July 08, 2008

The Rayalaseema Express

One of the most enigmatic trains running on the Indian Railways is the Rayalaseema Express. Train number 7429 travels between Hyderabad and Tirupati and 7430 does the return.




Kazipet's WDM-2 #16501 leads the Rayalaseema past Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad


That does sound simple enough, right? Hang on..

This train runs combined with the 7416 Kolhapur- Tirupati Haripriya Express.

What.. two trains run combined?

Yes, two trains run combined. Actually, its more complicated than that!

There are basically three origins/destinations. Hyderabad (HYB), Tirupati (TPTY) and Kolhapur (KOP.. new code for Kolhapur is CSMT but I'll use the old one).

Every day, three trains start from these stations. Each of these trains is basically in two parts. In the train starting from HYB, one part is destined for TPTY and one for KOP. In the train originating at KOP, one part is destined for HYB and one for TPTY. Similarly, in the train originating from TPTY, one part goes to HYB and one to KOP.

All these three trains arrive at approximately 2AM at Guntakal, where these three trains are divided into the 6 individual segments. The segments bound to HYB from TPTY and KOP are stitched together and sent to HYB. Segments from TPTY and HYB are joined and sent to KOP and segments from KOP and HYB are coupled and sent to TPTY. So, 6 segments again become three trains and head to their respective destinations.

Each of these three trains get a Kazipet WDM-3A loco. The loco which comes from HYB goes to TPTY, the loco that comes from TPTY goes to KOP and the loco that comes from KOP goes to the shed. The loco that brings in the Dadar-Chennai mail to Guntakal gets cut there and goes to HYB.

So, if you are travelling by these trains, NEVER get down at Guntakal. You never know, where you would turn up next morning !!!



PS: Ur views on this template plz..

32 comments:

Ankur said...

bhai.. Rails mai Phd kar lo tum ab!!! :P
hehe...

Anonymous said...

Good one. At last I understood the complex arrangement at least to some extent after many attempts!

Mysterious Mia said...

sorry mate the eralier comment for for Ankur on his blog i used wrong id's :(

anyways cant get around to del it so pls del it ....

n hey how do u know so much abt train man....

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ankur

Hmm.. maybe its too late.. or maybe that I dont really need to do that.. I'm fine this way :)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Akshay

Thanks. I believe that every railfan should know about this train!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Anvita

When one is interested in something, he tries to get all details of the same. Thats how I came to know so many details..

Chakoli said...

Wow...

such a different train...

okie...aapke saath chalungi iss train mein... then I wont get lost :PPP

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Chaks

Sure sure.. when r u coming over to HYB?

Or maybe u can go to Kolhapur and take the train from there and I take the train from here. We can meet at Guntakal, and have some delicious pongal, masala vada, utthapams and elaichi tea in the middle of the night!

Chakoli said...

Waah...waah amst plan ahin:))

Hyderabad aan eka koi plan nahi abhi in recent times...
aaungi..to aapse to jaroor milungi:)))

Anonymous said...

That sure is a complicated train mate!Phew..I hope the deeraaivar remembers where all to not stop.
-Ketan
www.ktens.com

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Chaks

Toh hum kab implement karenge ye plan?

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ketan

Welcome here. It sure is complicated, but then the running staff is used to it.. its a routine for them!

Aarti said...

Wow, now tha was quite an interesting piece of Trivia...maybe next time i hop on a train to hydie, will give you a buzzz... or shall go to kolhapur with Chaks and meet you in Guntakal... :D

Pramod said...

Saluting the railways. Amazing logistics managed very efficiently.

I remember that i used to wake up as a kid at abt 2 Am to see a similar detach and attach of a trian i used to take from SBC to my native place.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Aaarti

Thanks.. maybe u can reach TPTY from MAS and take the train. Then we three can meet at Guntakal together wat say?

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Pramod

Indeed.. there is more to the logistics management at Guntakal. More in a later post :)

Where is ur hometown buddy? Hubli side or Raichur end?

Keshi said...

I always want to drive a train...lol I dunno why.

Keshi.

Sriram said...

@keshi... you arent the only one lady. There are thousands of us who want to do it!

Anonymous said...

Hi dude! First time visiting your blog, its awesome,i'm enjoying it! :)

I never knew about this thing though i travelled from Hyd-Kurnool some 4-5 times. Since, i didnt go till Guntakal, may be i never came across this thing.

Chakoli said...

woh to aapmhi karonge...mujh to yahn se bus baithna hain...details bhej dena:PP

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Keshi

Wow.. it would be fun to have U in the loco when I drive it.. and as Sriram says, there are a few thousand nuts who wanna do that too!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Sriram

Rightly said :)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Karim

Thanks for the visit and welcome here :)

You should try to see what happens at Guntakal when you pass by.

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Chaks

Sure.. bas apni free dates batana.. Aaarti bhi Chennai se aayegi.. main HYB se aur aap Pune se.. ho jaaye ke mast meet, kya?

RiĆ  said...

Hmm Vrij strikes back with his train post yet again! Nice read buddy. And abt this template....all i can say is its too Yellow!! :P

Mysterious Mia said...

Ok Vrij

Can u pls pls stick to the name Mia pls pls pls.....

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Ria

Thanks.. reg the template, my blog has donned the yellow jersey in view of the Tour de France which is happening these days!

rantravereflect/ jane said...

love teh yellow n white-- tour de france???

n abt the trains, that sounded as confusing as teh million body parts n their dissection!
i mean 3 becomes 6..\mannn, is lallu sooo good at math, n even better at bilogy? -what with all that complicated math n dissection of teh trains ;);)

Vrijilesh Rai said...

@ Jane

Well.. the blog wears the yellow jersey which is given to the winner of the Tour de France cycling race. Google it out!

Reg the trains.. u'd continue to get more such info regularly ;) And f*** La Loo, who cares about the dimwit! If ur on orkut, search for me and check out a video of La Loo that I've put up!

Anonymous said...

Hi Vrij,Nice blog dude.....it helped me a lot....
because in irctc the train route and timings both are given in a horrible manner....no einstein gonna understand the theory over there...
anyways thanks a lot.........

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm....dats shomething....

Anonymous said...

wei heiBen sei,
und ths zwanzish,


gute nakte