Hi friends , this blog is about my trip to Kumbakonam from Chennai Egmore in order to visit the navgrahas which are the very famous temples in mother kaveri's delta . Since it was day travel from Chennai, the natural choice was the king of delta Tamilnadu which is none other than the CHOZHAN express. I reached Egmore railway station at 7:45. The train was already got attached with ED WAP4 22274. The train departed bang on time at its scheduled depart time. I reserved in SL so that I can rest for a while when needed. The train was skipped all the MAS city's suburban stations with grace and reached Tambaram 5 minutes behind the schedule . TBM was bustling as usual , trains all around , lots of people waiting to board the EMU. The empty rake of TEN special was parked at TBM stabling line. After 2...
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minutes , it departed from TBM and marched towards Chengalpattu , still the remains of MG track can be seen which kindled the nostalgic memory of MG vaigai !! . The beauty of CGL lies in the kolavai lake. It's an absolute visual delight to watch the Sun rays getting reflected from the lake. The train was filled completely at CGL , after CGL it was tearing the stations enroute since it had only two stations for which this delta king has a 1 minute halt and pallavan exp went with WAP7 towards MS. We reached VM by a whopping 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival . It should be the place which witnessed most of the loco in its jurisdiction , right from YDM,YAM,WDP,WDM,WDS,WAP,WAG, WDG series and even stream locomotives. I was expecting WDP 4B to take charge from Villupuram but on the contrary it was Alco twins from Erode diesel loco shed. After Villupuram it had numerous halts. This was the first time I travelled in day from VM to delta TN. First halt after VM was Panruti , this town was famous for Jack fruit ,I bought few which was as sweet as a honey.. followed by twin towns of TPDR and CUPJ. cuddalore surroundings was full of garbage and was dirty, the stations were some what neat. From CUPJ to CDM , it was very dry and sultry , lots of Prosopis juliflora shrubs with some other species of invasive mesquite family were found too. At kille , the TPJ-MS chozhan express went past us with ED WDM 3A Twins. People of TN should do something to eradicate those invasive species as soon as possible. The train was halted at MV outer for fifteen mins and it entered MV behind schedule , the 60% of crowd were bound to MV from MS/TBM/CGL. Next was a one minute halt at Aduthurai where literally none got down. Within ten minutes the twin alco entered Kumbakonam ten minutes behind the schedule. It was good a trip and I thank Mr.Jay sir for guiding me about temples at Kumbakonam.
Rating:
Speed : the speed was good but it has too many halts after Villupuram . This train does nt have a much of high speed action.
Cleanliness : The coaches were cleaned as soon as this rake arrives from Mangalore. Toilets were cleaned with disinfectant. Water was filled.
Maintenance : the coaches were quite old , most of the coaches were manufactured years range from 95 to 05.
Food & snacks : no pantry car in this train but SR should attach a pantry car and make it as 24 coach since TPJ-MAQ stretch of MAQ express will be benefited as well. Food vendors sell cool drinks and water bottle regularly.