Tata WAG-5A comes to rescue failed ABR WDM-2A with Sare Jahan Se Acha Express
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About 1 hour late running 19606 Ajmer (AII)- Kolkata Chitpur Terminal (KOAA) Weekly Express headed by a dead ABR WDM- 2A and 23491 WAG- 5A of TATA shed does almost 100 km/hr through Mirzapur Bankipur station on HB Chord enroute through the Down main line. The alco hauls...
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the train throughout the entire journey, even after covering more than 300 kms in electrified stretch between Barkakana and Howrah. And somewhere in between Barkakana and Dhanbad, the alco failed, due to which the TATA Waggie was called as a rescuer, and it hauled the dead loco and the train for the rest of the journey. It was a clinical performance from the Waggie, considering the fact that the train was hardly one hour behind schedule.
This train gets a whole hell of loco links.. Name the shed, and this train has got it.. Howrah, Patratu, Abu Road, Itarsi, Tughlakabad, Jhansi and so on.. This East-West train gets average patronage on the Eastern part, but runs fairly crowded on the Western half of the country.. Once this train is extended to Ahmedabad (as announced in budget 2012-13) after the Ajmer- Ahmedabad gauge conversion project is completed, expect the train to run densely crowded throughout the journey..Afterall, Kolkata has just one daily train (4 trains overall) at the moment, that connects ADI with HWH/ SRC.
SARE JAHAN SE ACCHA Express uses the KOAA- Asansol- Dhanbad- Barkakana- Katni Murwara- Bina- Bhopal- Ratlam- Ajmer route.
Giving me company on the trip were railfans Anal Ghosh and Riksanyal.