The Unseen Jewels of Bihar's Meter Gauge

Prelude: Since we were arriving from Patna there was no overnighter from Patna to Darbhanga so we took Capital Express to Barauni and then switched over to 13185 SDAH-JYG Ganga Sagar Express. While we were waiting for our ride till Sakri this night action

We had arrived at Lohna road by an Autuo and then trekked to this spot. As we had just stationed ourselves near a viaduct a morning Service from Nirmali to Sakri arrives after crossing Lohna Road from Jhanjharpur (Trayambak Ojha)

After trekking for almost 2 kilometers we reached the first viaduct of the route from Sakri to Jhanjharpur. This was a concrete viaduct and was BG ready (Trayambak Ojha)

The MG train to Laukaha Bazaar appears at this small viaduct. After a long R&D by Akshay we landed at this second viaduct which preceded the previous one at a gap of approximately 200m. (Trayambak Ojha)

This small viaduct gave us ample angles and locations to capture the MG trains from different angles. seen here is the train at Noon over a dried up stream (Trayambak Ojha)

A Meter gauge service with a nice shiny blue livery from Narkatiaganj appears through the trees,palms and farms of Bihar (Trayambak Ojha)

The moment we hit the highway with the auto we had hired we rushed along and soon we were able to capture the train darting towards Sakri (Trayambak Ojha)

Chasing the train right from Jhanjharpur and many places enroute this was the shot which was missing from our camera and here it came with a smoke being belched to our joy. (Trayambak Ojha)

A closer look the loco which had bowled us totally. Such action will not be seen in future sadly as the BG work is going in full flow (Trayambak Ojha)

A battery of diesel MG locos and some with older liveried locos as well lying in the MG diesel loco shed at Jhanjharpur (Trayambak Ojha)

As we were waiting for the MG train to be captured along with the Khalasi waving the Green Flag. At that moment a strong dust storm arrived creating a different atmosphere (Trayambak Ojha)

As we had stationed ourselves at vantage points on the viaduct to capture the first train on the bridge, this handsome looking loco hauled MG train arrived with caution (Trayambak Ojha)

This is how the Rail-Road bridge at Jhanjharpur looks like. The viaduct looks in a very sorry state of affairs and seemed that it will collapse any moment. (Trayambak Ojha)

A wider view of the Jhanjharpur Rail/Road viaduct on the Kamala River as the afternoon service runs througha seemingly frail viaduct (Trayambak Ojha)

And here goes the last MG train we captured for the day at this unique and amazing viaduct at Jhanjharpur (Trayambak Ojha)

This is the mechanism how the Rial-Road bridge works here. The LC is is like this at both the ends and once the train disappears like this the LC is opened and then the chaos of traffic begins as to which side crosses the bridge first (Trayambak Ojha)

The view of the viaduct as the train arrives late. The water had dried up even before a full flow summer had arrived. (Trayambak Ojha)

The Jhanjharpur yard was a very attractive one with rolling stocks of all kinds. (Trayambak Ojha)

The Jhanjharpur Station board as it is. The unique part was it also mentioned Maithili script. A four language board is rare in IR (Trayambak Ojha)

But the one I was most interested in was this MG parcel rake which looked really amazing. Looked really handsome. (Trayambak Ojha)

The Rail-Raod parallel ends at Jhanjharpur like this here as we see the full view of the entire Jhajharpur yard and DLS (Trayambak Ojha)

The last shot of the MG action for the day. It was an amazing sight seeing the train traversing through amazing farmlands of Bihar (Trayambak Ojha)

A fruitful Day capturing wonderful MG action ends with this Burdwan alco hauled Ganga Sagar Express appearing at Sakri Jn,John Woo style fluttering the birds. (Trayambak Ojha)

A scanned copy of the heritage cardboard ticket from Lohna Road to Sakri (Trayambak Ojha)