust was all over the place. Then i notice that the signal towards madras is green and a wap-4 i seen, erode shed and i think , a late coimbatore intercity express dashing towards central, the horn was so harsh , maybe due to its delay , marvellous speed must above 80. at this point i sit under the foot-over bridge waiting for the hubli express to grace the occasion of my rail-fanning and it was done splendidly a WDG 3a ,krishnarajapuram , cool blue livery and a romantic horn....i fell head over heels with it.........i stand less than two metres away from the speeding train and i get blowm back and after it crosses i could notice that my hair has been spiked and refused to settle........i would call it the UBL (HUBLI) EFFECT. Shortly a barbie doll wam-4 shows up pulling the bangalore express and at this point i was speaking to ashwant (irfca member and one sided lover of the wam-4) and man he was in good spirits after listening to its charming horn. at 2:45 pm i retire for a tea break.
At 5 p.m. i had come back for the last session of my rail fanning for the day and i saw that the goods train which stationed itself there in the morning had been put into one piece and causing stress and hatred towards trains i heard curses like "darudala train vandiga" (stupid trains)," sanninyan trainga "(some abusive word)," giraki station master" (the station is ...........), etc. etc. etc. , the other problem was that people had to go across the bogies even to buy tickets. the wag pilot should have stationed it little further , i could see old people , physicaly challenged people finding it so though .
The boy scouts were there handling leaflets about the dangers on croosing the tracks and stressing to use the foot over bridge . Apart from that they were helping people cross , giving directions . ( even i gave directions )
by this time two freight carriers passed towards arakonnam and 4 wag-7's were used two from erode and two Ajni locos, sturdy horns ..........................
the garudadri express crossed with a wam-4 arakonnam , man wam-4's................i wanted to see more of wap-4's , just not my day .
the chennai egmore kacheguda express whistles its way past ambattur and i expected a wdm-3 from guntakal or erode or trichy......................................................................ugh................... .......................no prizes for the loco it was pulled with , the boring wam- 4 6pe arakonnam ,sorry ashwanth i got sick and tired of seeing that locomotive same damn livery , excluding the barbie doll and sapthagiri ones , man a wap-4 still didnt cross..........................
i sit back and wait for the bangalore bound shatabdi ,while talking to Mr."koochukchuk" Krishnan, and i see this little kid (must be 3-5yrs) fascinated by the freight which was parked there with coal , he was excited on seeing the "stones" inside the bogies and they walk away as his mom explains it is coal................................and finally 5:45 i feel something...............something thundering approaching in my way , the bangalore shatabdi and damn it why in the world i should see it hauled by a wam-4 arakonnam again (barbie doll livery), since it had only 7 coaches the speed was astounding i positioned my self two metres (lesser actually) away from the track and mr.krishnan was hearing the train pass as it thundered past me in such speed i was blown back , superb .... simply superb.
that signalled the end of the day for rail fanning for me and i left satisfied after getting "shatabdied".

few things i noticed,


the 11007 loco had the tondiarpet shed logo in front and the guys in the railways had forgotten to take the ernakulam written on the side of it, an engine with two sheds.

the kacheguda express had two extra a/c compartments and a v.i.p. saloon.