Its a bit old and long one but still is afresh in my mind. Kindly bear with me.
The year was 2014 and month of July. I was in Mumbai (specifically saying in Navi mumbai). My work was over unexpectedly and then I have to travel to Bareilly. I had many option but the railfan inside me told me to do a little rail roaming. So i booked in this train from Ahmedabad to Bareilly and thought of taking the BDTS-CDG SF express from Bandra to Ahmedabad in General class. So the connecting journey was like:
22451...
more...

BDTS CDG SF
dep BDTS: 12:15pm and arr ADI: 7:30pm
Rest and dinner at Ahmedabad station and then
19407 ADI BSB Express which has dep from ADI: 9pm.
But i forgot completely this is the month of Monsoon and i am in world renowned Mumbai.
I reached Bandra station on time and found that 22452 CDG-BDTS is running delayed by 3hours which made the departure of 22451 BDTS-CDG delayed. I didn't had any hopes left but still thought, Ok let's wait and go with the flow. If i will reach Ahmedabad by 9pm, then I will catch the 19407. Finally after lot's of wait, the 22452 CDG SF arrived Bandra terminus at 12pm. I boarded the General coach near the Engine and took a window seat easily. I watched my watch and waited when the train will leave. Those were the days when it was running with end to end Diesel loco. The ALCO went to yard and I was seeing everything. The ALCO was getting refueled, I think, and was getting some maintenance. And then it returned back and got attached to the rake. Adjacent to the platform, 12480 Suryanagari express stood. Now I was sureshot confirmed that controllers will make the delayed 22451 depart after the ontime 12480 and thus I won't be reaching Ahmedabad before 10pm.
But to my surprise, my 1:20hr delayed 22451 BDTS CDG was given starter ahead of the 12480 Suryanagari express. I was happy and was having some hope of reaching Ahmedabad before 9pm. From Bandra to all the way till Maninagar it was a blast show by the ALCO. We arrived Maninagar at 8:30pm. I was happy that atleast I will be reaching Ahmedabad by 8:45pm and will catch the 19407 but little i knew that at Ahmedabad the platform on which 19407 is standing , the same platform has been alloted to my 22451. So, we waited at Maninagar station till 9pm and after 19407 literally left ADI, we were allowed into Ahmedabad station. I didn't knew what next to do, but still thought let me spent the night in the same general coach and alight at Delhi cantt. From there I will get many trains to Bareilly. I slept in the General coach and next morning when my eyes opened, we were very furiously travelling through rajasthan and were in Marwar-Ajmer section. After i woke up, i observed that our 22451 has overtaken a certain express train with orange color Vatva shed ALCO. My sixth sense told me that the train that we overtook is definitely the 19407 Varanasi express. I got ready and waited for the train to arrive Ajmer. We were allotted platform 2 at Ajmer and on Platform 1 I saw on coach indicator that train no. 19407 is coming. I quickly alighted 22451 and went to platform 1 for the train 19407. I was just praying that TTE didn't marked me absent. 22451 SF quickly departed from Ajmer and behind it The 19407 came on platform 1. I boarded my coach and went to my berth. To my surprise it was empty and when i inquired I was told that TTE is yet to come. I was quite happy and boarded my berth. So the biggest learning is whenever doing a connecting journey, please keep a buffer of minimum 4-5 hours.
May be I am lucky but I got one learning from this experience that my hobby of rail-fanning did have helped me a lot in these kind of situations. I have experienced many kind of these touch-and-go situations and really being a rail-fan have helped me a lot. One such more experience is below:
/blog/post/1595862
Do read and enjoy...