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TRIP REPORT
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TEN CONFIRMED BERTHS and NO SIDE LOWER BERTH. What could be more worse in a journey when you choose your train and book tickets when 160 seats are available and get all other SEATS present except Side Lower Berth.
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in every class of train except 1A, two tickets in 2A, 3 in 3A, 5 in Sleeper and no SLB. I being a close competitor of turtle booked ticket before a single day of departure in a greed of getting RAC seat which means a CLEAR CUT SLB to quench my thirst of SPEED. And also to tease those 10 confirmed seat guys who were dancing like anything after holding a confirmed ticket in their hands.
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The date of journey was April-Two-2015, the train was 12275 Allahabad Duronto and I had a RAC ticket in S-7. Now the tension was whether SLB will be in overtaking side or crossing side which was later removed by Sajjad. Half SLB berth and 2 greedy railfans and hardcore speed lovers, a fight was sure to snatch the SLB. Sajjad trying his best to get SLB gave me a proposal to travel in 2AC and without thinking even for a nano second I rejected. Had it been prayagraj or any other train except this duronto I would have happily exchanged my seat RAC SL with a confirmed 2AC.
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It was finally 2200 hour when the two lazy lads moved out of their home and marched towards station but thanks to the bunching traffic, Sajjad and 09 others reached one after another within time span of 5 minutes at 2220. At 2230 I reached station, rushed like anything thrashing everyone apart and finally the SHINY GREEN COLORED SNAKE was standing in full pride to welcome it's TWO BHAKTS. While one bhakt had already occupied his seat in 2A, the other bhakt, fully wet with Sweat was standing infront of the night rider. Just as I was walking towards the train I saw Sajjad standing near door of 2A and I started moving towards him. We had a chat there and we both moved to S6 where other five were sitting dumb faced. It was 2240 and the train was still at station. Shiv Ganga arrived at PF#2 , KOAA ANVT departed from PF#3. At 22:43 Sajjad went in 2A and I went to my seat in S7. It was a big relief to see that the SIDE LOWER was actually on the overtaking side but as soon as I went on my seat a married couple with a 6-month child having one RAC and one WL ticket were sitting there. I sat there but I didn't felt good as the child was crying and the mother couldn't feed him, I requested them to sit on my berth and I moved to S6 where I got one SLB free but sadly it was crossing side.
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It was 22:50 by then and the train moved out of ALD with full pride. Started showing aggression even before Subedarganj but then slowed down and skipped subedarganj where our first prey was waiting patiently. Yes, it was KOAA ANVT Exp which forced Duronto to depart 10 minutes late from originating station. We overtook 13131 at slow speed and crossed N.C. Rly. Colony at 70 kmph where I noticed the signal green on the other side clearly explaining the group of roaring Rajdhanis rampage. 2 minutes later we crossed RNC Rajdhani, the impact was so great that I was actually thrown away from my seat. I called Sajjad and told him that I have got full SLB bit it's on crossing side and within 1 minute the ever lazy guy was standing infront of me. By that time we had already crossed Bahmrauli and the train was actually giving tribute to it's TWO BIGGEST bhakts. Another rajdhani wap7 vanished within few seconds. We were enjoying cool breeze when the TTE started checking tickets and I told him the situation and he agreed and we were enjoying the speed show.
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The signal of the opposite track never turned red. After every 3-4 minutes gap, a Rajdhani blasted past us. We were also rampaging at MPS, after the Rajdhani show it was freight show, freights burning at MPS vanished in 10 seconds, the best freight crossings I have seen so far in my life is I saw in this section. We started discussing speed whether it's 120 or 130 or what the Nokia Speed-o-meter was still searching for GPS and left us amazed with it showed 129 kmph . At first we both thought it's wrong but the 1-2-9 kmph digit remained still for three minutes I checked Ulysse it was showing 130 kmph. Asked other friends to check 129, 129, 130, 130, 130 were the answer.
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The prime bhakt of Nokia got the chance of praising Nokia once again which couldn't last long and a high speed freight honked and crossed us at MPS thereby shutting the Nokia praising in a fraction of second.