I had a lucky escape yesterday night. I was doing a 14:00 -22:30 hrs second shift in office. Normally, I leave office by 22:55 as we have a BEST bus at 23:00 from Backbay Depot to CSTM which drops me at the station in merely 7-8 minutes.( The rash driving in the night is sometimes entertaining for people like us as the roads are empty), so other than the MRVC train's acceleration, I get the additional adrenaline from BEST buses.
I was feeling tired so, I left at 22:35 and took a BEST bus which dropped me at CSTM by 22:48. I had a minute to catch the 22:49 slow to Titwala, so ran through the Main concourse and found that the 22:44 Thane slow was still awaiting departure so I took my time in walking all the way to the Kalyan End First Class. Settled down on a Fast track facing window seat. Plugged into my phone and my favourite playlist. I knew that in all probability my train would be overtaken by Shirdi Fast passenger, Konkan Kanya Express and 23:18 Ambarnath fast(Last fast of the day). But as I wasnt in a mood to stay put at CSTM till 23:18, I took the slow train.
After the 22:44 BHEL rake to Thane left platform 3, we left from PF 4 at 22:55 delayed by 6 minutes.
Before we could reach Masjid, Shirdi Passenger made its way out and overtook us. As there was no DC rake ahead of me, BHEL rake must have accelerated fast, thus clearing the line for use, my train which was easily gaining the delayed time at departure.
At Kanjurmarg, I saw a furious WDP4 2003X hauling the Konkan Kanya Express overtake us. The next train in line on the down fast track to overtake my slow train was the 23:18 fast to Ambarnath.I was keeping a close watch on the Signal aspect for the Down fast track line to see if we had an impending overtake or would my slow train make it to Thane before that.
The Ambarnath Fast has stoppages at Byculla, Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane, Dombivli and Kalyan before slowing down till Ambarnath.Often the fast train struggles between Mulund and Thane as the Konkan Kanya takes time to get into the loop platform 7 at Thane.
I had 3 options in my mind..
a> stay put in slow train and go on till Dombivli, but the Temperory Speed Restriction on the Slow track between Kalva and Mumbra was too boring.
b> changeover to fast train at Mulund.
c> changeover to fast train at Thane.
I wanted to add some excitement to my commute so decide to finally take the plan C.
As we had left Mulund, the fast train was still to reach there. In all probability, I would have made it first to Thane station provided the BHEL Thane rake had successfully come to a halt on Platform no 3 at Thane.
Thank god, we did not lose any precious moments and our MRVC rake reached Thane on PF 2. One look at pf7 meant Konkan kanya had already departed from Thane making it impossible to allow the Ambarnath fast leave on time from pf 5 as Konkankanya does take some time in clearing the points ahead of Thane station.
With a clear agenda, I got down and rushed to the Kalyan End FOB and as crowd at this point of time was manageable, I could easily make it to PF 5 at Thane before the Fast train could come to a halt. As expected we were made to stay put on the station for 2 minutes before we were allowed to proceed at sedate speed as Konkankanya was
ahead of us.
We had a brief halt before the Parsik Tunnel before being allowed inside. again at a sedate speed. As soon as we came out of the Tunnel, I got a call from one of my colleague who had left office at 21:15 asking about my whereabouts.I told him that I was crossing the Mumbra creek BridgeHe mentioned that he had just touched down at Kalyan at 00:15 and explained that some technical problem being faced on the North -East line had delayed all slow trains and this had led to a mob attack on Platform no 2.( We need some clarity on this as the person was a non-railfan and I didnt want to bother him after his tough journey back home)
Then I decided to hit the Door facing the slow tracks and was amazed to see almost 5 trains standing one behind each other. Had I stayed put in the slow train beyond Thane, I would have certainly rued my fate for catching a slow train....
Fortune favors the brave...
Though my fast train was delayed by 5-7 minutes, I didnt complaint...
