The 12123/24 Pune – Mumbai – Pune Deccan Queen Express will run with a modern Linke-Hoffmann Busch (LHB) design rake with a special livery with effect from its Mumbai-Pune run today, 22nd June.
This marks the end of an era of the iconic design that formed the most recognised livery on Central Railway. The new rake features a livery called Restrained Imperium that was selected among a few other designs proposed by the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. The coaches were manufactured in late 2021 by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.
One of the unique features of the Deccan Queen was its Dining car. The new rake too features a new design dining car that is capable of accomodating upto 40 passengers. The new dining car is a modification of the Hot Buffet car found on various trains that run with the LHB type rake.
The train has five reserved Second Seating coaches, four AC Chair cars and one Executive Chair car (Vistadome) coach attached to the rear of the train and features large windows, special viewing windows on the roof and a viewing gallery at the ends of the coach with unrestricted rear view of the tracks and the beautiful scenery of the Bhor Ghats its traverses between Mumbai and Pune. While the rake is rated at a maximum permissible speed of 160kmph, the train will travel at a maximum of 120kmph as per the track section limit.
Pics by Jatin Bhavsar