Locomotives In Action - KANPUR WAG7, TATA WAM4, KGP WDS6 In Single Observation At SHM

Shunter WDS6 makes a guest appearance  © Soumo's Railways

Guest appearance! | © Soumo's Railways

Truly it was a sudden busy scene at SHM-Shalimar. There were so many locomotives, passing trains and activity spotted in a short while, and luckily I was able to capture all those in a single video that I have uploaded on YouTube. 

12885 Aranyak Express with Kanpur WAG7 | © Soumo's Railways

Firstly I was expecting the 12885 Aranyak Express as usual. I was quite surprised to find a Kanpur WAG7 for today's Aranyak Express. However I was standing at the station area for over one hour before this train left the station, but I did not spot the loco coming in - which usually arrives about roughly 30 minutes before the departure of the train. I waited and spotted the 22836 Puri Shalimar SF Express on which my father was coming from Bhubaneswar. Do read my previous post on this topic here. I was quite happy being greeted by the Loco Pilot of the 22836, which was a TATA WAM4. 

WDS6 accompanying TATA WAM4 | © Soumo's Railways

While I was ready to spot the Aranyak Express with my camera, the KGP WDS6 shunter tried a forceful guest appearance in the video. When luckily it passed away shortly (glad it was not shunting a bigger train or box wagons- otherwise I'd have missed the whole thing), I could film the Aranyak Express. The whole train in a single frame was a delight. I spot the Aranyak Express quite regularly. Mainly because this train gets so many kind of different locomotives which is a train spotters delight. You can read all my post about spotting the Aranyak Express here.

When 12885 left the station, it was turn of the TATA WAM4, which wanted to leave after serving the 22836 Puri Shalimar SF Express on the previous night travelling almost about 500+ kilometers from Puri in Odisha to Shalimar in West Bengal. The loco was escorted for a while by another WDS6 shunter which stopped and the WAM4 left slowly afterwards.

You can watch the entire video of all these actions at the video link/ thumbnail below:

Here is the RF Data:

Date: October 25, 2017

Place: Near SHM - Shalimar Railway Station.

Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: Multiple (see below):

- Kanpur WAG7 no 27986 for 12885 Aranyak Express;

- KGP - Kharagpur WDS6 Shunter locomotive (02 nos);

Leaving after duty | © Soumo's Railways

- TATA- Tatanagar WAM4 no. 21375.
Loco Sheds:
- Kanpur for WAG7 no 27986 for 12885 Aranyak Express;

- KGP - Kharagpur for the WDS6 Shunter locomotive;

- TATA- Tatanagar for WAM4 no. 21375.

Loco Zones:

- NCR - North Central railway = Kanpur WAG7;

- SER - South Eastern Railway = KGP - Kharagpur WDS6 Shunter;

- SER - South Eastern Railway = TATA- Tatanagar for WAM4.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumo's Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

A Very Special One Again: Being Greeted By LP & Spotting The 22836 PURI SHM SF Express

22836 Coming in through PDPK | © Soumos Railways

Something very nice happened on this RF session - please read on. Today (25th October), I was at Shalimar to receive my father who was returning from Bhubaneswar on the 22836 Puri Shalimar SF Express. He went on a work trip to Odisha, but thought of returning home earlier than scheduled date for some reason. Last evening (24th), he asked me to book any ticket to Howrah, but I was not able to book on the IRCTC website for some strange reason. The website couldn't process my payment even after 8 attempts. Fortunately no payment was deducted. So I asked him to contact his travel agent who later made arrangements for his return on this train.

TATA WAM4 in charge | © Soumos Railways

I was not supposed to be there at the station today (25th), the weather was again gloomy, and rainy; though I have heard many railfans actually prefer this type of weather for photography, I absolutely hate the same. I always feel the camera works quite nice on sunny days. However I had to be there for my father. I was standing with my camera for the train at PDPK, and asked my father to spot me as well, but somehow I see that he missed me.

Closer view | © Soumos Railways

The train was hauled by a TATA Tatanagar WAM4 locomotive no 21375; and this was an offlink for the train. These oldies are not at all regular for this train maintained by the East Coast Railway. However this loco belongs to SER Zone (Tatanagar) and came in to SER Zone area (Shalimar) as well. BTW you can see shunting of the 22214 Patna Shalimar Duronto express which came in to the station about an hour ago. I was still sleeping at home when it came in.

Though 22836 came in very slowly from Santragachi to Shalimar, as you can see in the video, this is a very nice and fast running train. I have travelled on this train several times before and I love this train. But then I would suggest SER to kindly pay a little more attention to coach maintenance. My father reported spotting mice/ rodents on the coaches.

This made my morning & the day! © Soumos Railways

Now again as a very special gesture, the loco pilot himself came out and waved at me. That was so much appreciated. After driving the train whole night with immense responsibility, he was indeed very generous to share a kind smile. I am aware how stressful these jobs are and I have seen LPs tired and exhausted after their duties. All the very best to this gentleman and to all his colleagues at IR - lots of love from me and from all readers and followers of 'Soumo's Railways' blog. 

You can watch the video of 22836 Puri Shalimar arriving at SHM via PDPK at the video link below:

On the next blog post that is coming up on 28th October, read and watch about very busy rail activity at Shalimar Station. Kanpur WAG7 was spotted hauling Aranyak Express (offlink), WDS6 Shunter of SHM tried to forcefully appear in the video, and our TATA WAM4 that brought in the 22836 Puri Shalimar SF Express left the station after Aranyak Express. All these coming up on the blog and on YouTube, on 28th October. I shall also link the newer updates here.

Here is the RF Data:

Date: October 25, 2017

Place: Near PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station.

Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway

Bad weather. IndiGo aircraft | © Soumos Railways

Loco: TATA WAM4 no. 21375
Loco Shed: TATA Tatanagar
Loco Zone: SER South Eastern Railway
Train: 22836 Puri Shalimar SF Express

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumos Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

OFFLINK: Crawler Express Crawls Out Of SHM With Mughalsarai WAP4

Coming out of SHM | © Soumo's Railways

Actually this was supposed to be the first update for the October 21st spotting, as this train, 18030, was first spotted before the 22641 Thiruvananthapuram Shalimar Express came in (read my last blog post here); but anyway I am writing about this now. Honestly I was only expecting to spot the 22641, and 18030 was actually not in my mind. I did note that 18029 already arrived at SHM before I arrived at the spotting area; and I almost forgot that 18030 is scheduled to leave SHM at around 1500, as I was waiting for 22641 which was almost about 2 hours late. As I wrote in my last blog post that I had to abandon a rf session earlier that morning due to heavy rain, but got a chance to do some quick spottings later in the afternoon.

MGS Mughalsarai WAP4 hauling 18030 | © Soumo's Railways

So the 18030 Shalimar - Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Kurla Express was found crawling out of Shalimar. To my knowledge, the train is reputed to be a notoriously slow mover, stopping at a lot of stations between Shalimar and LTT Terminus of Mumbai. For this reason it has hard earned the reputation of being SER's Crawler King!

Making an offlink, the loco hauling the train was a MGS - Mughalsarai WAP4 locomotive. It was so nice to see the Mughalsarai WAP4. A Mughalsarai loco was spotted by me at Shalimar after a long time. Mostly MGS-Mughalsarai WAG7 locos come in to this station. You can check my Youtube for sightings of Mughalsarai locos (click here). BTW it is already news that Mughalsarai Junction is renamed as 'Deen Dayal Upadhaya Nagar', which has given birth to several controversies.

You can watch the video of the train leaving Shalimar Railway Station at the video thumbnail/ link mentioned below:

Unfortunately I am scheduled to board this same train (18029) from Nagpur later next month. I made tickets on this train as other trains like, especially the 'Mumbai - Howrah mail' (which was my first choice) had no tickets even at mid of October. So maybe you all can send me your sympathies for my journey on this crawler express. Anyway I am happy that I will be arriving at my home station after a long trip scheduled next month.

Here is the RF data:

Towards PDPK | © Soumo's Railways

Date: October 21 2017

Place: Near PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station.

Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: MGS Mughalsarai WAP4 no. 22815
Loco Shed: MGS - Mughalsarai
Loco Zone: ECR East Central Railway
Train: Outbound 18030 Shalimar - Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Terminus Express.

BTW I am happy to be back on Instagram. I will resume making updates there. Thank you so much for the continued support.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumo's Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

22641 Thiruvananthapuram Shalimar SF Express Spotted Near PDPK

Howrah WAP4 hauls the train | © Soumos Railways

Today (21st Oct) was such a cloudy, gloomy, rainy and a dull day. It rained so heavily last night and continued till late today morning. Due to this heavy unseasonal downpour, I had to abandon the rf session at SHM earlier this morning which I was planning since earlier this week. It was however a busy day, we were celebrating Bhai dooj but I was back home by 1330, and the rain somewhat also stopped so I thought of going to Shalimar until my mom cooked the lunch. She was also travelling with me so we both were late.

Towards Shalimar | © Soumos Railways

I was able to spot two trains this afternoon, first was the 18030 Shalimar LTT Express (this post and video is published on 24th October, read this blog post here) and when the LTT one left, came in was the 22641 Shalimar Express Thiruvananthapuram Central - Shalimar SF Express. Probably that was standing somewhere waiting for signal to come in. The Trivandrum Shalimar train was hauled by a Howrah WAP4 locomotive no. 22525. It is always great to see my home town's flag carriers.

The video of 22641 Shalimar Express Thiruvananthapuram Central - Shalimar SF Express (PT), coming in through PDPK can be seen through the video link below:

Please excuse me but maybe due to cloudy weather and low light, my camera was not able to focus properly. Maybe I need to play more with the settings of the new camera. I had to cut off a few sections as the footage was too shaky, strong wind was the culprit by shaking my umbrella and my hand. However after edit I think it is not too bad to watch.

Green Bea Eater | © Soumos Railways

BTW I spotted a 'Green Bee Eater' bird today on the tracks where I was standing and waiting for these trains. This is first time I saw this bird in my hometown, beautiful isn't it. Maybe the closer location of the station to the 'Shibpur Botanical Garden', which is a birdwatchers' paradise in itself - so many different types of birds can be seen at this stretch along the rail tracks. Maybe I should do a separate post dedicated to my experience of birdwatching while railfanning here.

Here is the RF data:

Date: October 21 2017

Place: Near PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station.

Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: Howrah WAP4 no. 22525
Loco Shed: HWH Howrah
Loco Zone: ER Eastern Railway
Train: Inbound 22641 Shalimar Express Thiruvananthapuram Central - Shalimar SF Express (PT)

Train Board Inscriptions (Vernacular): തിരുവനന്തപുരം സെൻട്രൽ - ഷാലിമാർ സൂപ്പർഫാസ്റ്റ് എക്സ്പ്രസ്സ്‌ / तिरूवनंतपुरम सेंट्रल - शालिमार सुपरफास्ट एक्सप्रेस.

Towards Station | © Soumos Railways

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumos Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

Diwali Special!! Loco Pilot Himself Comes Out To Greet The Railfan!! (From The Archives)

Loco Pilot Sharing A Smile! | © Soumo's Railways

This is sort of a Diwali Special video, but whether it is Diwali special or not, it is indeed a special and rare one for me as a railfan. This is an unpublished video from the archives - It was such a rare occasion when a loco pilot himself came out of a moving locomotive and shares a smile with me while I was taking pictures of his locomotive! It was such a kind gesture and was very very much appreciated.

The concerned locomotive we are talking about was a GONDA locomotive, details about the loco and Gonda shed can be found on my previous blog post here.

You can watch this special video here in the video thumbnail below:

However please excuse me for the video quality. This is an old video as I mentioned above, taken with the old camera which is already retired and replaced with a better one. The same loco that came in to Shalimar with the freight train can be viewed in the video thumbnail below, and you can read that old blog post here. Another loco pilot of the same loco was spotted watching me as well! Here goes the related one:

The Gonda WAG7 when it came in | ©Soumo's Railways

Here is the RF data:

Date: September 11, 2017

Place: Near PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station.

Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: GONDA WAG7 no. 27216
Loco Shed: GONDA - Gonda
Loco Zone: NER, North Eastern Railway
Train: Not applicable; locomotive going towards shed.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumos Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

Happy Diwali! Post Dedicated To The Shunter: Kharagpur WDS6 Of SHM

KGP WDS6 locomotive | © Soumos Railways

This post is a bit late though as the video was up already on yesterday, this blog and I aim to update the social media accounts after writing this blog post. It is mainly I am a bit occupied with all the Diwali celebrations. However honestly it is not actually 'celebrations' though, but I rather I am trying to rest as a very long work trip awaits for me in the next month of November. Also a reason for not celebrating is a sudden rainy weather here in the Howrah and Kolkata region formed due to a depression condition, so everything is now wet, windy and gloomy as it is absolutely not expected at this festive time of the year.

Happy Diwali from Soumos Railways Blog!

This post is the last update of the October 6th series, and new sightings and spottings will follow in the upcoming blog posts and on Youtube, the same can be followed at the other social media updates of Soumo's Railways. Oh the About section of the blog is also updated meanwhile.

Shunter locomotives are silent hard workers at a railway station that provides important service. This WDS6 locomotive (no 06183**) is the resident shunter of SHM Shalimar and also serves between SRC-Santragachi and the SHM-Shalimar section. I love this veteran loco, BTW I was initially not very much interested in diesel locomotives, but following some recent discussion threads on Facebook groups and thereafter reading some articles, I think I have gained some interest in diesel ones. So if possible I shall try to make some work on the diesel locomotives in the future.

I wish a very Happy Diwali to all my blog readers, may your new year be a prosperous one!


The video of the WDS6 shunter loco coming out through the PDPK station, can be found here in the video thumbnail below:

Here is the RF Data:

Date: October 06, 2017
Place: PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station.
Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: KGP WDS6 no. 06183** (diesel)
Loco Shed: KGP - Kharagpur.
Loco Zone: SER South Eastern Railway
Train: Not applicable; shunter locomotive.
** I need to verify & update the loco sl no.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumos Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.

Snake Like Crawl Of The 12885 Aranyak Express

Aranyak Express | © Soumos Railways

Snake like crawl | © Soumos Railways

I loved spotting this particular departure of the 12885 Aranyak Express. I was almost half kilometer away from the station and was aiming to shoot the passing of the train with my camera. The train came out and crawled like a snake as it appeared like that very much.

Approaching train | © Soumos Railways

Aranyak Express runs everyday (except Sunday) from SHM-Shalimar to BJE-Bhojudih covering approximately about 310 km. This is a frequently spotted train on my blog. You can read all posts about my spottings of the Aranyak Express here. More information on train can be found here.

The snake like crawling video can be viewed in the link below:

Curious Loco Pilot | © Soumos Railways

Here is the RF Data
Date: October 06, 2017
Place: Near SHM-Shalimar & PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Stations.
Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway
Loco: WAP4 no. 22500
Loco Shed: SRC - Santragachi.
Loco Zone: SER South Eastern Railway
Train: 12285 Aranyak Express, outbound from SHM.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.

© Soumos Railways | Do connect with #SoumosRailways 
on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Instagram.