A Trip to Titwala by rail!

 Titwala is a small town near Kalyan, known especially for its Ganpati Mandir. The region is close to mountains, and its environment quite peaceful. To reach there by rail from my place, one has to either take the Central Line, by changing at Dadar, or first travel to Vasai, take a MEMU to Kopar, then change to CR to cover the remaining distance to Titwala, located beyond Kalyan, much ahead of Thane.

My parents promised to take me on a rail trip, wherever I wanted to go to, the day after my birthday, which was on Saturday this year. I couldn't keep myself in, and was of course very excited. I was unable to make a single choice. So my mother suggested we go visit Titwala, a place I had last visited. I agreed, since it would mean an opportunity to travel along the GIPR line, while going to a place close to the Ghats..both of which appealed to me immensely. Further, I wanted to check out the region between Thane station, and Mumbra, for it had traces of the oldest passenger railway line in the country. The famous Tannah Creek rail bridges, and apparently an old tunnel lying near the site where the GIP railway officials and their friends had a tiffin during an inspection special trial train from Bombay to Parsik point. Want some idea about what I'm talking? Just see this screenshot from my Google maps account of this place-

The Thane Parsik rail stretch... The Pins are the locations I sought for to see on person.
Credit:Google Maps

We finally decided on a long but interesting route. We would travel to Andheri by Metro line 2, change at Andheri to Metro Line 1 to Ghatkopar, and finally catch a local to Titwala.

The schedule was delayed by quite some time, and our plans came to fruition about a month later, on August 16th, which was a holiday for me. Planning for such a long trip meant several time buffers were to be provided; and was to plan all of this. I put large margins for delay into my plan, noting the timings of metros and local all the way from the first to last, spread over a time interval of 27 mins.

Turned out even this 'worst case scenario' prepared time table was not heeded to, and we left quite late, eventually reaching Ghatkopar at around 9:43, rather than my 25 min margin prediction of 9:20. We were indeed very late. added to this was the time it took to book tickets from an ATVM among the crowd. That too exhausted around 15 mins. I was finally standing on the station platform at 10:00.

I quickly went on a relic hunt at the station, but to my disappointed, spotted ornamental pillars(like those at Sion) on all the the other platforms but mine. Well, I wasn't left in sadness forever, for soon an came a train from my left (i.e. in the down line direction) and there it was- hauled by the multi current WCAM loco, the iconic DECCAN QUEEN! I quickly began recording.

Well, after a bit of wait, eventually arrived a local to Titwala. And we soon boarded it. It was going to indeed be a fun ride.

At the beginning everything was quite dull, until some time later, when a rail yard appeared. We had passed through Vikhroli, Kanjur Marg, Bhandup (an original stop from the first line of 1853), Nahur, Mulund, and finally what I had waited for..Thane! By then I had received a window seat, and was now very excited. We were to pass over the Tannah Creek bridges, two bridges small and large built for the line to navigate the salt-water Tannah Creek. This section was opened in 1854. The bridge lying in the centre is the original Tannah Creek bridge, while those right and left were constructed much recently, to increase line capacity.

I simply couldn't afford missing such an experience, and began recording. The thing is, the old bridge is so closely 'encroached' on both sides by the new bridges, that it is even hard to spot where this gem is. To add to it, while I was recording, two trains, an express, and a local came into view to make matters worse.Only on further analysis of my recording could I determine that my local was moving just beside the old bridge! It was displeasing to say the least. The small Tannah is indeed quite a small bridge, and soon our local was over the long island that Bombay Times mentioned in its report of the route in 1852, which divided the bridge into to viaducts. After crossing the island, even the large bridge had the same issue. Simply indiscernible from 'the modern environment'. I crossed the creeks without spotting the bridges that paved way for crossing from here. (As you'd read later, I was eventually able to spot the bridge on my return journey).

After crossing the creeks, the line divides into two. The one going left is the original route, that exists since 1854. It heads further to the stations of  Kalwa and Mumbra. The one moving right on the other hand, goes ahead to divide into two again. One heads straight towards the historic Parsik Tunnel, while the other bends sharply south, to become the Trans Harbour corridor. Our local went through the former route, something I was dearly excited about. 

The train then passed through Kalwa, and headed towards the foot of the Parsik Hill. When we were at a close proximity to the hill, there came a short tunnel. We soon passed through, and curved around the historic hill, just a bit far from the Ulhas river. Then came the part I was waiting to see, and wanted to see in person, since more than a month. A tunnel, which on google maps looks rather normal, on seeing in person looks ancient, and on scrolling through historic resources, looks significant and historic as none! 

This tunnel, seems to be an original tunnel of this original route, and just happens to match the measurements of a second tunnel, and its distance from Tannah station considerably well to that in old documents. I erroneously thought it to be the 103 yd long Tunnel no.1 near the Parsik point, in which the the officers of the GIPR Railway, along with their friends had had their tiffin inside, when they journeyed till here in a trial run inspection special along the line from Bombay, on 18th November 1852. That honour went to the aforementioned first tunnel. Yet this tunnel is of significance, since its end marked the beginning of the Contract No.3, the extension of the line from Parsik Hill to Callian, assigned to contractor Jamsetjee Naegamwala in May 1852, and opened on 1 May 1854.

The tunnel soon ended (or so I thought) and there came light through the opening at the top. I quickly pointed by camera towards the back, in an attempt to capture the opening on the other side of the tunnel, when soon the light paved way for the dark, and I realized the tunnel wasn't actually over. Well, you know, the ending I thought it was, was actually pretty circular, and hence quite convincing. But the end came soon after.

The much sought after tunnel (excuse my finger)

A bit closer.

The ending I thought it was...

The Actual ending.

The train soon entered Mumbra station, and then navigated another curve. We passed over another water body, and it was there that the Parsik Tunnel route, that went straight toward the hill soon rather than curves our route took to clear the obstacle the Parsik Hill was, met back with us soon after exiting the tunnel.

After this? The route that followed ahead was extremely pleasing, and beautiful. The tracks for a quite some distance went beside the Ulhas river, one that was so wide at this place, that it almost looked like a lake. After this, everything seemed more or less the same, till we reached the junction of Kalyan.

The line to Tannah was already in the process of extension to Kalyan (or Callian as it was then spelled) when the former began services. This section opened about an year after the Bombay-Tannah line opened, on 1st May 1854. A journey was undertaken from Bori Bunder to the Creek Grounds near Callian that day, and that too was like a thing to celebrate back then. Though this time the train reportedly left at around 5 p.m., reached the destination at around 6 p.m., left back at about 9 p.m., returning back late night at 11 p.m.!

More info and videos to be added soon!