Here I want to list the top railways rules that you must be aware of before you avail any Railway/IRCTC services.

IRCTC

• Maximum of 10/tickets per account limit
• Fastest way to pay online at IRCTC is by SBI, HDFC Bank etc accounts worst by ICICI bank account
• Booking open 23 hours( closed from 11:30 pm - 12:30 am)
• Best browser for booking will be Google Chrome, Maxthon etc. Never use Internet Explorer.

Booking

• Tatkal ticket booking timings are from 10am - 12 am for
• No refund for cancellation of confirmed Tatkal tickets. Even though Railways allows cancellation of it but you will get Rs. 0 refund(this message will be shown)
• Tatkal quota opens 1 day before
• Booking can be done for 120 days advance
• Lower birth quota can only be booked from reservation counter
• Waitlisted E-Tickets passengers can also travel in train and no refund for them will be given as their names appear in charts(only if at least 1 seat is confirmed, otherwise all stand cancelled automatically). To get a refund after chart preparation for such tickets you need to file TDR's. In 99% cases you will not get refund after filing TDR's.
• Timing of reservation counters is from 8am - 8pm on all days. On Sundays it is up to 2pm only
• 10:45-11 am tea break is there in all reservation counters
• If seats from Kolkata - Chennai are not available then try booking in hops : Kolkata - Vishakapatnam and then Vishakapatnam to Chennai

Traveling

• ID card must for all A.C. tickets(at least one person must have it)
• In case of Tatkal tickets ID card must for the person which booked the ticket. If that person does not travel then his ID card in original along with ID card of all other passengers must also be carried
• Always carry school id cards of your children above 5 years while traveling