Ever since I visited Araku Valley by train when I was small child, I loved the railway ghat sections. The huge number of tunnels and bridges (since trains cannot climb anything more than a 1 in 100 grade, compared to automobiles which can easily do a 1 in 10) make for a very entralling experience.
So when my trek mates from the Kottebetta trek informed me about the planned Sakleshpur Green Line trek, I literally jumped with excitement. So I reached bangalore on friday morning and crashed at Sameer's place. In the evening we went to Neeraj's place. There were 16 ppl in the group, so we rented a 22 seater bus and started to Sakleshpur at late night, reaching by saturday morning 6 o'clock. After refreshments and introductions at the KSRTC bus station, we headed to the railway line. On the way we also made a brief stopover at a fort and took some nice pics.
From there we started trekking on the tracks. Since it was a ghat section, there was little to no place to trek beside the tracks, so we had to walk on the concrete sleepers. This was kind of a jarring experience since it took utmost concentration to step correctly, lest we trip over or sprain an ankle. The heat was also unbearable with little cloud cover. Added to this I was carrying a 9 kilo backpack. Anyway we met some workers on the tracks, who told us that since there was some accident a few days ago, all train services on that line were suspended. This gave us a huge relief and we started disregarding basic rules - like crossing bridges in small groups, not resting on the tracks themselves, etc. 
After a couple of "photoshoots" in tunnels and on bridges, we stopped at a small waterfall to refill, and I heard the faint but distinct sound of a train horn. I almost brushed it aside since we were not expecting any trains, when I heard a louder second horn. Realizing what was happening, I started shouting "Train! Train!" and everyone scrambled to the side of the tracks and pulled the bags which were lying on the tracks. After a couple of seconds, a very long freight train rumbled past us. It gave us the shock of our lives, since, had it happened on a bridge, it would have been a total disaster! 
Anyway we continued more carefully, while periodically listening for train horns or vibrations on the tracks to make sure we wont get caught on the wrong foot again. We passed through a lot of tunnels, the longest of which was more than half a km. There were no lights, making the inside of long tunnels pitch black. They were also occasionally damp, making the sleepers very slippery. My torchlight was woefully inadequate since it was very focused, forcing me to use my more wider cellphone light. Also since the tunnels were designed for meter gauge, and later converted to broad gauge, the space on the sides where we were supposed to take cover, in case of an approaching train, was much smaller than expected.
We had our lunch with bhel and bread close to a railway station. After walking for some more time, we reached a small stream. There most of us took a bath, and continued on our way.
After a couple of trysts with some more trains and maintenance vehicles, we finally reached the Yedakumari railway station. After some dinner, we settled down to sleep in a room in the station. The next day morning we woke up early and after enjoying the morning climate for some time, we started back to the highway along the jungle with the help of a local guide. Before starting we took a couple of precautions against leeches, which would be abundant in the jungle we were about to cross.
We moved downhill rapidly, and then came across a small but fast moving stream, with leeches on the banks. My shoes got completely wet, but I would not dare remove them given the abundance of leeches. After trekking for about 3 hours we reached a much bigger river, with the highway on the otherside which we crossed slowly. While we were waiting for the bus to arrive to pick us up, some of us went for a swim in the river. It was a very beautiful experience for me since it was waist deep water, with soft sand underneath. The water was also not too fast or stagnant.
We got on the bus and reached Bangalore amongst a *huge* lot of dancing and shenanigans. I crashed at Shalesh's place for the next day, and then started back to Hyderabad on monday evening. Overall it was a great feeling about my childhood dream coming true. I still remember the time I spent wanting to walk the railway tracks of Araku valley (on the Visakhapatnam-Kirandul line) near my hometown. It feels so great to finally do something which you have given up on a long time ago, especially if it was a childhood dream!
