Indian Railways

सतपुडा नैरो गेज- दिल्ली से नैनपुर वाया छिंदवाडा

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अब शुरू होती है नैरो गेज की सवारी। इस सिलसिले में अगर कोई और होता तो वो सीधा जबलपुर जाता। लेकिन इधर ठहरे टेढी खोपडी वाले, छिंदवाडा जा पहुंचे। छिंदवाडा से नैनपुर तक कई गाडियां चलती हैं, सारी की सारी पैसेंजर। मैं साढे बारह बजे चलने वाली गाडी (58853) में जा धरा। यह गाडी शाम को सात बजे नैनपुर पहुंचा देती है। यह इलाका भारत का सबसे व्यस्त और घना नैरो गेज वाला इलाका है। यहां रेल लाइन की शुरूआत 1905 के आसपास हुई थी। यहां सतपुडा की पहाडियों का बोलबाला है। ये पहाडियां इस मार्ग पर सफर को और भी मजेदार बना देती है। आबादी बहुत कम है। हालांकि ट्रेन में भीड बहुत होती है। गाडी की रफ्तार भी कम ही रहती है। लोगों को तेज यातायात उपलब्ध कराने के लिये इस नैरो गेज को उखाडकर ब्रॉड गेज में बदला जायेगा। जबलपुर-बालाघाट खण्ड पर आमान-परिवर्तन का काम शुरू भी हो चुका है।

छिंदवाडा से नैनपुर तक कुल बीस स्टेशन हैं। इनमें छिंदवाडा के बाद सिवनी सबसे बडा स्टेशन है। सिवनी जिला भी है। बीस स्टेशन और उनकी समुद्र तल से ऊंचाई इस प्रकार हैं:

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A fun filled day at National Rail Museum

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We come across “Nilgiri Coach” as we started walking. The Nilgiri Toy Train journey runs in between Mettupalayam and Ooty hill station. This narrow gauge train covers a distance of 46 kms. The train runs through the plains, plantations and tropical rainforest of the Nilgiri. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005 and be a part of Mountain Railways of Indian World Heritage Site along with the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (1999) and the Kalka-Shimla Railway (2008).

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Musical trip to Mahakal Nagri via Mecca Madina – 1

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So we entered in General coach. The train was full at 0715 hrs. First section was full of daily goers, some were reading news paper, few were sleeping and few were talking. There were few students also who were studying. The second section was full of ladies. I requested one of the ladies if she can shift and adjust us in one seat. They have shifted. So we got approximately 1.25 seat to accommodate 2.5 of us (me , my husband and my kid). Then I just turn around and was taking a glimpse of a train. It looked like as If I have rewinded my life and I had reached 10 years back when you are actually comfortable travelling in General coach. All beautiful ladies with beautiful bangles , nicely cladded saree or salwar suits , beautiful payal , toe rings etc etc. All were looking so beautiful and I was feeling jealous as my two gold bangles was nothing in front of colorful bangles. Being at Chennai Gold always means a lot here. But at Indore I was attracted towards those beautiful colorful glass bangles. Suddenly, I heard a song.

“Dheere Dheere se meri zindagi me aana, Dheere dheere se dil ko churana “..

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Ghumakkar Insights – Traveling in Indian Railways

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With the advent of Duronto non-stop trains there is a possibility to avail these trains if your destination is on the route close to eventual destination of the train and it is a technical halt of the train. Every long distance train has some technical halts where crew changes. If your destination is one such then it could be a boon. For example, Mumbai – Howrah Duronto has technical halts at Bhusaval, Nagpur, Bilaspur, TataNagar. So, people who are destined to let’s say Bilaspur or Tata Nagar can book the entire journey from Mumbai to Howrah but get down at these stations when trains stop there. In my recent journey from Mumbai to Howrah, there were several such passengers who got down at Tata Nagar and Kharagpur. You may just have to pay extra upto Howrah for this convenience. Railways does not publish a list of technical halts for a train but you can easily figure them out by experience, talking to train crew, passengers or characteristics that it is a major station, change of railway division and around 5-7 hours from previous technical halt.

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