SO here i am, again taking the journey back to SC from KZJ. I found this whole journey plan very very compact. We reached KZJ at 9.15 and the return by Satavahana was scheduled at 9.25. We just had had to just cross over the footbridge to the next platform. The moment we stood at the far end where the loco would stop, the train pulled in.I could see smiles from the asst. on seeing the official. This official was previously involved in Operations and scheduling and so all drivers knew him well. Nostalgic moments were often shared between them, and a lot of inquiries were made about some drivers whom he knew very well. A great feeling of camaraderie prevailed. We wasted no time in hopping into the loco as soon as the train stopped. Greeted by the main driver inside while the assistant went round for his routine checks.

               The signal was amber and with a POOOOOOOOOM! we were moving. This loco was also a WAP4(LGD) and commissioned in Dec '98. We hovered around the 20-25kmph until well past the outer of KZJ.We first passed the A/C trip shed which also had a new WAP4 223xx series and a hoard of WAG5s and a solitary WAM4(BZA shed). The huge deisel loco shed passed us on the left. I saw a naked WDM2A, stripped of its dress, with 3-4 technicians attending some repairs. We were still maintaining around 25kmph becuase of a caution order just outside the station. Gathering speed we were put at 40kmph for a long time as a minor caution order also was in place. A very interesting fact about caution orders is that they do not just specify the stretch and distance markings, it also says why the caution order was in place. For example there was one that said, Worn out sleeper, another said Broken welding and so on.

                The first train crossed us after about 10 minutes from KZJ. It was the HWH bound East-Coast Express. It was hauled by a LGD WAM4, but with the Nagpur shed livery. It was recently relocated to LGD shed from Nagpur. We were now gathering speed. The usual round of feedback started. The driver said that it would be better to have the loco inspection detials painted elsewhere than on the corner of the wind shield as it was difficult in the nights. The driver also said that the other loco-sheds painted the same details on the panel behind the driver(i.e the door that closes the relay controls) We now slowed down again, and for the next 10-15kms we were doing not more than 35 kmph. This was in place even past the Ragunathpalli caution order where i had mentioned about the Godavari Exp derailment. The usual cribbing began on caution orders and time maintenance. The last km mark on the caution order was crossed and the asst. promptly shouted out the entry into free speed zone and up went the nothches. The field was weakened after we reached around the 75kmph mark and i saw the train rapidly accelerating towards the 110kmph mark.

                 We crossed the BBSR bound Konark hauled by a KZJ WDM2C(very unusual to me atleast), i quickly asked them the reason and the official said that if they changed the loco at SC, then the loco had to run light till KZJ, which is a waste of power, and KZJ already has a A/C trip shed and so the power was changed at KZJ and not at SC. The official also pointed out to me that the WAG5 standing on one of the pf. in KZJ was actually the Konark Power. I was busy capturing this loco without knowing this fact at KZJ.

                  I dont want to miss out 2 very interesting incidents. After the onark had passed, we saw a group of people doing some study on the tracks with some gadget that actually had a small rail fixed at the bottom and some guages on top. So it was understood that there was no train coming on that line. hardly 500 meters away on a curve we could see a pointsman desperately waving his red flag standing on the middle of the track over the bend towards a speeding double headed BCN load. Me, being a newcomer to all this was actually a little jittery, but our asst, happily took the green flag and started waving as if everything was clear. Out of fright i asked the asst.if it was right to show green when the pointsman was showing red. The asst. promptly said that there was no problem as such on the line, but just a caution in place. The driver of the freight will in any case slow down, if the caution was in place, but if not then he can report at the next station and take these people to task.

                  As if this was not enough, we were just about decelerating from the 90kmph mark to go into another caution section, and almost finished negotiating a curve when we saw 2 poles and a red banner right in the middle of our track. It was hardly around 500m away. There were people working on the tracks and seemed in no way bothered about the approaching train. Moreover, this time there was no pointsman waving the red flag. The driver, immediately released the emergency brakes and brought the train to a stop around 20 feet before the banner. By now our "Red Flag holder" was running in to remove the red banner. #$%^%&^, &^$%^#, *&$!@#$!!#4 flowed from the driver's voice-box to the pointsman who was removing the banner in a haste. Of course there was a caution for that stretch, but then there was no reason why a block was put as if it is a huge task to knock that banner down!!!! Unnecessarily we brought the speed to 0 when it should have been a steady 20kmph in that stretch. Was'nt i mentioning Broken welding as one reason for caution, this particular stretch had one broken welding.This was perhaps the last of the caution orders until MoulaAli.

                 We were doing a standard 110kmph until the inner distant of Bhongir. The inner distant was double amber and the distant was amber, needless to say that we had to stop at Bhongir for the signal. So our story of Krishna now comes into picture again. Its really become very easy after the walkie-talkie made its appearance on IR. The station master at Bhongir was contacted promptly from the cab of the loco and he said "KSN following, slow clearance". The gradient between Bhongir and Cherlapalli had slowed down the speed of the KSN rake and it took sometime before we got the signal from Bhongir. I utilised this time to take some snaps of the WAP4 at Bhongir. After a 5 min wait at Bhongir we departed towards SC. The beautiful Bhongir fort passed by us on the right and the driver requested me to take a snap of the lovely fort.

                 We were making good progress and even crossed the KSN at Bibinagar. The KSN incidentally had a WAG7 and WAG5 coupled together. I asked the crew if that was possible and they said that it has a dual crew who work on both the engines simultaneously. By now we were making up for the lost time at Bhongir untill another double amber and amber greeted us outside Cherlapalli. This time it was a tanker load that took its time to move into the IndianOil storage facility. After a 5 min wait we again started and coasted towards SC.