Rail fanning at Patra ,Bhopal.The day 139 & trainenquiry.com let us down :-(

After deciding the previous night that we will be heading to some place or the other to capture the newly introduced Haridwar Junction (HW) - Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) AC express ,I and Ujjawal Kashyap didnt exchange any message until  Ujjawal rang me up around 10:30am ,though awake I wasn't out of bed yet ,before he requested I switched on my laptop and by the time he asked me to check the status of HW-LTT AC express ,it was already being displayed on the screen in front of me,it was around 2 hours late ,the www.trainenquiry. com (for those who don't know ,it is the official site of the  Indian Railways dedicated     to train arrival and departure timings) gave the ETA ( Estimated Time of Arrival ) as 12:35pm,I got ready and left home on my scooter  around 11:45am ,I met Ujjawal on the way and here we were heading towards Patra river bridge ,it was about 10 Km away from our place but straight roads through the National Highway meant we reached there in almost 15mins,on the way we saw a BOXNHL rake passing under the Karod overbridge but we couldn't see the locomotive  that was powering it.Finally we were at our rail fanning spot ,I  parked my scooter  near the tracks and we walked along the tracks to the nearest curve ,we waited for a while and finally at 12:30 pm a Tiger face liveried WAG-7 27526 of Gomoh Electric Loco Shed went past us with a BTPN(oil tankers) rake in tow.Check the pic -

This made me suspicious about the status of AC exp ,remember 2 goods train had passed during this slot,even though Ujjawal was optimistic about the train arriving late than the previous status of it being 2 hours late ,the pessimist in me came out and I pressed those 3 unlucky digits "1-3-9" (139,the official number of Indian Railways for passenger services enquiry )and the news was HW-LTT AC express had already reached Bhopal Junction at 11:55 am ,Ujjawal couldnt  believe it,just some hours ago he had got the response that the train was 2 hours late but I told him they may sometimes give us the wrong ETA but for sure they wont give the wrong information about the train already reaching a particular station.

Anyway I wasnt disappointed much ,as I felt that that it wasn't our fault,anyway Ujjawal still expected the train to come,that wasn't going to be in any case,finally it was time to overcome this disappointment,the wait continued and  at 12:45 pm an ET WDM-3D 11209 (ET means Itarsi and WDM-3D is a 3300 HP diesel locomotive on Indian Railways ) with a pink ET DLS logo over it thundered past us with Jodhpur-Bhopal.Pic here-

Jodhpur-Bhopal Express

Suddenly I saw those tiny aircrafts and motor powered  gliders flying around ,immediately we switched ourselves  from rail fanning mode to plane fanning mode and our cameras started to look at the sky rather than keeping an eye on the proceedings on the land,we  were busy clicking when something similar to the honey bee but much bigger in size started buzzing around Ujjawal,he had to run around for a while before getting rid of this insect,it literally followed him ,so much that he was panting at the end of the whole excercise.Personally I enjoyed watching the tactics between a man and an insect :-O...hhehee :-D .

Ujjawal being chased by that buzzing insect

We came back to our original railfanning mode at 1:11 pm when a WAP-4 shell NKJ WAG-7 #28033 (WAG-7 is a 5000 HP electric locomotive and NKJ refers to the New Katni Electric Loco Shed) passed with BOXN (top open coal wagons)rake and as usual the coal not only filled every inch inside the wagon but also made a small hillock over it.

It was 1:23 pm when the nearest signal turned green and we could see the nearby LC(level crossing ) was also closed.I stood on higher level than the tracks to observe the loco link early,as I shouted "Jhansi WAG-5" ,Ujjawal asked me whether twins or single ,I replied "single" ,this didnt excite him much and he decided not to shoot but suddenly as the train approached ,he loudly told me they are twins !! ,he quickly took out his camera and clicked some fantastic pics!

(actually I was so disappointed on seeing the JHS WAG-5 (another class of electric locos ) that I wasnt able to observe carefully whether it was twin headed or not)

Then we had to wait for 30 minutes  for any kind of action (thats too much on this Bhopal - Bina - New Delhi  section) and finally the silence was broken by a speeding BSL WAP-4 22297 (WAP-4 is a 5000 HP electric loco ,BSL refers to Bhusaval) with GKP(Gorakhpur Junction) -LTT  Kushinagar Express.The dry spell continued,I pressed "139" again and again something disappointing,the Bhopal Shatabdi was late by 30mins ,I spent time doing useless stuff like clicking skies and nearby greenery ,the fields etc.I was resting on the heap of ballast which was neatly set up in the shape of pyramidal frustum ,I did disturb that a bit ;-)  and as I was sitting idle looking at the "red" signal ,I saw something that suddenly took me to excited state,no that wasnt on seeing Shatabdi express  , it was on seeing Camels!! , I spent time clicking camels and traditionally dressed women ,its quite remarkable that these people walk miles with their camels and come so far away from their real home.

Finally after clicking them, I had to do something for which I had really come over here and yeah I did that by taking a low angle-semi low angle shot of AJNI WAG-9 31103 banked  on the curve at 2:51 pm,then I went back to my place i.e. on to the heap of ballast (the ballast is for the upcoming Bhopal-Bina  third line) and within minutes , at 2:53pm ,the KING(Shatabdi Express, the fastest train in India ) came in full glory ,the power was WAP-5 30024(WAP-5 locos are the fastest locos in India at present)  ,the blue LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch based designs but actually made at Rail Coach Factory ,Kapurthala , Punjab ) coaches with large windows as always really looked beautiful.

New Delhi -Bhopal Shatabdi Express (the fastest train in India)

It was time to call it a day ,when Ujjawal spotted something ,a telescopic view through his high zoom camera showed it to be a BSL WAM-4 (another electric loco class ,most of them are more than 35 years old but still going strong )  ,though we knew this was GKP-LTT Super  Fast  express ,the question was whether it was having LHB hybrid rake behind it or not,within minutes the wammie moved and unleashed its full power and passed right in front of us at 2:59 pm,just 6 mins behind the Bhopal Shatabdi,that was just super...unbelievable chase .It was sure that announcements must be going on at Bhopal Junction about the change of platform for GKP-LTT SF as the the usual PF 1 would be occupied by the KING.

WAM-4 class electric locomotives ,really old but still going strong.

Everything  over ,now we were heading towards my scooter  ,when we heard a loco honking at the curve ,it was a WAG-5 ,Ujjawal quickly identified it to be a BNDM(Bondamunda Junction)  loco but as it came closer it was clear that it was a Jhansi WAG-5,it was recent transfer to JHS and the loco WAG-5 23161 "CHETAK" still carried the BNDM logo over it.The container rake behind it looked beautiful.

Ujjawal was bang in middle of Down line capturing the WAG-5 when a Barbie doll liveried  BSL WAG-5A 23337 came with BTPN rake in tow,there was ample time to move away as we had seen it coming quite early.

Finally at 3:20pm ,without waiting for the 12001 Shatabdi or the Dadar - Amritsar  express I headed back home ,after reaching home ,I  immediately switched on the TV to watch the India vs New Zealand  warm up  match before the ICC Cricket World Cup.