110 Years of Boat Mail Express. (24/02/1914 - 24/02/2024).
Indo - Ceylon Express
Chennai - Dhanushkodi - Thalaimannar - Colombo.

Now Running Between Chennai Egmore - Rameswaram 16751/16752.
Via:...
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Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Cuddalore Port Jn., Mayiladuthurai, Thanjavur, Trichy, Karaikkudi, Manamadurai, Ramanathapuram, Pamban.

Today's impressive run of Tejas via mainline..
As per NTES,
MS MV 280 kms at 4h 25m with an avg of 67 kmph
MS TJ 351 kms at 5h 25m with an avg of 65 kmph
MS...
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TPJ 401 kms at 6h 12m with an avg of 65 kmph

Part - 3 : Monstrous run by WAP - 7!
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For those who have not read
Part - 1 : /blog/post/5963414
Part - 2 : /blog/post/5963946
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As we bid adieu for the Villupuram - mayavaram passenger that was looped at platform - 2 of vaithiswaran kovil, we steadily accelerated and attained a decent speed till our train skipped sirkazhi. There still exists a speed restriction for trains that doesn't stop at sirkazhi. The white stallion accelerates further to touch the maximum permissible speed, and kollidam station came at no time, indicating that we would be crossing kollidam river, which is the longest in this single line section. This time, i shifted to the left side window of my bay, which was still not occupied, to get a better view of the road bridge that passes kind of near to the railway bridge and it is exciting to witness the overtake of buses and other road vehicles.
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There was no sign of deceleration, and "dhadak dhadak, dhadak dhadak sound started coming as we skipped past kollidam bridge at maximum speed, overtaking the buses that is passing in the adjacent bridge, and making entry into cuddalore district. Yes, that bridge marks the district border between mayiladuthurai and Cuddalore districts. Went back to the track sided side lower again, which remained vacant till my destination as per TTE. We continued at MPS after entering the Cuddalore district, and the backdrop of farmlands were slowly replaced by buildings and houses, indicating that we will be crossing chidambaram anytime now.
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This is such an important and holy place that no other train plying in this route skips chidambaram as of now. There was no intention to decrease the pace, and the sound at the track switching point when your train travels at a higher speeds - "dhadak dhadak datrrr" followed by "thad thad" sounds, the green flag exchange between the loco pilot and the railway staff and a wave of dust that appeared from platform 2 and the tracks, was creating quite a scene for people outside the train around chidambaram railway station area. Could see the wonder in their faces that which train was skipping their place in such a speed. It was such a show put up by the white stallion, which was towing our train, and for the passengers inside the train, it was quite a good show.
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Within some time that, the landscape was again replaced by farmlands, but in addition some canals were also traversing between them and some water bodies, and the train, now reduces it's pace a little to negotiate the beautiful curves among the farmlands and water bodies. After a while, could see a power plant like thing at a distance and railway track starts appearing, which amalgates with our track at puduchatram, where at loop line, a katni based WAG 9 was taking a nap with a freight rake. Started decelerating once we arrived at the vicinity of Cuddalore port junction, to 90 kmph, and to 70 kmph, negotiating series of beautiful curves, went to nostalgia of diesel days for a second. Maintained the same speed till the home of tiruppadrippuliyur and steadily came to a halt at the mainline platform, i.e, platform - 2 at 0949 hrs. Since the momentary halt at vaithiswaran kovil till now, it took just 44 minutes for the distance of 65 kms in a single line section, with an average of 87 kmph. There was good boarding at this station.
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Started moving slowly as we halted for less than 120 seconds, and started picking up speed only after crossing gedilam river, touched MPS in a short while. Again our train slowing down a bit after 15 minutes of its departure at Cuddalore and picked up speed after negotiating the long curve, duly skipping panruti station which is constructed along the curvature of tracks. Maintained the maximum speed from then till a double electrified like started appearing at the left side of the train and started approaching towards end, indicating that we have approached Villupuram. Cleared lot of loops after slowing down gradually, was able to see kazipet based WAG - 9 hauled train at platform - 5, taking a small nap at Villupuram junction. Yes, it was Nagercoil bound special from tambaram that is operated using the rake of Nagercoil Kacheguda express. We enter at the platform - 1 at 10:29 hrs, taking just 39 minutes for last 42 kms at average of 65 kmph, ending up with a delay of just 14 mts against the delay of 1hr 11 mts previously.
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It was a nice recovery run till now. Did we recover this small delay further or delay kept adding up?
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See here - /blog/post/5965020