The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge

So, delays all over the country today/yesterday, though nothing too bad. the Coro' was only 1:09 late, perfectly manageable. If it can manage that without tracks it is a truly magical train (I misread your previous Murli, I thought you were explaining this weekends mystery delay).

In other news, the event attendees on facebook just had a quantum leap with a bunch of trendy looking youngies from Mumbai signing up. We could be moving back into mobile riot proportions very quickly at this rate. I've got a 25 year old picture of myself on facebook at the moment so these guys could be in for quite a shock when they see us lot staggering down the platform.....

trainenquiry claims no delay to the 6101, though I've still to work out what the asterisk means when it goes "delay 0:00*"

there's an image here http://bp3.blogger.com/_ZyZjnkGkf8k/...waram+-+05.jpg

** indicates that the train as already arrived at the station/departed from the station as the case may be...

Good wishes.

PS: at the last station the train enquiry shows this: No delay .. see here http://www.trainenquiry.com/RunningI...16%2f04%2f2010

according to trainenquiry, 6101 is never, ever, late. Now call me a cynic but that's significantly better than I'd expect anything outside Switzerland to behave.
the page info on that image says it was posted today, so I'd like to work out if this has just happened as a result of your typhoon.

OK, this is rather old news it seems, though rather tragic all the same
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanushkodi
I still dont believe the 6101 turns up on time, every day, without fail. Though I have realized that quite a few trains do arrive early, so I guess there could be sufficient allowance in the time tabling.

I am reminded of taking a couple of Japanese friends back to Reading station once and they wanted to know what was the difference between the two times shown on the information board, "expected time" and "due time". In Japanese these two phrases are identical!.

Yes, that tragedy happened in 1964. A day trip can be considered for those not inclined religiously.

A technological by product of GCIRC is this fascinating and ground breaking toy.
http://www.bharatbyrail.com/
You can now find out how to get between 2 stations on Indian Railways that dont have a connecting service, without having to know IR like the back of your hand.
It's still in beta testing, but there's more than a couple of you in here who will want to give this a go. There's a feedback form on the right hand side of the one and only page. Also the station code completion code is still getting ironed out, so please type your codes on s l o w l y.

Hi Mike,

Is there still room for people to join? I would love to do the whole trip and am free in Feb next year.

Bella

Yeah sure. Keep monitoring this space for further instructions.

Hello Bella and welcome to indiamike.

Yes, anyone can still join, there's no set number of places as it's not set up and run by some tour operator, I like to think that we've got (collectively) more knowledge than a tour operator.

We're likely going to be purchasing tickets sometime in the summer, it will cost about £180 for the (2-tier air con) rail pass, then there's the return flights (London) to Mumbai (hopefully about £400), and unless you require real luxury, £170 should easily cover any on-the-ground expenses, so a grand total of £750 should cover it, a tour company would likely not organise it as thoroughly as we are, but they'd probably add 2 luxury hotels and charge £2000.

Are you a Rail fan, India fan, challenge fan, or do you just like the sound of this crazy tour?

Good morning Bella!,
Thanks Steve and jusmail. Yes there's really plenty of room. The list yo-yo's up and down, I think we'll probably end up with mid teens in the end, but who knows.
We'll probably have another get together in the summer. Steve and I are both within striking distance of London, and there is my mate Johnny who is a regular India tripper. And we have two rail life engun drivers who live near London. Well, at least one, and his buddy who I think is another one. They both do this kind of thing regularly, though they havent done India before.
We have a facebook group you can join, but it's optional if you dont like facebook. Ah! you joined, thanks.
This place is best for asking practical questions, so just keep subscribed to this thread, and ask anything you want, especially if you are new to India.
Welcome aboard!.

Mark

Hi guys,

Thanks for messaging back. I'm an india fan, went there when i was 18 and didnt make it back home for 2 years. Thought i'd kicked the habit but its now 8 years later and need to get back! I handed my notice in last month and so from July onwards am free to do as a I please for a year. The idea is so ridiculous i just have to do it

Pleased to hear about the 2 tier AC pass - i'm just don't think hardcore enough to do the whole thing in sleeper class but didn't want to sound like a wimp! Don't know a lot about trains nor done any immense journeys before but used to overnighters in India. Only really knowledgeable about Varanasi which is where I lived so don't think I can be of much help on the planning side of things.

Summer get together would be great. I'm pretty near London myself. Would be good to know before we go that you are all just normal crazy people...

Belle

Sorry, Mark, won't be able to attend the meeting.

However, the India-based members had our first get-together when Murli and I met at the Chennai meetup on Sunday. We'll be traveling together from Coimbatore to meet you guys in Mumbai on the opening day.

Fantastic.
Bella asked about some kind of celebration on return, which we should surely do. We need to select a reasonable mid range hotel in Mumbai, and somewhere we can have a celebration meal.
I suppose I should locate the Mumbai food thread and do what I've done for Kolkata and Chennai.

few mins later...
just seen the Mumbai food thread, this is going to take some time, the opening post is immense and then there's 12 pages of stuff to collate, I feel hungry already.

Hey guys ,

Nowadays making bookings online is very easy in India starting booking your train/Air tkts to booking good places to eat. You guys can book rail tkts on www.irctc.co.in . it is a government website to book tkts online & a nice one at that. Going for a biking trip to ladakh , anybody for it.