Mumbai to Raipur by Delayed 12261 Howrah AC Duronto Express | A Tale in Three Parts

The tale of a journey on-board a Duronto Express rescheduled twice and delayed more.

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Train : 12261 Mumbai CSMT - Howrah AC Duronto Express
Loco : Kalyan WAP7 #37078

This video has roughly been split into three parts
1. Prologue
2. The Journey
3. Photos

"The Journey" has been further split into three parts
A. Mumbai Suburban
B. Morning in Maharashtra
C. The Land of Freights

CHAPTERS
0:00 Teaser / Intro
0:50 Prologue
2:06 The Journey
6:50 Mumbai Suburban
14:10 Morning in Maharashtra
25:56 The Land of Freights
51:36 Photos

PROLOGUE
The train from Howrah arrived into Mumbai CSMT at 13:00 Hrs with a delay of 4:45 Hrs. Eventually, the train got rescheduled by 4:15 Hrs from its original departure time of 17:15 Hrs. A little after 21:30 Hrs, which was the rescheduled departure time, the passengers were still waiting on the platform. An announcement was made that the train would be further delayed due to maintenance issues in the yard. The rake was finally shunted in at 22:00 Hrs.

THE JOURNEY
The train finally departed from Mumbai CSMT at 22:30 Hrs, delayed by 5:15 Hrs. After a decent run till Kalyan Jn, it was looped to give precedence to the 12167 Superfast Express to Banaras, which was running on time. Thankfully, dinner was served to the hungry passengers, which made the journey less erratic.

The next morning, the train was running with decent priority, but trailing the 12809 Howrah Mail, which had departed from Mumbai about an hour earlier. Post Badnera, Mail was looped at Dhamangaon and Duronto was sent ahead. Meanwhile, a decent breakfast was served to the passengers. The hot weather gave way to some cooling rains as we entered the Vidarbha regions. The train reached Nagpur at 10:43 Hrs, delayed by 6:33 hrs. It had taken 12:13 hrs for the run from Mumbai to Nagpur.

The land of freights began with a parallel departure from Nagpur, getting precedence over the 20973 Gandhidham - Puri Express in the process. Gitanjali Express had been waiting near Itwari for almost 30 minutes, reaching there well before the Duronto had crossed Ajni. A little before Gondia, Duronto was halted for some freights to cross. Despite last minute clearance, Gondia was skipped at a sedate pace. The train had an excellent run from Gondia to Durg, with no unscheduled halts. At Bhilai Nagar, it was halted due to congestion. Two tracks had freights, and the third had the 20917 Puri - Indore Humsafar rushing towards Durg. After clearing the congestion, and trailing a freight till Bhilai Steel Plant, the train finally accelerated and reached Raipur by 15:40 Hrs, delayed by 7:40 Hrs.

PHOTOS
Almost a photographic recap of the journey one has experienced as a viewer, this section has a background score called "The Bazaar Canon", rendered by Hanu Dixit.

THE TRAIN
Mumbai CSMT–Howrah AC Duronto Express is a Duronto Express train operating on the Mumbai–Howrah route. Being the non-stop version of the Duronto train, it used to take the fewest intermediate stops for operational and technical purposes such as crew change, locomotive change, food pick-up, and water-filling. Later, most of operational (technical) stops were made commercial stops and stops were added at some state capitals.

Rake sharing is done with Pune-Howrah Duronto Express (12222/12221), Howrah-SMVT Bengaluru AC Superfast Express (22863/22864), Santragachi-Chennai Central AC Express (22807/22808), with a total of five Rakes primarily maintained at Santragachi Coaching Depot.

All its coaches are air conditioned LHB coach, capable of reaching 160 kmph. The maximum permissible speed is 130 km/h but it is less in some parts of the journey.

The maximum permissible speed is 105 km/h between Mumbai CSMT and Kasara where increasing up to 110 kmph in future is planned. Due to the ghat section, the speed is restricted to 60 kmph between Kasara and Igatpuri. While the speed has been increased to 130 kmph between Igatpuri and Nagpur, the train did not go above 110 kmph. Post Nagpur, the train ran at 130 kmph until Durg.

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