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.

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