DELHI to MUMBAI - Journey on the Legendary GOLDEN TEMPLE MAIL - Indian Railways

Step on board the legendary Golden Temple Mail for a 22 hours journey between 2 of the most important cities of India - from Delhi to Mumbai. The Golden Temple Mail was introduced in 1928 and was originally called the Frontier Mail as it used to take passengers from Ballard Pier in Bombay to Peshawar on India’s north west frontier. Today it runs between Mumbai Central and Amritsar and is numbered as 12903 and 12904 in the opposite direction. Naturally I was very excited when I got a chance to do a journey on this train. There was no better way to return back to Mumbai after a great trip to Delhi and Agra. I could hardly sleep the previous night because of the excitement. I reached Delhi Hazrat Nizamuddin station almost one hour in advance and waited. The train had begun its journey the previous night from Amritsar. It arrived 20 minutes late and waited for long time while the cleaning staff came on board and cleaned the train for the next part of the journey. Finally it left Nizamuddin at 07: 45 am. The section from Delhi to Mathura took little more than 2 hours with a brief halt at Faridabad. At Palwal we had to do emergency braking because of people on the tracks who had got down from another express train. At Rundhi we were overtaken by the high speed Gatiman Express which was a disappointment as it crawled past due to a speed restriction on the track. The Golden Temple Mail then has many stops as it goes through Rajasthan - Bharatpur Junction, Bayana Junction, Hindaun City, Shri Mahabirji, Gangapur City, Sawai Madhopur, Kota. Soon after Gangapur City our train ran over a buffalo and we halted for 15 minutes. After Kota, you can enjoy an uninterrupted video of the entire Dara Pass section as the train curves and climbs through the short ghat and descends on the other side. More halts at Ramganj Mandi, Bhawani Mandi, Shamgarh and evening set in as we reached Nagda. A couple of stations later we were halted at Kachrod for the Delhi Pune Duronto Express to overtake. We took another long halt at Ratlam and the train was cleaned again. Then after halting at Meghnagar, Dahod and Godhra we stop at Vadodara and at that time we were running only 10 minutes late. As the night progresses, we do a full speed run to Surat and arrive at Surat well before time. After Surat the high speed run continues and you can see us blazing past Vapi, Dahanu, Palghar and Virar as we enter Mumbai limits. After brief halts at Borivali and Dadar, we arrive at Mumbai Central at 05:00 am, few minutes before time. As I got down from the train on which I had spent 22 hours, I felt really sad that the eventful journey had come to an end. I have put together all the photos and videos that I have taken and I hope you enjoy watching it. Date of video: 18th-19th April, 2019