In the past decade, along with twin diesels and ICF Rajdhanis, another species has been added to the Indian Railways' list of fast disappearing species - the non-airconditioned first class. Arguably one of the most comfortable modes of traveling on Indian Railways, providing passengers both incredible comfort and luxury, a great deal of privacy, but also allowing him/her to stay in touch with the countryside and nature, and not bottled up in the midst of an air-conditioned coach, isolated and separated from the surroundings through which the train rushes through. Thanks to a court order by the Kerala High Court, some trains on Southern Railways have retained the First Class and I decided to undertake a journey from Trivandrum to Chennai, by the 12696 Trivandrum Chennai Superfast Express, simply to experience the joys of the olden days. The following compilation documents the 992 kilometre journey, linking the capitals of the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, undertaken over 16 and a half hours.
A Lallaguda (wrongly mentioned as Royapuram in video) WAP7 was in charge of our train, and we cruised north towards Kollam through the lovely hinterland of Kerala, amidst coconut palms, incredible curves and stunning backwaters. The Trivandrum-Kollam route is replete with numerous backwaters, manifesting often as lakes, making a gorgeous sight. Additionally, a storm was brewing and the dark clouds were often touching the waters in the lake, making it seem like a vertex in the offering. The most striking thing about the area was the high quality of life enjoyed by people - the great majority of houses even outside the cities were built of cement and durable in nature - clean, elegant, but not gaudy. The entire area was incredibly clean with little trash, despite signs of very high urbanization.
In the meantime, the Alco hauled Parasuram Express, and a few WAP4 hauled trains flitted past. At Kayankulam, the Kozhikode Trivandrum Jan Shatabdi crossed us.
Next morning, we were racing past the Eastern Ghats towards Jolarpettai, and subsequently, towards Katpadi and Chennai. The landscape had changed completely and the terrain had become sufficiently rocky, with a number of small hills jutting out in the horizon, particularly between Jolarpettai and Katpadi, in the areas of Vaniyambadi and Ambur. At Katpadi, we had a rather unique overhead parallel action with the Rameswaram Tirupati Express, hauled by a Golden Rock WDM2.
At Katpadi, an Arakkonam WAM4 stormed through with the Chennai Mysore Shatabdi Express, and in hot pursuit, the early morning departures from Chennai followed suit - the Kovai Express, the Chennai Coimbatore Duronto, the Chennai Bangalore Double Decker and the erstwhile legend of Southern Railways - the Vrindavan Express. Unfortunately though, barring the Shatabdi, none of these trains crossed at a decent speed, dampening the effect of the crossings. Our train maintained a lovely clip through the Chennai suburban section, and reached us to our destination right on time.