So here is yet another photoblog post. KGP-WDS6 loco which is the resident shunter at SHM-Shalimar was spotted carrying out the empty rakes of 22214 Patna Shalimar Duronto express from Shalimar railway station, sometime after the train arrived the station on November 27th. Wednesdays are somewhat busy days for SHM when relatiely more trains arrive to the station. So the two platform only station was required to be made free for the next arriving trains. In the wonderful foggy morning the shunter loco and the Duronto's rakes moving on the curves, resembled like a giant snake! There is no video for this picture, and it was just a casual click which I loved very much and thought of sharing here. I hope you all will also appreciate the same. Here is the RF Data:
Date: November 27, 2017
Place: Outskirts of SHM-Shalimar Railway Station.
Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway Loco:KGP WDS6 (no. 36250 - housed at SHM) Loco Shed: KGP - Kharagpur
Loco Zone: SER - South Eastern Railway
Train: Empty rakes of 22214 Patna Shalimar 'Duronto Express'.
Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.
So we had another odd guest from West Central Railway/ Madhya Pradesh. ET-Itarsi WAG5 (no. 23780) was spotted on November 27th in Shalimar/ South Eastern Railway territory. It was there to serve the 12885 Aranyak Express making another major offlink for the train. Usually the Aranyak Express gets a SRC-Santragachi WAP4 as its regular loco link, but it is also reputed to get many different kind of locos from different zones, which makes this train an interesting one to watch out. Today I was able to spot it with this WAG5 from Itarsi.
You can watch the train passing with the ET-Itarsi WAG5 loco here:
In the video above, you can see the train beautifully coming out in the fog from Shalimar. That is another interesting aspect of trainspotting in winter, even though sometimes lack of light makes trouble. I personally loved this approach and I hope you too will enjoy the same.
Aranyak Express runs everyday (except Sunday) from SHM-Shalimar to BJE-Bhojudih in Jharkhand covering approximately about 310 km. If you read my blog regularly, you are then aware that 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 past posts and even follow future posts about spotting the Aranyak Express here. While this goes as the last post for the month of November, I wish all my blog readers a very happy month of December. Thanks for all the support and I wish all of you good luck and good health.
So I have another photoblog update today. I am yet to write down a new blog post for yesterday's video about the unusual offlink of BHILAI WAG7 that hauled the 22861 Rajya Rani Express. Maybe I will write that later today or later on [Edit: it is already updated, read ithere], but now I thought of sharing another photoblog. This photo section is not often updated here on the blog, though I keep updating the instagram account regularly.
Today I stayed at PDPK and did not go towards Shalimar. I actually wanted to watch/ observe the inbound/ outbound trains in this route/ area which you can see in the picture above.
The 22836 Puri Shalimar and the 22214 Duronto Express both were almost on right time, despite dense winter fog. I was not at the station when the Duronto Express came in, but I checked NTES which notified that it came several minutes early than its actual arrival time!
Yesterday I stopped at PDPK-Padmapukur and SHM-Shalimar (outer) Railway stations for a short railfanning session. This is the first time I visited these stations since my last trip to central India earlier in this month. Winter has already arrived, so considering late sunrise and foggy conditions and thus low visibility, I started from home a bit late but luckily I was just in time as the 22861 Rajya Rani Express was about to cross PDPK.
In summer I would have reached the station area at least one hour earlier. Anyway I was exactly on time to find the train as it passed the station, and also it was a good decision to reach PDPK instead of SHM, otherwise I would have missed the train. The train takes somewhat between 2-4 minutes to arrive/ cross PDPK after starting from Shalimar which I had in my mind. As per new winter schedules, the train is leaving Shalimar 5 minutes early, at 0630 in the morning instead of 0635. Today there was a surprise offlink. I found a BIA-Bhilai WAG7 hauling the 22861 Rajya Rani Express, which was quite amusing. The Bhilai WAG7 (no. 27697) took out the train at a great speed which was quite impressive. Locos from Bhilai shed is quite rare at this part of the SER zone. Since I was late to reach PDPK I missed arrival of the loco to the station. Anyway it was so nice to spot the train and the loco. Watch the video of Bhilai WAG7 hauling the 22861 Rajya Rani here:
Earlier today I spotted twin NKJ-New Katni Junction's WAG5 locomotives [no. 23914 and 23908; you can see only the #23914 here] and they brought in a freight train to SHM-Shalimar Railway station's yard. This picture was taken at the outskirts of PDPK-Padmapukur Railway Station while the train was waiting for signal and thereafter was crawling very slowly.
You can see only the freshly painted WAG5 no. 23914 one, while the other WAG5 behind that was an older variant but appeared clean and neat as well. I did make a video of these locos and the freight train coming in through PDPK, which I shall share later on my YouTube channel. So I can say that this is sort of a preview of the upcoming post. I couldn't resist sharing this picture which I loved very much.
Many of you must be wondering, especially my Instagram and Twitterfollowers, what is the specialYouTube post that is supposed to come up today. So here it goes - I am taking you to Gwalior today, to show the Gwalior Light Railway. This video was actually kept safely in my archives for last two weeks, and was meant for a special occasion, like today, as my blog's arm onYouTube crossed a mini milestone of 2K subscribers.
As I wrote in previous posts that earlier this month I went on a long trip to central India. This was quite a long trip, actually a work cum backpacking trip, where I was supposed to cover about 4500+ km in 19 days. Unfortunately I fell sick and had to abort the trip midway and I boarded the train to home on the 11th day of the trip. So, sadly Gwalior happened to be the last stop of this wrecked trip. While I was supposed to meet some people and do office work in Gwalior, my main aim was to see the Gwalior Light Railway. The century old narrow gauge railway network, established by the Royals of the former Princely State of Gwalior, still exists but unfortunately now only on a single route, that too is vulnerable to gauge conversion.
Gwalior Light Railway is now wholly owned and operated by the north Central Zone of the Indian Railways. The station is located on the platform 5 of GWL-Gwalior Junction Railway station. There are about three (03) narrow gauge trains departs and three arrives in a day. The first train runs from Gwalior NG to Sheopur Kalan and it takes roughly about 10 hours to cover about 100+ km distance.
There has been serious efforts to convert this solely existing narrow gauge route into broad gauge. Now this existing route of Gwalior Light Railway is said to be world's longest narrow gauge railway route. There were efforts to secure UNESCO recognition for the same but it failed for some unknown reason. The tracks of route is also said to be the narrowest in the world. So if this route is discontinued for gauge conversion, something very special will be lost forever.
Featured here, is the 52175 Gwalior Sabalgarh Passenger. This was being hauled by a NDM5 Narrow Gauge diesel locomotive no. 807! You can watch the video here:
It was indeed a great experience to ride on this train. Actually I did not travel on this train as shown here, but I took the Gwalior - Sheopur Kalan one on the previous day. I managed to ride from Gwalior to Ghosipura, the first station on the route. I did not risk climbing on the train's roof due to my illness. Maybe next time if I am lucky!
Now, do take some time to read out the IRFCA page on Gwalior's NDM locos here.
I am so proud to cover and present Gwalior Light Railway to my blog readers and my blog's followers on other social media handles. I do have more media on Gwalior Light Railway which I shall share in future. I hope you like this special post celebrating a small achievement on YouTube.
Here is the RF Data: Date: November 10, 2017
Place: GWO - Gwalior Narrow Gauge Station
Zone (Spotting location): NCR - North Central Railway Loco:KGP - NDM5 NG Diesel Locomotive (no. 807)
This is one of my favourite picture among the recently taken ones. This was taken earlier this month on a railfanning session at PDPK railway station. KGP-Kharagpur shed's WDS6 shunter locomotive, (that is now resident within the SRC - SHM section), was spotted bringing in the 12660 SHM - Gurudev Express to SHM-Shalimar.
The train was crossing the platform of PDPK station when I took this picture. Railway shunting staff can be seen standing in front of the locomotive at an unusual but dangerous spot. These people are extraordinarily experienced and skillful otherwise general public should not even dream of trying such.
This post also carries a note of appreciation from me and my blog to these hardworking railway staff who silently keeps the whole railway operations going smoothly. I have also previously posted photos of shunting staff, and I again take a great pleasure in sharing this picture today. I wish you a great Sunday.
Announcement:
BTW there will be a special post on Soumo's Railways-'s YouTube Channel tomorrow, on November 27th, that will commemorate crossing of 2000 subscribers on the channel. Do keep an eye on the very special post.
Here is the RF Data: Date: November 01, 2017
Place: PDPK - Padmapukur Railway Station
Zone (Spotting location): SER - South Eastern Railway Loco:KGP - WDS6 Shunting Locomotive (no. 36036)
Loco Shed: KGP - Kharagpur
Loco Zone: SER - South Eastern Railway (housed at SRC & SHM)
Train: 12660 Shalimar Nagercoil Gurudev Express.
Thanks for stopping by. As always, corrections, comments, suggestions new ideas, travel tips (or anything) are very much welcome and appreciated.
This post continues as part of my spotting series of trains over the Gandak River Bridge that connects Hajipur and Sonepur, and the respective railway stations over theGandak river in Bihar. KTE Katni Junction-'s EMD WDG4(D) locomotive (no. 70420) was spotted hauling a freight train through the said Gandak River Rail bridge from Sonepur side towards Hajipur Junction (find the video below). It was such a great pleasure for me to spot this diesel beauty; it is quite advance loco of its kind with twin cabins. This loco is probably manufactured by the DLW 'Diesel Locomotive Works' Factory.
The video was taken from the Gandak River foot bridge along the Gandak river rail bridge, from Hajipur river bank. As I mentioned, the train was moving from Sonepur towards Hajipur across the Gandak river. You can see the location of the three parallel bridges on the Google map attached here. The Gandak River Bridge series is to continue for next few days, but I plan to have a very special post when my YouTube channel hits 2K Subscribers, which is close to hit the milestone, and I am quite excited while I keep that on hold for that special occasion. Crossing 2000 Subscribers is a very little achievement but I thank all my followers, blog readers for the constant support and encouragement, that keeps this blog active. Here is the video link of the loco passing the bridge:
Earlier today I posted this picture on Instagram commemorating my 100th post there. I took this picture while returning to Howrah from Gwalior, from the Window Seat of the 12176 Chambal Express. The golden paddy fields ready to harvest was so amazing to watch and this was located just outside of the Bardhaman Junction Railway station, and continued for miles as the train started crawling out of the station and entered the Barddhaman Howrah Chord Line.
What can be more appropriate than celebrating the beauty of your own country/ motherland for such occasion. When you travel by train, it takes you across the country and landscapes changes from state to state. The hilly rocky terrain of Madhya Pradesh on the previous day turned into fertile plain landscape of Bengal. Often this can be compared to the stories from fairytales that one hears in his or her childhood. Here is the RF Data: Date: November 11, 2017
