Occupying your berth 10 mins before departure!!!

I've only done this on short day journeys only, with great success I might add, but wouldn't consider it for a night journey where I needed a berth.

Interesting link thanks

True, and it's not a method of traveling that I'd advise a first-timer to try, unless I knew what train they planned to use.

I try to look at a train's total journey, have a quick look at the quotas, and then try to imagine who would book that train, and what stations they'd be travelling between, if you can then read the reservation chart as well, you can even choose your preferred seat/berth.

A few examples.....

Goa to Karnataka coast.

Mumbai(LTT)- Mangalore Express (12133) serves as an (unintentional) extra Mumbai-Goa overnight train, and looks more like a ghost train as it chugs along the Karnataka coast in the morning sunshine, my Mrs and I were the only people in an entire 2A carriage. (the train mostly runs an hour late according to the TTE)

Going the other way, find a train originating in Mangalore and look for a berth that's reserved from KAWR, then you know that berth will be vacant till Karwar, get off at Karwar if going to South Goa, or sit by the open carriage door for the last hour from Karwar to Madgaon.

Mangalore to Kozhikode (& further south)

Look for the trains starting from Mangalore, and going south, many are overnight trains to Chennai or Trivandrum/Kanyakumari, and allow booking from Cannanore/Kozhikode, and these berths stay empty till these stations, also, the Trivandrum/Kanyakumari trains often have very late avaialability, and very often have much smaller waitlists than HO quota, meaning there will be berths available from the current reservation counter and a reasonable chance of getting a berth from the TTE.

Trichur/Ernakulam to Trivandrum/Kanyakumari

Look for long distance trains coming to the end of their journeys, trains from Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai etc., these trains have people booked till Trichur/Ernakulam, then these berths lay vacant till the end of the trains journey, this works equally well in the other direction, trains starting from Kanyakumari/Trivandrum always have vacant berths till Ernakulam/Trichur, and if you can read reservation charts, it's often easy to find vacant berths all the way up to Kozhikode/Cannanore, and remember what I said in the last paragraph about the overnight trains terminating at Mangalore.

The exception to the rule is the Shatabdi/Rajdhani trains, and some of the daytime trains in Kerala.

Also, this doesn't really work if starting at one of India's major cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai. Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad) as trains are normally fully booked for the main part of their journey.

Remember, you need a 2nd class Express unreserved ticket, or a 2nd class SuperFast unreserved ticket if the train number starts with 12, and you MUST speak to the TTE before you board the train (though I try first to find my berth choice on the reservation chart located by the entrance door).