Chennai - Trichy Rockfort Express Journey | Crossing Night Trains in Chord Line

Here's a night train journey from Chennai Egmore to Tiruchchirappalli on board 02653 MS - TPJ RockFort Express Special.
02653 / 02654 Chennai Egmore - Tiruchirappalli Rock Fort Express Special is a daily overnight COVID19 special service operated by the Southern Railway between the cities of Chennai and Tiruchi. As per the rake sharing arrangement in Indian Railways, it shares its rakes with Pandian Express and the Cholan Express and is maintained by Madurai CDO. 12653 / 12654 were the regular numbers prior to the COVID19 days/lockdowns.
'53 Rockfort Express originates from Chennai Egmore and halts at Mambalam, Tambaram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram, Vriddhachalam, Ariyalur, Lalgudi, Srirangam, Tiruchchirappalli Town before ending its journey at Tiruchchirappalli Junction.
In this full journey compilation, Rockfort Express crosses the following trains;
06102 Kollam - Chennai Egmore Express Special (16102)
02654 Trichy - Chennai Egmore Rockfort Exp Special (12654)
06866 Thanjavur - Chennai Egmore Uzhavan Exp Special (16866)
06064 Nagercoil - Chennai Egmore Express Special (12688)
06176 Karaikal - Chennai Egmore Kamban Express Special (16176)
02638 Madurai - Chennai Egmore Pandian Exp Special (12638)
06182 / 02662 Sengottai - Chennai Egmore Silambu / Pothigai Exp SPL (16182, 12662)
02634 Kanyakumari - Chennai Egmore Exp Special (12634)
02632 Tirunelveli - Madras Egmore Nellai Exp SPL (12632)
02694 Tuticorin - Madras Egmore Pearl City Exp SPL (12694)
02206 Rameswaram - Chennai Egmore Sethu Exp Special (22662)
The train number of Silambu Exp has been mistakenly mentioned as 01680 and should be read as 06182 instead.
February 2021: 02653 Rockfort Exp departs from its usual platform four of Chennai Egmore, a couple of minutes beyond its scheduled departure. It approaches Mambalam and is one of the few express trains to halt at Mambalam in the Down direction. The train then passes through the several soulless stations - Guindy, St. Thomas Mount, Tirusulam, Chrompet - to name a few while parallelly overtaking a Local at Pallavaram.
Following that, it continues to speed through the suburbs of Chennai - Perungalathur , Vandalur, Urapakkam, Guduvancheri, Potheri, Kattangalattur, Maraimalai Nagar, Singaperumal Koil, Paranur - to arrive at the mainline platform number six of Chengalpattu.
The train gets delayed by around 40 min at Chengalpattu due to signal failure. Following that it charges towards the divisional headquarters and meets a plethora of night trains in the busy Chord line section.
Stations such as Ottivakkam, Madurantakam, Melmaruvattur, Tindivanam, Mailam, Perani, Vikravandi, Kandambakkam, Tiruvennainallur Road, Ulundurpet too see a speedy skip.
This is just a rough brief and you might want to watch the journey compilation to take a virtual ride to Trichy. For better viewing experiences, watch the video at 1080p60 and use headphones.
© 2021, JagRail