The story of my first ever ride in the 12123 Mumbai - Pune Deccan Queen Express :-
Few days back, my friend from Lonavala had come down to Mumbai. He came in the morning by the Deccan Queen and was returning the same evening by the Deccan Queen. It was the day my exams just got over, so I decided to accompany him to Karjat. I was very excited as it was the first time I was going in this train from Mumbai CST. It connects Mumbai and Pune with barely 3 stops in each direction. It is one of the most prestigious trains of the Central Railway and it does not have a single halt till Karjat.
So we went to CST and bought unreserved tickets for the journey. At 4:45 pm, I saw a shunting engine coming into the platform with rake of the Deccan Queen. We had to jump into the general unreserved coach of the train before it stopped moving in order to catch window seats. As we sat waiting for the train to start, I decided that I will take a video of every single station we skip till Karjat.
Given below is a detailed description of the 100 km long journey I did that day…
5:10 pm. Bang on time, a soft jerk, and the wheels of the majestic queen start rolling beneath me. We smoothly depart from platform 9 of Mumbai CST station. After entering the mainline at Masjid, the train starts accelerating, but very slowly. As a result, we were 5 minutes behind the schedule time. Soon we curve beautifully and pass Sandhurst Road at a moderate speed, where the harbour line tracks go above us. Byculla, Chinchpokli, Currey Road and Parel are skipped faster and faster as the train picks up momentum. And then, the most deadly of all, we race through the busy Dadar station at full speed blowing up a whole lot of dust on the platform. It was a pleasure to watch. I have seen the Deccan Queen skipping Dadar from outside, this was my first time from inside.
After Dadar we slow down a bit for a speed restriction of 65 at Matunga, then pick up speed again. We race through Sion and Kurla, then another speed restriction of 65 at Vidyavihar. These small things do not affect the queen much as she accelerates quickly back to her full speed. Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg, Bhandup, Nahur and Mulund all flash by in no time. Now we have made up time and slow down to 80 km/hr while passing the main and crowded station of Thane. It is 5:40 pm and we are only 1 minute late now.
As most trains always do, we slow down before the Parsik Tunnel. We come out of the other side and pass Diva, Kopar, Dombivli and Thakurli before we slow down tremendously again. We pass Kalyan very slowly at 6:00 pm. After Kalyan, we are stuck behind a Badlapur local train. We crawl through Vithalwadi, Ulhasnagar and Ambernath. It is starting to get dark now. After crossing Ambernath, we finally start accelerating. We race by Badlapur and you can see the local train that we were stuck behind has terminated on platform 1. The next stations we pass at full speed are Vangani, Shelu, Neral and Bhivpuri Road. At Bhivpuri Road, we overtake a goods train, you can only see the silhoutte. Please note that after Kalyan, the platforms of Vithalwadi, Ambernath, Vangani and Bhivpuri Road were on the other side of the train. So you cannot see the platform.
As we approach Karjat, we slow down. We pass the banker engines which are waiting on the siding to push the train up the ghat. The bankers happen to be two WCAM-2 locomotives. And then at 6:39 pm, we cross tracks and come to a smooth halt at Karjat station, the first time the train came to a full stop ever since we left CST, 100 km behind. It had taken one and a half hours. While entering Karjat, you can also here the honk and humming of the diesel engine which was taking the Koyna Express towards Mumbai.
It was indeed an amazing run from CST to Karjat and I had a great time. At Karjat, I said bye to my friend and got off the Deccan Queen. Before going to catch a local train to head back home, I walked all the way to the front of the train to see the locomotive. It was a Kalyan shed WCAM-2P (21867).
In many of the videos, due to the shaking of the train and due to low light, some parts went out of focus. That could not be avoided.
I hope you have a great time watching this video compilation that I have made. Please feel free to comment on it. I have made this video to let the viewers know what a journey on board the Deccan Queen is like.
Thank you!
Date of video: 21st December, 2015