A Vasai Rd-Diva trip

The other day, I fulfilled a long-standing wish - to travel to Diva from Vasai Road by the Diesel EMU (shuttle).

There are only 3 trips in a day from Vasai Road to Diva - there is one in the morning, the other in the afternoon and the last one in the late evening. The timings of departure from Vasai Road are at 06:50, 15:15 and about 19:15. I took the 15:15 shuttle from Vasai Road. The trip costs only Rs. 12 and is quite enjoyable since the "DEMU" was not crowded at all and the surrounding country side was a refreshing change from the "concrete madness" of the suburbs.

The journey takes about an hour's time, but since the shuttle left a bit late (about 7 minutes late) than the scheduled time and there was an incident of "chain-pulling", the train reached Diva Junction at about 16:37.

There are only few stations on the route:

• Juichandra
• Khaman (named after the river)
• Kharbav
• Bhiwandi
• Diva Junction

Although the line is electrified (A/C), the diesel loco is needed most probably because the Vasai Road tracks on the suburban lines have D/C electrification. The shuttle locomotive is a Kalyan WDM2 and works in the "push-pull" configuration. The locomotive is situated in the middle of the "rake" and has 4 coaches in the front (pushing those 4) and 4 in the rear (pulling those 4).

However, the locomotive is controlled remotely from the "driver's" seat in the front (just as in the case of the regular suburban EMU).

This configuration deprives us of a few joys:

• Since I tried to sit as close to the beginning of the rake, I could hardly hear the familiar WDM2 sound as it moved up the "notches". (The "driver" has to move the WDM2 speed lever to a higher notch to increase the speed - something analogous to changing gears in a car).
  
• The horn of the WDM2 is not used - the starting coach has a special horn that is quite unlike the "royal" WDM2 horn. So, although there was some honking, the sound was not impressive at all.
  

As we were nearing Diva Junction, I found a lot of A/C to D/C (and vice versa) zones. I wonder which trains ply on those sections. After reaching Diva Junction, I quitely bought a ticket to Kanjurmarg and returned back.

Its a pity I did not have my camera - there were some good snaps that could have been taken (including that of the monkey in our coach).