Friday 20th - The Big One

The Peanut Hotel is OK apart from their inability to get the tea order right. Two black teas, no sugar is a fairly simple request but they manage to get it wrong twice. After breakfast we have a bit of time to kill so we watch the cricket on the television. England collapse.  That's quite enough of that. The hotel calls us an auto for the ride to the station. Today is one of the highlights of the trip for D. We are taking a trip along the Satpura lines on one of the very few surviving Sleeper trains on Indian Railways Narrow Gauge (NG) lines. Nagpur also has a Narrow Gauge Railway museum but this closes a few minutes after our inbound train arrives and opens a few minutes before our outbound train leaves. Major planning error by D.

Today's weather is very different. There is hazy cloud cover and it seems cooler but more humid. The BBC weather forecast suggests thunder later. We strike lucky at the station as the doorkeeper on duty at the Air Conditioned Waiting Room appears incapable of reading our ticket, which is for Sleeper Class, and waves us through. R is installed with the luggage and D goes in search of chai. This is a bit of a struggle but in the process he does find the NG platform,  conveniently situated at the far end of the platform containing the waiting room. R is fortified with chai and D goes to get some NG photos.  The two platform terminus is quite busy and the time passes quickly.  Soon it is time to retrieve R and the bags as our train should be in anytime. We top up with bottled water and biscuits as we pass the catering stall. We have no idea what might be available on this trip.

The train pulls in and we double check the number on the destination board. 58839 Nagpur - Jabalpur is correct. We find the reserved coach in the middle of the train. This coach is unusual in as much as it has 2S chair car type seating in bays of 4 at a lower level and ten Sleeper side berths above along each side of the coach. We have bookings in both 2S and Sleeper and dump our bags on berths 8 and 9, taking two of the seats below berth 8. We are near to the door, good for photos and door riding, but also close to one of the toilets, not so good. At least it doesn't smell from the off and we are not in either berth 1 or 10, jammed in right beside the bogs.D tries out one of the berths for size. OK for width but a bit short for anybody 5'3" or over.

Turnarounds on this section are pretty smart so just a few quick photos and we are ready for the off. This line is 2' 6" gauge with diesel locomotives. Our trip will last nineteen and a half hours if the train is on time, we will cover 398 km, undergo two reversals, where the loco swaps ends and the train changes direction, and if we had been in a hurry we could have done the trip in less than 9 hours on the broad gauge. The coach is quite empty and the TTE checks our tickets. A chap sitting opposite seems keen to point out that we cannot have tickets for both sitting and Sleeper but the TTE didn't seem at all bothered. The chap keeps coming back to the subject but thankfully gets off at the first stop.

The route starts by diving under the BG mainline and then passing through a rather scruffy part of the city. The first stop, Itwari Junction, is a long one and quite a lot is loaded into the luggage van at the front of the train, including a large wooden bedhead and foot. After this we make good time, running between two BG lines and leaving the city behind us. These lines appear to serve some large industrial complexes and one of them, not shown on D's Indian Rail Atlas parallels our track for about 20km.

R has requested suitable entertainment for the trip so D treats her to a copy of 'Good Housekeeping', usually full of tips on how to get your maid to be a better cook and 101 things to make with condensed milk. This issue has a free gift that should come in really useful.

We cross the state border into Madhya Pradesh and the surroundings become more rural. There is also evidence of work progressing on the conversion of this line to BG.There are regular piles of BG concrete sleepers and ballast along the side of the line as well as drainage work visible. Some bridges are in place. There are regular stops although the ones at the small stations and halts are very sharp - barely 20 seconds at a stand, then the guard's whistle, loco hooter and we are moving again. There are some longer stops at bigger stations - with time to take photos or visit the chai stall but not both.

We get the feeling that Western tourists are a bit of a novelty around here. One chap has some English and from time to time points out things that might be worth photographing. The other people at our end of the coach just watch us to see what happens next. Nobody else seems to want to ride the doors which suits D very well and even R has a go at it. The train starts to climb through a range of forested hills, the sky goes very dark and it begins to rain very gently. There is some major engineering work going on to build a new trackbed for the BG line.  The scenery is not up to Darjeeling or Nilgiri standards but is still worth looking at. At this point the thunderstorm breaks and the hatches are battened down.

The climb comes to an end as we emerge from the forest onto a windswept looking plateau. Think Rannoch Moor but not so damp or miserable. As the descent begins there are isolated sections where BG track has been laid alongside the NG. Looks like a time limited future for the Satpura lines. Book now before it is too late. As it gets dark it stops raining and we move back into a more populated area, arriving on time at Chhindwara, where the first reversal takes place. Nearly all of our fellow travellers get off here and a new crowd gets in. 

The station facilities are pretty basic and the catering stall is ruled in for chai but out for the fritter like things that are acting as a fly magnet. Biscuits for supper tonight. The toilets are so far away that R fails to find them and has to use the on board facility which is ripening nicely. A new TTE has joined the trip and he is being hassled a little by people who want a Sleeper berth. We have spread our microfleece blankets, brought specially for this occasion, and piled our bags on top to deter claim snatchers. The new TTE appears satisfied with our double ticket arrangement and he gets everybody sorted. We have just decided to turn in when there is a bit of a dispute about the light at our end of the coach.  One group want it off, one group say on and they carry the day. It remains on all night. 

At another stop a couple of guys get on who want to sing and play music on their phones. Eventually they quieten down and we get a night of fitful sleep. We are awoken for a while by some rough shunting at the second reversal.