An Unforgettable Journey In The Meter Gauge Jewel of North East

Day-1, After covering the entire Bay of Bengal from Singapore to Agartala via Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata flight nothing could refresh a tired body than a sight of 2 YDM4s standing proudly between the sign board of the Capital of Tripura (Trayambak Ojha

The hunk despite of its livery waning out, its charm never will (Trayambak Ojha)

And the first action starts pretty late for us in the day as the passenger towards Karimganj puffs some light smoke and trudges ahead (Trayambak Ojha)

While the sun was preparing to set, we were in doubts whether our evening service towards Karimganj, the Agartala-Lumding Express would depart or not since the incoming train was horribly late. All doubts were put to rest by the Station Master and the thi

Being one of the Eastern Most part of India, the sun had already retired while the station was buzzing with activity (Trayambak Ojha)

As it gets darker the locos for the passenger and the Agartala-Lumding Express are all geared up for their departures. We board the train and retire for the day, while the departure was delayed by over 2 hours (Trayambak Ojha)

Day-2, We had arrived Karimganj well past midnight at unearthly hours of 2am. After having a much needed rest for a few hours, we started early at Karimganj, to capture the atmosphere (Trayambak Ojha)

The train from Badarpur had just arrived and would head towards Silchar with this loco manoeuvring the semaphore heaven (Trayambak Ojha)

While one train on the left had arrived from Mahishasan towards Badarpur, the one on the right had arrived from badarpur with reversal at Karimganj towards Silchar (Trayambak Ojha)

The turnaround times for the trains are pretty less as the train from Mahishasan departs after long halt (Trayambak Ojha)

We shifted our action, towards rural Assam now having covered the station well. Near Nilambazar a curved location seemed enticing and we were first greeted by a Meter Gauge Plasser Machine (Trayambak Ojha)

Soon the weather gods opened up and the train from Agartala with a meter gauge AC Chair Car snakes out of the green thickets (Trayambak Ojha)

As we moved ahead after capturing the train, we arrived at Nilambazar station only to be greeted by a stationery freight, the first of our trip and a smokey departure of Agartala-Silchar Express (Trayambak Ojha)

As the weather was turning hostile and no action forseen in near future we decided to move towards Badarpur, where a sweet surprise awaited us. A Steam operated Crane working on the tracks. Sheer joy it was (Trayambak Ojha)

Badarpur yard was as scenic as possible with goods rolling stock lying and a ready to depart freight with headlights on standing on ceremony (Trayambak Ojha)

And then we came across a battery of Steam locos. It seems the gods could not save it from the pathetic condition (Trayambak Ojha)

And the side shot still could identify the loco no as 4098 (Trayambak Ojha)

NExt up in the Q was a YP loco totally taken over by the foliage 2110 YP stands tall even in this condition (Trayambak Ojha)

Meanwhile, the Steam operated crane returned to its home for a well desrved rest after working hard assisted by a YDM4 loco as the village ladies are in total awe of the strange looking machine (Trayambak Ojha)

The YDM4 from Lumding shed of ID 6536 was the assistance for the crane as the abandoned steam loco looks helplessly still guarded by the gods (Trayambak Ojha)

Badarpur Junction is where the tracks from Agartala, Lumding and Silchar merge (Trayambak Ojha)

I bet no one disagrees with this old crane engravings-"Mahabali Bharatiya Rail"- Means-"Very Powrful Indian Railways" (Trayambak Ojha)

And then we see this absolute beauty, the steam loco in pristine conditon which hauled the Hill Queen Express some years back (Trayambak Ojha)

And then we see this condemned YG loco 4091, waiting someday to enter the scraps and ripped apart (Trayambak Ojha)

A Past and soon to be past...YDM4-6462 is also on its way to become history overlooked by YG-4367 (Trayambak Ojha)

A Side profile of YG-4091. All these locos were manufactured in Tatanagar. (Trayambak Ojha)

Another pristine looking Steam Crane numbered 3811 (Trayambak Ojha)