Talk to any Pune'kar (resident of Pune). Criticize whatever you want. Call him a stuck up a$$ or call him snob, too-clever-by-half. Or state that Pune'ite is the most inward looking, a frog in the well. He may not be offended. But for heavens sake, do not criticize or even pass adverse comment upon:

• The noted humourists - P L Deshpande or Acharya P K Atre
• Lokmanya Tilak
• The Vaishali Restaurant ... and above all ...
• The Deccan Queen

The Deccan Queen is the pride of Pune. Indeed it is the pride of the Central Railway. It is one of the most nostalgic trains of India having started in 1934, it completed 75 years recently. If you travel from Pune to Mumbai or vice versa, and you have not ever travelled by the Deccan Queen (DQ as it is popularly called), then I am sorry to say - you have not travelled at all. Despite the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, despite the many trains and buses plying between the two cities, even if own a Merc and zoom down the E-way at 140 kmph, if you have not experienced the Deccan Queen, then you have missed a great experience.

I first travelled by the Deccan Queen in the early 80's when I came down to Pune for college. As I said in my earlier chronicles, my parent were living in Porbandar and during holidays I visited PBR. The convenient train was 5 Dn. Saurashtra Mail which used to leave Mumbai Central at 20:25 (yes, I remember the train number and time). The DQ leaves Pune at 7:10 AM and arrives at Mumbai VT at 10:40 AM, stopping earlier at Dadar, 15 minutes earlier. In spite of the inconvenient connection, I decided to take the DQ just for the ride.


The Deccan Queen of the 1980s in Navy-Cream livery reaching Lonavala

The DQ is a commuter train. It had 5 I Class chair car coaches, 5 II class seaters, 4 II class reserved for Mumbai-Pune passholders, 2 luggage+guard vans and 1 Restautant car. Yes, it was the one of the only two trains in 1980s/90s to have a restaurant car, the other being the Taj Express. The complete train was reserved.


The Mumbai bound Deccan Queen cross River Mula on the Harris Bridge near Pune

Travelling in II class, I sat down on my reserved seat. The Pune-Bombay (Up) train stopped at Lonavala and then next stop was Dadar. Around 7:30 AM, a purser used to come around the coach taking breakfast orders. An egg omlette is a tradition that must not be broken. Breakfast is served by 8 AM when the train reaches Lonavala. Passengers in the I class could visit the Restaurant Car and get served like a typical British Saheb.

The most beautiful part of the journey is passing through the Bhor Ghat in the Western Ghats. This journey is from Lonavala to Karjat. A distance of 21 km is adorned by as many tunnels. In the monsoon, it is doubly enjoyable because of the breathtaking scenery around as can be seen in some of the pictures here. The train on the UP journey took a technical halt at a point called Monkey Hill just after Khandala.


The Mumbai bound Deccan Queen passing the Bhor Ghat during monsoon


The Mumbai bound Deccan Queen making a technical halt at Monkey Hill near Lonavala to check brakes

On the return journey, the train starts Mumbai VT at 5:10 pm and takes a non-stop journey till Karjat. At Karjat, two engines are attached to the end of the train that act as bankers to help the train climb approximately 500 m of Bhor Ghat. It stops at Lonavala where the bankers get off and the train next stops at Shivajinagar at 8:20 pm before reaching Pune at 8:30 pm.


The Pune bound Deccan Queen thundering past a Mumbai suburban station at speeds over 80 kmph

The train has an aura about it. Hundreds of commuters travel on it daily - I mean these people live in Pune and work in Mumbai and travel daily. The train used to have navy blue and cream livery in the 1980's. In the late 80s, the livery changed to Royal Blue, White with a single Red stripe (see pictures).

Trivia:

• The DQ is one of the most prestigeous trains on the Central Railway. Not many people have heard of it because it is a train local to Mumbai and Pune.
• The DQ enjoys complete priority over all other trains including the Mumbai suburban trains. If some train is delaying it, that other train is simply put on the siding to let this train past.
• The train travels at a max speed of 110 kmph. It cannot go faster because of the extreme busy and crowded Mumbai-Pune section.

... end of Part IV ...