Rockfort Superfast Express
The Rockfort Superfast Express is a Superfast Express overnight Express rail connecting Tiruchirappalli with Chennai Egmore via Villupuram in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This train serves as the main connectivity to the state capital,Chennai city and the town of Tiruchirappalli District along the route. Background and Relevance. The eponymous train is named after the famous 12th-century fortress Rockfort temple in the heart of Tiruchirapalli. The train originally ran between Madras Egmore and Tiruchirappalli Junction on the 'Chord Line'. Later, when the 'Main Line' was closed for operations to facilitate gauge conversion projects , a part of this train was extended to Thanjavur Junction as Rockfort Link Express (6177A/ 6178A). It was further extended to Kumbakonam during the Mahamaham festival. The extended run was truncated effective September 2013. The entire formation now runs up to Tiruchirappalli Junction. Converted as Superfast Express from 08.06.2017 & Renumbered as (12653/12654). Coming August-1 2022 this train will be celebrating its Golden jubilee- 50years of proud service. This train originally had a signal-green livery, with a yellow stripe along the upper and lower part of windows. It later was changed to the standard VB Maroon-livery when it was  run on the MG. On BG it ran with the Conventional ICF coaches and later it is converted to LHB rake. Rakes. The Rockfort Superfast Express is one of the very few prestigious trains in the Indian Railways to have coaches of all the six classes of Indian Railway. It was running with 23 LHB coaches including an AC First Class, AC 2-Tier, First class, AC 3-tier, Sleeper Class and General Sitting compartments. It is nicknamed as VIP Train since its inception, because it's one of the few trains in olden days of IR to have AC  compartments and that many famous politicians and wealthy people patronise it. It is also nicknamed Sleep-killer train as this train reaches its destination in both directions in early hours of morning, as a result of speeding up of this train due to double electrified 110kmph chord line . First Class coaches were removed in May 2014, as per railway policy. New LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches has been allotted for this train. The train runs with LHB coaches from 26 September 2016, due to this the Composition of the train has been changed to accommodate Generator cars with 22 coaches . Later due to greater demand of Unreserved coaches additional GS was added and now running with 22 same coaches, making it one of few LHB trains to run with 22 coaches. The train usually runs to full capacity. The Coaches have RSA with Pandian Superfast Express and Cholan Express Schedule. The train numbered 12654 departs from Trichy Junction at 22:50 (10:50 PM IST) Hours and arrives Viluppuram Junction by 01:25 AM IST Hours and reaches Chennai Egmore at 04:10 AM IST Hours the next day. The pairing train numbered 12653 starts at 23:35 (11:35 PM IST) Hours from Chennai Egmore  and arrives Viluppuram Junction by 01:55 AM IST and reaches Trichy Junction at 04:55 hours the next day. Maintenance. The Primary Maintenance of the coaches are managed at SSE/C&W/MDU, there is no Secondary maintenance required.