the next set of pictures captured across my journey on the 12371!
presenting the historical and legendary station of bardhaman through the lens of my phone!
continued from here /blog/post/1849072 . my primary intention was to capture the xinging sdah & hwh rajs and coalfield, however call it an irony, i fell slightly asleep when it happened. by the time i was awake, it was bwn!
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mighty bwn jn has shared all the historical doings and undoings on the hwh-dli railway line since it's inception. bardhaman or bordhomaan in bengali is one of the biggest cities of west bengal. a city full of history and evoking cultural literacy throughout it, bwn finds itself embedded very deep in traditional bengali culture. the birthplace of many a bengali poet/novelist/playright bwn has always found itself in the cusp of bengali literature. this has primarily due to high patronage that the erstwhile king of burdwan gave to art and literature!
bwn isn't as well known as either asansol (asn) or durgapur (dgr) but it easily predates either of them. while asn & dgr may have robbed some of bwn's fame by the virtue of their multiple industrial landmarks and accomplishements, bardhaman still retains the prized position of being the district hq of the region!
bardhaman is famous for a lot of things and it happens to one of my favourite cities! the city is covered by a eye-soothing and lush green layer of trees and plants something you particularly wouldn't find a lot in either kolkata or asansol!
i have several relatives and friends at bwn wgich means that i am a frequenter of bwn jn. however it has been my regret that i haven't any meet railfan based in bardhaman, some of whom are amongst the most knowledgable on iri, for example anirudh (he is much younger to me and yet knows a whole deal). archie who was until recently one of the most followed members on iri, is on my 'meeting list' too.
i also want to meet up with biswajeet who posts some of the most beautiful pictures and videos on the hwh-bwn high speed railway section! hope for a 'pujo special' visit to bwn this year, hope everything turns up alright :)
bwn has one of the best 'rajbari pujos' in west bengal and a visit there is highly recommended from my side :p
anyway just like hwh, bwn has a rich tie up with railway history too courtesy the erstwhile east indian railways (eir)! when the british started constructing a line from capital calcutta, bwn wasn't included in it. the line ran only upto pandooah and bandel (bdc) beat bwn to get first connected by railways to hwh. bdc which was another historical town (it is most famous for the 400 year old bandel church) and an resident area for a lot of britishers and anglo-indians and hence was devloped into a main junction station with one line shooting off towards katwa (kwe). after bwn was linked to hwh however bdc's importance reduced and bwn devloped rapidly.....
then came the 'sahebganj loop' followed the 'hwh-dli main line','the hwh bwn chord line' and finally the 'grand chord' the details of which i have mentioned earlier! since i have already mentioned about them in my earlier posts (kindly look in the forum section of the train no 12371) i have no further interest in wasting any of your precious time, any further!
photo 1 captures a ludhiana wag-7 towing a series parcel van rakes!
photo 2 captures the famous the iso certified bwn diesel loco shed as 12371 slows down because of the multiple crossover points at that place.
photo 3:- as 12371 slowly devours bardhaman an orange 'hanumanji' bwn alco can be seen in the background. it had drawn the mayurakhsi fast passenger to rest at bwn.
photo 4 has already been used for quiz once. it shows the mayurakshi fast passenger at it's full glory at bwn!
photo 5 shows the 12371 sedately skipping bwn, mayurakshi and other platforms (filled with passengers) are also visible.
photo 6 shows the xing with a stationary and empty 'bwn-hwh' emu rake!
photo 7 shows the almost constructed mighty burdwan bridge in full glory. soon to be completed this bridge is said to be one of the accomplishments of the country's civil engineering!
photo 8 shows the famed burdwan outer. just a few 100 metres from where this photo was clicked, the bardhaman-bolgona-katwa line branches off. it is already a single electrified bg from bardhaman to bolgona and the remaining line to katwa is soon set to be completed too. it would be a blessing for people wishing to go to katwa from the asansol durgapur side and hopefully soon enough an asn-kwe intercity being introduced, is on the cards!
and finally photo 9 shows the bwn wdm-2 18595 , gliding gracefully away with the bwn-sbg passenger in it's tow!
your views are most welcome :)