Amrapali Express Crosses The Grand Gandak River Rail Bridge!!

Amrapali Express Crossing Gandak River Bridge | © Soumo's Railways

As I wrote in my previous posts, that earlier in this month I went on a 19 day trip to central India and in this whole trip I was expected to cover quite a distance of about 4500+ km; but unfortunately I had to abandon the trip midway due to bad health and I returned home on the 10th day. This was very much a work trip but I had kept enough provisions of seeing around, so I was quite excited. Anyway whatever trip I was able to make was very memorable.

My first stop was Patna & Hajipur in Bihar, and I happened to visit the famous 'Cattle Fair' of Sonepur. Which is a few miles away from Patna and Hajipur as well. The 'Gandak Rail Bridge' in Sonepur really attracted me. I literally stood for hours on the British era foot bridge next to it and watched trains, instead of roaming in the fair. I have several updates of trainspotting on this bridge, I shall share them in due course.

Bridges over the Gandak river | © Soumo's Railways

The Katihar to Amritsar 15708 Amrapali Express appeared gracefully through this majestic bridge while I was standing at the Gandak river bank in Sonepur. Actually this is also my first sighting of a train on this bridge. The train was being hauled by a GD - Gonda WAP4 no. 22613. To my knowledge (from Wikipedia page), this is one of the 3 WAP4s of the Gonda loco shed. A dead or sleeping WAG9 was also attached with it. I could not ascertain the loco shed of the WAG9.

You can watch the train crossing the bridge here:

My visit to the Sonepur Mela was a disappointment. The famous fair was absolutely nothing which I had expected. Not talking about Bihar natives, if you live near the state of Bihar and if it is easy for you to visit Sonepur, you may visit the Sonepur fair, but if you live far away, I do not recommend you to visit the fair. The main attractions of the fair, ie. the trade of elephants and the famous bird market has been discontinued from this year by the government. The other animal market exists very poorly and there is hardly anything to see compared to its previous might. (read the Times of India report about this situation here, report if link is broken). This fair is now like any other big size fair that you may find in your state.

Towards Sonepur Station | © Soumo's Railways

Here is the RF Data:

Date: November 04, 2017

Place: Gandak Rail Bridge at Sonepur, Bihar.

Zone (Spotting location): ECR - East Central Railway
Loco: GD - Gonda WAP4 (no. 22613)
Loco Shed: GD - Gonda and a WAG9 (unknown shed)

Loco Zone: North Eastern Railway (for Gonda Loco shed)

Train: 15708 Amrapali 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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