.……. so after seeing all these morning trains pass by we were now cruising steady at 110kmph. Ghatkesar, Bibinagar, Pagdipalli all seem to go by in a flash. Immediately after Pagdipalli we passed a double headed WAG5 hauling a coal load towards Hyd, going to Raichur thermal plant.

                 WE were served biscuits by the Asst. So kind of them. He said that they usually stocked the cabin well especially on a run like this. This crew travels till Balarshah and from there a CR crew takes over till Nagpur. Interestingly these coal loads are called KSN. Its an abbreviation for "Krishna". The station just after Raichur is the Krishna Station as the river Krishna flows alongside Raichur. I will tell you some more about this KSN when i talk about my return journey. There are a total of 23 WAP4s homed at LGD and about 15 WAM4s(approx) and more than 50 WAG5s/WAG7s combined. I can get you the correct number later. But WAP4s are 23 in number currently.

                 Once the WAP5 production increased LGD will have a WAP5 also hauling the Rajdhani. Infact GZB wants to handover its charge of hauling the NDLS-SC Rajdhani to LGD but there were no spare power to support. Same problem applies to the AJJ shed also for hauling the MAS-NDLS Rajdhani. The first indegenous WAP5 went to GZB shed only. All these info are from the official with whom i was talking to.

                 As we conversed we passed another KSN coal rake headed by a twin WAG5 244xx series. Seeing that, the pilot driver told the official that all the WAG5 244xx series homed at LGD were excellently maintained and had possibly the best hauling power among the WAGs. The other drivers two also were of the same opinion. We now cross Raigir at 90kmph and constant hooting. The Asst. said that the W/L board was the sign for an approaching level crossing and that board is kept 250metres before the level crossing. A driver should start hooting from that point till the loco crosses the level crossing.

                Some more eats offered, we were a pampered lot, and he crew made it mandatory that we take them without a fuss. We were now on a clear section after Raigir till Jangaon and some free time for the crew(read as tensionless section). We were generally talking about the health hazards for the crew. They said that certain sschedules are far too deamding that it throws their system out of gear, but still they had to cope up with it. Infact the driver was telling if he said that the seats were a little uncomfortable and he had a slight pain in his knee because of standing continuously they would immediately releive him for a week and send him for a special medical check-up ,for no real reason at all. So all their complaints were'nt being addressed properly.

               We were then talking about the the increased number of caution orders effectd in some sections. The notch position was periodically brought to 0 when the max speed was reached and the line was clear void of gradient. Whenever the speed had to increased the field weakening lever was used to weaken the field inside thereby increasing the field. We then passed the section between Ragunathpalli and Ippuguda where the Godavari express derailed 6-7 months back. Caution order still in place for a max 20kmph in the particular stretch. We then again picked up speed to around 100kmph until the inner distant of KZJ where we were down to around 30kmph when we crossed the distant of KZJ.

We finally halted at KZJ. I thanked the crew for their patience, kindness and hospitality. One good snap with them and i bade good bye.